Engineers’ Day

Sep15

Engineering is not merely knowing and being knowledgeable, like a walking encyclopedia; engineering is not merely analysis; engineering is not merely the possession of the capacity to get elegant solutions to non-existent engineering problems; engineering is practicing the art of the organized forcing of technological change… Engineers operate at the interface between science and society… ~ Dean Gordon Brown

The Institution of Engineers (India) observes September 15 every year as

the Engineers’ Day to commemorate the birthday of the legendary engineer Sir M. Visvesvaraya. In recognition of his monumental services towards national development and for the cause of engineering, Sir Visvesvaraya was honoured by the country’s highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, in the year 1955. He served as the dewan of Mysore State and was considered to be the architect of the all-round development of Karnataka. Among his most successful projects are the design and construction of the K.R. Sagar dam and its adjoining Brindavan Gardens, turn-around of the Bhadravati Iron and Steel Works, setting up of the Mysore Sandalwood Oil Factory and the founding of the Bank of Mysore.

On this occasion I would like to share a poem on engineering graduates I came across in the Internet

I Am the Very Model of an Engineering Graduate

by Gary Friedman I am the very model of an engineering graduate;
I work with systems and with problems both of nature delicate;
I’ve studied properties of things in motion for the hell of it,
Regurgitating answers to insure that my degree I’ll get;
I’ve studied chemistry and learned the formulas of saturate
Solutions in normality in labs that are immaculate,
And programmed huge machines with large routines I’ve written just so that
Infrequently will I encounter problems that I can’t attack;
I’m very good at systems both in digital and analogue;
Have studied great philosophers; can quote to you their dialogue;
I’ll work all day and never quit, that is if I can manage it;
I am the very model of an engineering graduate.
I use my Hewlett-Packard for the answers found in calculus,
And problems most encountered in numerical analysis;
It calculates proportions used in heart and lung dialysis;
Eventually I’ll work for them and move to where Corvallis is.
My interests are much greater than my friends and colleagues might believe;
I’ve worked with magic and performed illusions written to deceive;
In elementary schools I’ll work with children who do not receive
The help and dedication they require so they might achieve.
My years of work and study have allowed me to become involved
In engineering problems that have only partially been solved.
My grades, however, are the pits, and I don’t really give a s—,
That’s why I am the model of an engineering graduate.

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The engineer is the key figure in the material progress of the world. It is his engineering that makes a reality of the potential value of science by translating scientific knowledge into tools, resources, energy and labor to bring them into the service of man … To make contributions of this kind the engineer requires the imagination to visualize the needs of society and to appreciate what is possible as well as the technological and broad social age understanding to bring his vision to reality. ~ Sir Eric Ashby

Have you ever stopped to think what would be your life without engineers?

Life Without Aeronautical Engineers