• Question: I understand the difference between engineer and scientist, but what is your point of view? How well these directions work together?

    Asked by dinardingly to Adam, Geoff, Rob, Sheila, Suzie on 15 Mar 2011 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Robert Simpson

      Robert Simpson answered on 15 Mar 2011:

      I’m not sure if it is this clear-cut but I always think of it as being that scientists study and understand how the world works and engineers apply knowledge about how the world works to design new things. A scientist working in a lab might also be an engineer if they design things to use in their research. Similarly an engineer can become a scientists when they start trying to figure out why one design is better than another.

    • Photo: Suzie Sheehy

      Suzie Sheehy answered on 15 Mar 2011:

      I think the line is really quite blurred. In my head I always thought that the person usually classifies themselves as an “engineer” if they did and Engineering degree and a “scientist” if the did a Science degree, but I don’t really think it works that way.
      For example, even though I have a physics degree, my current research fellowship is supposed to be for someone pursuing an “engineering project”, but I was eligible for it because my work is quite practical.
      There are areas though which I think are strictly “engineering” – usually things like calculating the forces on a structure (like a bridge) would, in my view be engineering.

    • Photo: Sheila Kanani

      Sheila Kanani answered on 15 Mar 2011:

      We totally need each other!
      In my head the engineers design and make the instruments and the satellites and the scientists use these instruments to do their research. Without the engineers there would be no data and without the scientists there would be no reason for the engineers to make the instruments!

    • Photo: Adam Tuff

      Adam Tuff answered on 15 Mar 2011:

      It’s very important to work closely with engineers – we might know a lot of about the science, but usually in the real world, there are other things that affect the way things are built! As scientists, we need to be able to direct engineers on what we want or think can be built. As Engineers, they need to be able to make the science work in reality, and to tell us what can and can’t be made. In a lot of places you will find engineers who are now scientists, and scientists who are now engineers! There’s a lot of each similarities in being either!

    • Photo: Geoff McBride

      Geoff McBride answered on 15 Mar 2011:

      There’s a lot of cross over especially in nanotechnology.

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