#1 The Expanding world of Engineer

Stated by Prof. Ramakrishna, the roles engineers playing have greatly changed, from “the people who build high-rise buildings, underground tunnels and shopping malls” to now thought of as “the people who design and manufacture electronic goods…and also medical devices and hospital equipments” (The Expanding world of engineers, Prof. Seeram Ramakrishna). In his opinion, attribute to the advent o-f service-oriented economy, “the traditional scope of engineers has been broadened considerably to encompass the service sector”

 

For modern engineers, the reason why they are so highly sought after is that they are systematically trained to “not ‘fear’ of technology but embraces and thrives on it”(The Expanding world of engineers, Prof. Seeram Ramakrishna). Pointed out by Prof. Ramakrishna, the curriculum design and pedagogical approach train the students to be engineers with systematic and critical thinking mind. In NUS, series of enhancement programs are delicately designed for its future engineers, like industry attachment, internship, and innovation program. Students are expected to participate in these programs and devote themselves to dynamic modules, grab knowledge to deepen and broaden their horizons. Thus, make it possible to cultivate engineers with aforementioned features.

 

Being equipped with those qualities, the way engineers solve complex problems is to view it from a holistic standard, find out the inner relationships and modularize it. Thus, cut complex problems into small and simple problems. Engineers also work in groups to maximize their working efficiency and accuracy. The tertiary education of engineers trained them to solve practical problems instead of purely solve equations from textbooks. I can still remember that in our programming module CS1101C, we engineering students are often asked to implement a small program to solve certain real life problems or design some mini games, not purely practice syntax.

 

To sum up, engineering tertiary education equips its students with the ability to solve complex problems by applying systematic approach. Which makes engineers one of the most promising career in current society.