Learn about the history of engineering that led to the creation of the engineering degree online.
Engineering is a complex field of study, made easy by the systematic arrangement of its several branches. Engineering schools and universities offer an engineering degree online and from traditional university schooling. With competent faculty groups and effective engineering programs, would-be engineers from anywhere in the United States are offered masterful degree programs that are designed to let out the best in engineering students.
A university degree in engineering is completed in four years through a number of highly technical courses in science and the arts. Most courses include different branches of mathematics, since a career in engineering is primarily a series of mathematical computations one after another. There are also courses that are focused on gaining social and practical knowledge that applies to structural designs.
For a technical definition, engineering has been defined by the American Engineers’ Council for Professional Development as the “creative application of scientific principles to design or develop structures, machines, apparatus, or manufacturing processes, or works utilizing them singly or in combination; or to construct or operate the same with full cognizance of their design; or to forecast their behavior under specific operating conditions; all as respects an intended function, economics of operation and safety to life and property”. A professional practitioner of this body of knowledge is called an engineer. Engineers make use of both traditional techniques and modern technology.
Engineers have been building human structures even before a university-based engineering degree was ever created. It seems as though man is naturally an engineer. Out of nothing, ancient people invented the pulley, lever and wheel, which are engineering innovations that changed the world.
Centuries and millennial after their invention, modern builders are still using the same contraptions for the most modern urban structures. The pulley, lever and wheel are simple tools that truly maximize the mechanical and practical principles of engineering. The term “engineer” or “engine” came from the Latin word, “ingenium”, which means “mental power” or “clever invention”, perhaps pertaining to the pulley, lever and wheel.
The term “engineering” as a profession dates back to the year 1352, when its original name, “engine’er”, pertained to someone who built military engines. History reveals that the first tasks of the earliest engineers involved the construction of military machines. It stayed that way for several years.
Soon, people saw the benefits, potentials and skills of engineers, and so engineers began constructing bridges, buildings, roads and other structures both for the military and civilians. This was the first type of engineering, which was later referred to as civil engineering. The term “civil” engineering distinguishes military structures from non-military engineering projects.
Throughout the world, a number of early civil engineering feats still stand today. Although the Great Wall of China may be considered a military-related structure, it made use of the principles and concepts of modern civil engineering. China’s Great Wall is said to be the only man-made structure that is visible from the Moon.
Another outstanding ancient engineering accomplishment are the Great Pyramids. Until today, modern engineers are amazed by how these humungous, pre-modern construction masterpieces were created. Nobody is even sure who built them and for what purpose.
Today, modern engineers benefit from modern tools, techniques and computer-aided technology. Engineering students get the most advanced education and skills-development training in leading universities in the US. And to make learning very accessible, several of these institutions now offer an engineering degree online.