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Fields Of Study
Engineering is the discipline, art and profession of acquiring and applying technical, scientific, and mathematical knowledge to design and implement materials, structures, machines, devices, systems, and processes that safely realize a desired objective or invention.
Engineering, much like other science, is a broad discipline which is often broken down into several sub-disciplines. These disciplines concern themselves with differing areas of engineering work. Although initially an engineer will be trained in a specific discipline, throughout an engineer's career the engineer may become multi-disciplined, having worked in several of the outlined areas. Historically the main Branches of Engineering are categorized as follows:
Chemical engineering - The exploitation of chemical principles in order to carry out large scale chemical process, as well as designing new specialty and fuels.
Civil engineering - The design and construction of public and private works, such as infrastructure (roads, railways, water supply and treatment etc.), bridges and buildings.
Electrical engineering - a very broad area that may encompass the design and study of various electrical & electronic systems, such as electrical circuits, generators, motors, /electromechanical devices, electronic devices, electronic circuits, optical fibers, optoelectronic devices, computer systems.
Mechanical engineering - The design of physical or mechanical systems, such as engines, powertrains, kinematic chains, vacuum technology, and vibration isolation equipment.
Materials engineering
Computer engineering
Software engineering
Mechatronics
Robotics
Nanotechnology
Agricultural engineering,
These new specialties sometimes combine with the traditional fields and form new branches such as mechanical engineering and mechatronics and electrical and computer engineering. A new or emerging area of application will commonly be defined temporarily as a permutation or subset of existing disciplines; there is often gray area as to when a given sub-field becomes large and/or prominent enough to warrant classification as a new "branch." One key indicator of such emergence is when major universities start establishing departments and programs in the new field.
For each of these fields there exists considerable overlap, especially in the areas of the application of sciences to their disciplines such as physics, chemistry and mathematics.