What Is Engineering?

And Is Computer Science an Engineering Discipline?

1. Some interesting websites that attempt to define "engineering":
   1. National Academy of Engineering FAQ
   2. ASEE K12 Center
   3. Johns Hopkins University Whiting School of Engineering
   4. University of Washington College of Engineering
   5. UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
      • Can you find the UB Engineering definition of "engineering"?

2. Bunge, Mario (1974), "Towards a Philosophy of Technology" in Michalos, Alex C. (ed.), Philosophical Problems of Science and Technology (Boston: Allyn & Bacon): 28-47.

3. Arden, Bruce W. (1980), "COSERS Overview" [PDF], in Bruce W. Arden (ed.), What Can Be Automated? The Computer Science and Engineering Research Study (COSERS) (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press), Ch. 1, pp. 1-31.
   • See esp. the section titled "About Names and Labels" (pp. 5-7).

4. Abrahams, Paul (1987), "What Is Computer Science?", Communications of the ACM 30(6) (June): 472-473.

5. Loui, Michael C. (1987), "Computer Science Is an Engineering Discipline" Engineering Education 78(3): 175-178.

6. Denning, Peter J.; Comer, Douglas E.; Gries, David; Mulder, Michael C.; Tucker, Allen; Turner, A. Joe; & Young, Paul R. (1989), "Computing as a Discipline", Communications of the ACM 32(1) (January): 9-23.

7. Hartmanis, Juris, & Lin, Herbert (eds.?) (1992), "What Is Computer Science and Engineering?" [PDF], in Juris Hartmanis & Herbert Lin (eds.), Computing the Future: A Broader Agenda for Computer Science and Engineering (Washington, DC: National Academy Press), Ch. 6, pp. 163-216.

8. Florman, Samuel C. (1994), The Existential Pleasures of Engineering, 2nd edition (New York: St. Martin's Press).
   • SCI/ENGR Book Collection TA157 .F57 1994
   • "It is generally recognized...that engineering is `the art or science of making practical application of the knowledge of pure sciences.'... The engineer uses the logic of science to achieve practical results." (pp. x-xi.)

   • See also:
     Ch. 14, "The Engineering View", pp. 174-184.

9. Abelson, Harold, & Sussman, Gerald Jay, with Sussman, Julie (1996), Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, "Preface to the First Edition".

10. Brooks, Frederick P., Jr. (1996), "The Computer Scientist as Toolsmith II", Communications of the ACM 39(3) (March): 61-68.

11. Davis, Michael (1998), Thinking Like an Engineer: Studies in the Ethics of a Profession (New York: Oxford University Press).
    • See esp. Part I ("Introduction to Engineering")

12. Davis, Martin (2000), "Introduction", in Martin Davis, The Universal Computer (New York: W.W. Norton).

13. Petroski, Henry (2003), "Early [Engineering] Education", American Scientist 91 (May-June): 206-209.

• See also:
  Petroski, Henry (2007), "Lab Notes", American Scientist 95(2) (March-April):114-117.
  • How "a theoretician develop[ed] his applied side"."