General

Tonight is a one of recognition and celebration where colleagues of the engineering profession honour some from among you. As an outsider to the profession, I am humbled to be asked to address this very august body on this occasion. Coming from a natural science background my understanding of engineering is that it is the application of scientific knowledge to make things work. However, in preparing for this address I decided to check some authoritative sources about what engineering was. I was relieved to find that my layman’s understanding was not too far out. Several sources state that engineers apply the principles of science and mathematics to develop economical solutions to technical problems. Their work provides the link between social needs and commercial applications. Indeed, currently, there are seventeen different areas of specialisation in engineering.