Thanks to Muhammad Ubadah Tanveer for contributing this article!
Look around for a sec – almost every human-made commodity you’ve glanced at is a result of engineering. Engineering is everywhere, from the laptop I (Ubadah) am typing on to the coffee cup you’re sipping from. Fred Brooks, the famous American software engineer, once said, “Scientists build to learn; Engineers learn to build.” Here are the significant engineering disciplines, their concentrations, and their industries.
Biomedical Engineering
Biomedical engineers apply knowledge from chemical, mechanical, and electrical disciplines to biological organisms and physiological processes. Biomedical engineers work closely with medical professionals to develop healthcare technology. Moreover, biomedical engineers are concerned with medical imaging, synthetic biology, signal processing, bioinformatics, biotechnology, and biomaterials.
Job Titles: Clinical, Rehabilitation, Tissue, Pharmaceutical, Research, and Design engineers.
Civil Engineering
Civil engineers manage designing, building, and conserving physical structures. Additionally, civil engineers are involved with transportation and environmental engineering prospects, urban planning, and construction engineering.
Job Titles: Environmental, Hydraulic, Construction, Structural, Urban and Infrastructure, Transport, and Geo-Technical engineers.
Chemical Engineering
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor, “Chemical engineers apply the principles of chemistry, biology, physics, and math to solve problems that involve the production or use of chemicals, fuel, drugs, food, and many other products. They design processes and equipment for large-scale manufacturing, plan and test production methods and byproducts treatment, and direct facility operations.”
Job Titles: Process Control, Food, Petroleum and Petrochemical, Operations, and Metallurgical engineers.
Electrical Engineering
In An Introduction to Electrical Engineering, David Irwin writes, “Electrical engineering involves the conception, design, development, and production of the electrical or electronic products and systems needed by our technological society.” Electrical engineers work on circuits, components, and systems that run computer hardware, power systems, communication networks, and medical technology.
Job Titles: Control, Hardware, Telecommunication, Project, Design and Test, Application, and Research engineers.
Mechanical Engineering
Mechanical engineers are involved with the designing and production of mechanical components. They work on operations and design of machinery and mechanical systems. Mechanical engineering jobs span a wide variety of industries, including defense, aeronautical, automotive, oil, and gas.
Job Titles: Acoustics, Design, Systems, Automotive, Marine, Nuclear, Aerospace, Manufacturing, and Maintenance engineers.
Software Engineering
Software engineers design, develop, test, and deploy software systems that enable computers to perform tasks. Software engineers are required in almost every industry due to the high dependence of modern technology on computers.
Job Titles: Embedded Systems, Computer, Information Technology (IT), Systems, Web, and Application engineers and developers.
Other
Other engineering disciplines include Textile, Metallurgical, Aerospace, Nano, Mechatronics, and Agricultural Engineering. A detailed guide about engineering disciplines with relevant statistics can be found at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics website.