Engineering is the discipline and profession that applies scientific theories, mathematical methods, and empirical evidence to design, create, and analyze technological solutions cognizant of safety, human factors, physical laws, regulations, practicality, and cost. In the contemporary era, engineering is generally considered to consist of the major primary branches of chemical engineering, civil engineering, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering.There are numerous other engineering sub disciplines and interdisciplinary subjects that may or may not be part of these major engineering branches.
Engineers design, evaluate, develop, test, modify, install, inspect and maintain a wide variety of products and systems. They also recommend and specify materials and processes, supervise manufacturing and construction, conduct failure analysis, provide consulting services and teach engineering courses in colleges and universities.
Mechanical engineering is the discipline that applies engineering, physics, engineering mathematics, and materials science principles to design, analyze, manufacture, and maintain mechanical systems. It is one of the oldest and broadest of the engineering disciplines.
The mechanical engineering field requires an understanding of core areas including mechanics, dynamics, thermodynamics, materials science, structural analysis, and electricity. In addition to these core principles, mechanical engineers use tools such as computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), and product life cycle management to design and analyze manufacturing plants, industrial equipment and machinery, heating and cooling systems, transport systems, aircraft, watercraft, robotics, medical devices, weapons, and others. It is the branch of engineering that involves the design, production, and operation of machinery.
Electrical engineering is one of the newer branches of engineering, and dates back to the late 19th century. It is the branch of engineering that deals with the technology of electricity. Electrical engineers work on a wide range of components, devices and systems, from tiny microchips to huge power station generators.
Early experiments with electricity included primitive batteries and static charges. However, the actual design, construction and manufacturing of useful devices and systems began with the implementation of Michael Faraday's Law of Induction, which essentially states that the voltage in a circuit is proportional to the rate of change in the magnetic field through the circuit. This law applies to the basic principles of the electric generator, the electric motor and the transformer. The advent of the modern age is marked by the introduction of electricity to homes, businesses and industry, all of which were made possible by electrical engineers.
Civil engineering is the design, construction, and maintenance of public works, including roads, bridges, harbors, etc. At Oregon State University our programs in civil engineering prepare students to become working professional civil engineering and academic researchers who study civil engineering problems.
Our civil engineering undergraduate program offers a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering (BSCE) degree where students receive general instruction in all disciplines, with the option for additional elective courses in desired areas. While our graduate program offers many areas of specialization for research focus: construction engineering management, geomatics engineering, geotechnical engineering, innovative materials, ocean and coastal engineering, structural engineering, surveying, transportation engineering, and water resources engineering.
Computer science and engineering (CSE) is an academic program at some universities that integrates the fields of computer engineering and computer science. It is a sub-field of electronic engineering, covering only the digital aspects of electronics engineering, specializing in hardware-systems areas like computer architecture, processor design, high-performance computing, parallel processing, computer networks and embedded systems. CSE programs also include core subjects of computer science such as operating systems, theory of computation, design and analysis of algorithms, data structures and database systems.
The program aims at designing, developing and troubleshooting computing devices (such as personal computers, supercomputers, robots, smartphones, networking devices, embedded devices), focusing the underlying fundamental issues (like processor architecture design, operating system design, memory management, digital system design, communication protocol design, software development and database management) in the most efficient and effective way.