Impact of Engineering Design

Impact of Engineering Design
Engineering design is a process where engineers identify a problem, research and come up with ways that solve the problem; this process usually involves the designing process where modifications, trying of different designs to determine optimum workability and making adjustments to attain the desired consumer experience (US 46). It’s a field that relies heavily on knowledge and creativity especially when coming up with a new idea (Budynas, Nisbett and Shigley 154). Engineers may undertake product development or all in all re-engineering a new device through a sequential or an iteration process to arrive at the final solution.

Engineering design has with it positive and negative impacts, most notably the positive impacts outweigh the shortcomings and it’s thus a crucial ingredient in the daily lives of humans.  The world is ever changing; resources are ever becoming scarce and in the end man must live. The engineer designer thus comes up with ways to address the emerging issues in a manner that is sustaining and effective (Chen, Hoyle and Wassenaar 88).
The impacts of engineering design can be divided ranging from economic impacts, to social impacts, global impact and environmental impacts. The economic impacts are the effects the engineering design has on the efficiency in which humans run their world as it entails cost reduction and ability to drive various sectors of the economy. The social impacts involve the collective experience between humans and the designed products, it looks into how we relate with designed products in our communal setup. The environmental impacts defines the possible adverse effects that arise due to humans interaction with the environment through use of technologies, policies, systems, industrial and infrastructural developments and release of substances that affect our environment. The global impacts are the high end application of scientific knowledge to come up with more intelligent devices, super performing materials and use of new scientific facts in real life application that have revolutionized the world and found massive application in our daily lives (US 321).
The Economic impacts of engineering design have enabled designers to innovate and invent new products and processes. Availability of new and more efficient products have been the raw element for trade across nations as they exchange goods and services ranging from normal household goods, to industrial equipment and warfare equipment too (Budynas, Nisbett and Shigley 76). It has enabled designers exploit entrepreneurship in technology world and offer a drive to the economy since it imparts  students with the required knowledge in solving problems in our lives as it entails to coming up with products that are problem solving oriented. Designers will always compete to offer the best in the market while at the same time saving mankind through engineered designs designed for optimum conditions (Chen, Hoyle and Wassenaar 40).
Engineering design has improved transport in land, air and sea. It has seen the design and production of fast and energy efficient cars that have served to improve our transport in our daily lives. It has enabled man to be able to deliver goods and services to various places seamlessly. The aerospace engineering has seen engineers come up with high power and efficient engines that work in extreme conditions to carry airborne bodies such as passenger Boeings, cargo planes and warfare planes too (US 221).  Engineering design has enabled Mechanization to be a reality. In all sectors of the economy humans produce goods and services economically through use of machines that employ repetitive algorithms without going fatigue thus being able to produce standardized goods and of higher quality as opposed to human crafted goods (Eggert 49).
The Social impacts cannot be ignored too, we relate with engineer designed products in our daily lives and what we get is consumer experience. Engineering design has filled gaps where there is need to offer solutions. Market niches usually involve coming up with a new product to fill it and as a result consumers are able to satisfy their wants via the new product. Engineering design has enabled the Creation of lasting solutions that address later issues that may result from the engineer’s solutions. Since most solutions will have a side effect of say the use of motor vehicles in daily lives, the side effect is usually carbon emissions that act to destroy our ozone layer. The same engineers designing the carriage work ways come up with catalytic converters to address the issue for the sustainability of the greater goal.
Engineering design has modernized the world and improved the lives of many people (Chen, Hoyle and Wassenaar 120). When engineers design products for safe drinking water, come up with ways to eradicate diseases and offer intelligent means to address human issues at affordable costs, then it translates to better living standards of humans. It can be noted that in the past access to clean water was a big problem while today clean water is almost readily available even in the driest parts of the world.
Engineering design has enabled the Transfer of information. Transfer of information has become cheap and a wide pool of information is available today by use of internet. Knowledge is power and so the human race is empowered through a pool of knowledge available within the click of a button. Since knowledge is grown spontaneously, a common pool of knowledge makes humans exchange ideas faster and develop and improve new ideas exponentially, this is an exellent solution in addressing human needs. It has led to increase in scientific knowledge through incorporating science in human lives for instance the Computer technology (Eggert 97) (US). It’s the computer technology that has enabled humans to ease Communication through use of cell phones, transfer data through the World Wide Web and offer services without distance barriers. However in the contrary, engineering design has not been without negative social impacts. It’s notable that as engineers designed new materials they came up with asbestos, a material that has found application in motor industry. However it’s unfortunate that the same asbestos is a cause for cancer.  Engineering designed has resulted in creation of a wide array of equipment or technology of violence such as warfare equipment’s, telecommunication devices that have been used to spy, cause war and lead to mistrust among nations. Some designers develop technology that affects humankind, despite arguments to develop peaceful technology; some designers come up with ingredients of war such as bombs, warfare ships and missiles that their sole goal is to destroy the human race (Eggert 45).
Engineering design has with it some global impacts that cannot go without mentioning. The Application of creativity different from theory has enabled engineers come up with unique solutions to address issues that affect us. Efficiency in Communication through use of technological advances like the integrated circuit where devices have become smaller and portable over the years is a notable one.  Safety in engineering systems has been improved through engineering design that serve to offer maximum safety to humans, for instance todays aircrafts are much safer with more parameters being monitored than before (Chen, Hoyle and Wassenaar 65). Man has been able to harness energy ranging from tidal waves, solar, wind and to nuclear energy; these technological advances enable man to cope with an ever increasing demand for renewable energy. Engineering designers today Use computer aided design in manufacturing, product design and testing to increase efficiency and offer better solutions.
The environmental impacts of engineering design include the Use of renewable energy to cut on greenhouse gases emissions, energy sources like solar and wind energy reduce the consumption of fossil fuels responsible for greenhouse gas emissions. Engineering designers have come up with housing designs that use less energy to conserve energy. However in the contrary engineering design has led to Climate change and its effects through use of fossil fuel based energy sources that have contributed to generation of greenhouse gases. This has led to extreme weather patterns that are highly unpredictable; there is the melting of glaciers in Polar Regions. Droughts are becoming common while extreme weather like heat waves, cold waves, tornadoes and floods make the world unbearable for mankind (Chen, Hoyle and Wassenaar 67).
To sum up, engineering design has a great positive impact in our lives and remains a crucial aspect in addressing today’s goal and problems to come. It is therefore a key role to embrace the engineering design culture to offer practical lessons to students who aspire to pursue the field in order to address  future challenges in the most economical and intelligent ways. The future is always uncertain and so is the human responsibility to adapt to it through addressing the changes effectively.

References
Budynas, Richard G, J Keith Nisbett and Joseph Edward Shigley. Shigley's Mechanical engineering design. new york: McGraw-Hill, 2011.
Chen, Wei, Christopher Hoyle and Henk Jan Wassenaar. Decision Based Design: integrating consumer preferences into engineering design. new york: springer publishers, 2013.
Eggert, Rudolph J. Engineering Design. upper saddle river new jersey: pearson/ prentice hall, 2005.
US, National academy of Engineering. Frontiers of Engineering: Reports on leading-edge Engineering from the 2012 symposium. Washington D. C: National Academies Press, 2013.