• Question: What does an engineer actually do?

    Asked by Khadija to Abbie, Melanie, Paul, Stu, Tom on 7 Mar 2016.
    • Photo: Abbie Hutty

      Abbie Hutty answered on 7 Mar 2016:


      There are loads of types of engineers and loads of different roles that they can do – so that’s a really difficult question to answer.
      Personally I have a small technical team that work for me, and I work in an office and spend my time either doing analysis or design on my computer, in meetings discussing and developing ideas with my team, or co-ordinating their work to make sure we meet our deadlines, or budget. I also plan and oversee testing, to make sure our materials and design work like we expect. Or I might be visiting the manufacturers of my structure and answering their technical questions, or problem solving any difficulties they have with our design. And occasionally reporting back our design progress to our customers at the European space Agency, in reviews, meetings or presentations. So I have a very varied job, but I’m sure the others have very different things they do day-to-day as well!

    • Photo: Stuart Inglis

      Stuart Inglis answered on 7 Mar 2016:


      Hey Khadija,

      Put very simply, an engineer solves problems. In fact the word “engineer” is actually derived from the Latin (or is it Greek…) for “ingenuity”. These problems come in all shapes and sizes (Abbie has given a few fantastic examples below) so you need ingenuity to come up with the best solution!

    • Photo: Paul Webb

      Paul Webb answered on 8 Mar 2016:


      I agree with Stuart and Abbie

      Engineer title why ……?

      Because bad ass problem solver

      Just isn’t an official job title

      …… Yet ? Lol

    • Photo: Melanie Zimmer

      Melanie Zimmer answered on 14 Mar 2016:


      That depends on what kind of engineering you do.

      In my case, I do a lot of research and writing as well as programming. The research is most likely due to the fact that I work for a research institute and my PhD. Report writing and programming is part of the projects we do. On a daily basis I also reply to e-mails and have meetings, where we discuss current progress of the projects and further work or even technical questions.

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