T o answer a question I am often asked — Yes, we are still happy with the decision, five years ago, to replace our gas furnace with an air-source heat pump. It is one of the best decisions we ever made. We are so happy that this past year we…

A recent sociological study of engineers and engineering has produced some surprising results. Björkman and Harris (2018) investigate the roles engineers play in building and sustaining the modern metropolis. …

Climate change is an issue seemingly designed to confound engineers about what is the responsible thing to do. Consider this exchange recently overheard on Linkedin: Engineer 1: Professional engineers owe a duty to public safety. …

Do engineers have a distinctive way of learning similar to the “scientific method?” Science and engineering share many characteristics. Both are fact-based professions that require rational, methodical thought. And engineers rely heavily on knowledge produced by science. But, scientists and engineers pursue fundamentally different aims, as illustrated in this quote…

Plato described the model leader as intelligent, educated, and devoted to the good of the people — a philosopher king. During the 19th century France pursued this ideal more than any other nation in modern times by creating a corps of highly educated engineers to serve the needs of the…

I wear an iron ring. This means that, like most Canadian engineers, I have participated in the Ritual Calling of an Engineer ceremony. It was there that I first heard a phrase that perfectly captures what I had long known to be true — the perversity of inanimate things. …

There’s political science, political economy, and even “the art of politics.” However, a similar pairing of “politics” with the vocation of “engineering” does not exist. Politics and engineering might as well exist in separate parallel universes. Except, this has not always been the case. In fact, the origin of the…

No one would think of Paris in the same way. — Gustave Eiffel is famous for building the most widely known structure in the world, the the Eiffel Tower. But, he does not deserve all the credit. When it was constructed, in 1889, the Eiffel Tower was the tallest building ever made. Eiffel could do that, as an accomplished engineer and…