[Discuss] Programming vs Engineering

[jcarlson23 at yahoo.com (Jared Carlson)]

Come on guys... I have an ME and have done "software engineering" as well as analysis for DoD, etc.. ?There's a place for both, you need professional engineers who understand guidelines and procedures, etc, but you also need the theoretical who are pushing boundaries, teaching the limiting cases and all that. ?Would you seriously suggest that my grad advisor, specializing in lattice gas dynamics for Aero/Mech applications isn't "real" engineer because he doesn't have a license? ?He's trying to understand turbulence better, a very important practical problem.... ?He isn't to be taken serious with with C code models?

You need both, you need guys who will build you a highway but engineers come in all forms and there a number of them built on more theoretical grounds who don't need a license to do their jobs, and will likely spend a lot of time writing code, pencils on paper, etc...

If you have a rant on poor programming, rant on that, but engineering comes in a lot of forms, let's not forget that....

- Jared



________________________________
 From: Richard Pieri <richard.pieri at gmail.com>
To: BLU Discuss <discuss at blu.org> 
Sent: Saturday, January 21, 2012 9:05 PM
Subject: Re: [Discuss] Programming vs Engineering
 
Case in point, this article that just came down through Slashdot:
http://www.digitalbond.com/2012/01/19/project-basecamp-at-s4/

Imagine a highway or building or train or airliner being designed and constructed to the same standards that these SCADA systems were made.? Take it another step: imagine medical equipment designed the same way that these SCADA systems were.? Now be afraid because medical equipment really is designed the same.

It gets worse: that medical equipment can't be updated.? They can't be updated because changing anything will push them off spec, will violate whatever EAL the devices have, and will make them legally unusable for medical practice.? Many of these are running old operating systems -- like Windows 98 old -- without any patches at all.? And yet, we trust quite literally our lives to these things.

--Rich P.

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