ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT

Engineering Management

Engineering Management

Engineering Management

Engineering management is a form of management which is specialized and is concerned with the application of engineering with regards to its principles. It is regarded as a career that brings together, the engineers who are technologically savvy because they manage the complex areas of engineering from conception to completion. Some of the areas that come under engineering management include development of the product, manufacturing, construction, technology and any other field that employs individuals who perform functions related to engineering. However, to become successful in engineering management, it is essential for the managers to acquire training as well as experience. Moreover, they also require people's skills in order to motivate and to coach the technical professionals. Professionals in this area at times become engineering managers after they gain some experience, and this is because they learn management skills (Ben, 2001, 907).

Green Environmental Engineering

Environmental engineering is a branch of civil engineering that focuses on solving environmental problems. Civil engineering encompasses the design and building of structures and dates to ancient civilizations. Environmental engineering helps balance ecological accounts in four ways. First, it uses construction materials that spare nonrenewable or slow-renewable materials such as wood harvested from old-growth forests. Second, environmental engineering maximizes the use of passive energy, which is energy generated by no mechanized means. Third, if a design must include active or mechanized energy, it employs it in its most efficient option, as, for example, replacing an older, energy-demanding refrigerator with an energy-efficient model. Fourth, environmental engineering balances production and consumption by working with the natural systems in the environment. For example, an ecologically designed house in northern Australia can make use of natural airflow for cooling and forgo air-conditioning. By contrast, a house on a Swiss mountain reduces wind exposure with a partially subterranean design that lets wind flow over it (Ryan, 2006, 82).

New structures develop in three phases: planning, design, and implementation. The best plans take into consideration all facets of the local environment. People have for generations built houses, barns, roads, and dams as if to battle nature rather than work with it. Expensive beachfront homes often slide into the waves during storms; roadways continually wash away in landslides. Better planning would allow the coast to change naturally in storms and keep homes secure by building them farther inland. Roadways that require continuous repair and support should probably not lie on unstable land in the first place. Designing with nature in mind also follows a ready-made blueprint: nature itself. Environmental engineering today goes beyond basic sciences such as biology or physics. The following table summarizes the main areas of expertise that contribute to environmental engineering (Tchobanoglous, 2003, 68).

Discipline

Role in Environmental Engineering

Agricultural engineering

new equipment that reduces fuel use, soil erosion, and habitat destruction

architecture and design

construction of buildings that reuse natural resources and draw zero energy from a community's electricity supply

biology

the needs of plant and animal life in the natural environment

chemistry

the properties of synthetic chemicals that replace nonrenewable resources

Chemical engineering

new chemical processes that require less ...