Engineering Technology

An engineering technologist is a professional trained in certain aspects of development and implementation of a respective area of technology. Engineering technology education is even more "applied" and less theoretical than engineering science education, though in a broad sense both have a focus on practical application. Engineering Technologists often assist professional engineers but after years of experience they can also lead engineers. Like engineers, areas where engineering technologists work can include product design (including improvement), fabrication, and testing. Also as with engineers, engineering technologists sometimes rise to senior management positions in industry, or become entrepreneurs.

Engineering technology often overlaps with many of the same general areas (e.g. design/development, testing), but the focus is even more on application than in engineering science (which is, in a somewhat different sense, also about application of science). Technologists are more likely than engineers to focus on (post-development) implementation or operation of a technology but this is not a strict rule as Technologists often do design original concepts. The National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) in the USA summarizes the distinction as being that engineers are trained more with conceptual skills to "function as designers," while technologists "apply others' designs." The mathematics and sciences, as well as other technical courses, in technology programs, tend to be taught with more application-based examples, whereas engineering coursework provides a more theoretical foundation in math and science (because those are the very subjects that engineers apply directly). Moreover, engineering coursework tends to require higher-level mathematics, including calculus and beyond, as well as more extensive knowledge of the natural sciences applied in design, which also serve to prepare students for research (whether in graduate studies, or industrial R&D). Engineering technology courses generally have more labs associated with their undergraduate courses that require hands-on application of the studied topics.

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