• Question: What excatly does an engineer do?

    Asked by Ryan to John G, Catherine on 10 Nov 2014. This question was also asked by 322enea36.
    • Photo: John Ging

      John Ging answered on 10 Nov 2014:

      Every engineer has a different answer to this. Civil engineers look after infrastructure projects like buildings or roads, chemical engineers look after environmental and food issues whereas electronics engineers look after communications, new technology and biomedical devices. Even within these areas there’s lot of different thing you can do.

      I’m an electrical engineer. There are about 20 different types of electrical engineers. I’m what you call an “access planner”. What I do is solve connection problems for anyone looking to connect to the high voltage power system. This means mathematical modelling, writing reports, discussions with operations and the applicant looking to connect. Every project has its own unique problems and solutions so that makes it quite fun and challenging!

    • Photo: Catherine Conaghan

      Catherine Conaghan answered on 10 Nov 2014:

      It really depends on what area you are in – there are so many different things you can do. I like to think of engineers as people who ultimately solve problems and makes things work better, in whatever area that may be.

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