This article aims to demonstrate the great contribution of Engineering to the progress of science and technology throughout human history. Engineering and the Engineer have existed since the most remote times. It can be said that Engineering and Engineer have existed since the appearance of man on the face of the Earth. If we understand Engineering as the art of using technique to accomplish what the human imagination conceives, we will see that, as long as humanity exists, Engineering will be present. Engineering, understood as the art of making, consists of applying scientific and empirical knowledge to the creation of structures, processes and devices, which are used to convert natural resources into adequate forms to meet human needs.

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THE CONTRIBUTION OF ENGINEERING TO SCIENTIFIC AND
TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS THROUGHOUT HISTORY
Fernando Alcoforado*
This article aims to demonstrate the great contribution of Engineering to the progress of
science and technology throughout human history. Engineering and the Engineer have
existed since the most remote times. It can be said that Engineering and Engineer have
existed since the appearance of man on the face of the Earth. If we understand
Engineering as the art of using technique to accomplish what the human imagination
conceives, we will see that, as long as humanity exists, Engineering will be present.
Engineering, understood as the art of making, consists of applying scientific and empirical
knowledge to the creation of structures, processes and devices, which are used to convert
natural resources into adequate forms to meet human needs.
Engineering is synonymous with technical progress. Engineering has been used
throughout human history as a means to achieve better living conditions for society in all
countries of the world and also for military purposes. Engineering is the means through
which people can acquire conditions to live better, transport themselves more quickly,
communicate more extensively and quickly, acquire comfort and safety, have access to
more nutritious and healthy foods, etc. The proper functioning of Engineering, therefore,
is not only of interest to professionals and entrepreneurs in the sector. It is of interest to
the whole society, being also synonymous with development. Since the dawn of
humanity, many people have taken care of various tasks that today are attributions of the
engineer who carried out countless and magnificent works of Antiquity Engineering, such
as the Lighthouse of Alexandria, the Pyramids of Egypt, the Hanging Gardens of
Babylon, the Acropolis and the Parthenon in Athens, the ancient Roman aqueducts, the
Appian Way, the Coliseum in Rome, Teotihuacán in Mexico, the Pyramids of the
Mayans, Incas and Aztecs and the Great Wall of China, among many other works.
The first engineer was probably Imhotep who designed and supervised the construction
of the Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, a step pyramid at Saqqara, around 2630 BC-2611 BC.
From Antiquity to the 15th century, engineering works were much more the result of
empiricism and intuition than of calculation and true engineering. Scientific inquiry,
including the physical and mathematical sciences, was almost mere speculation, often not
aimed at practical applications. There was, at most, some application for military
purposes. Leonardo da Vinci and Galileo Galilei, in the 15th and 17th centuries, for
example, can be considered the precursors of science-based engineering because what
they did was governed by physical and mathematical laws.
In the history of science, the Scientific Revolution is the period that began in the 16th
century with the Renaissance and lasted until the 18th century with the Industrial
Revolution. From that period on, Science, which until then was linked to Philosophy,
separates itself from it and becomes a more structured and practical knowledge. The
Renaissance brought as one of its characteristics the use of a higher critical sense and a
greater attention to human needs that allowed man to observe natural phenomena more
attentively instead of denying them to the interpretation of the Catholic Church that
dictated its thinking during the Middle Ages. Significant events of the Scientific
Revolution, at the beginning of the 16th century, were the publication of the works "On
the revolutions of the celestial spheres" by Nicolaus Copernicus and "On the Organization
of the Human Body" by Andreas Vesalius. The publication of the “Dialogue on the two

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main systems of the world” by Galileo Galilei and the enunciation of Kepler's Laws
decisively boosted the Scientific Revolution.
With the Scientific Revolution, the goals of the man of science and of science itself were
redirected to an era free from the mystical influences of the Middle Ages. Since the
beginning of the Scientific Revolution, approximately four centuries ago, the exercise of
Engineering has evolved rapidly with the increasing simultaneous use of knowledge
obtained in the most diverse areas of scientific activities. The birth of modern engineering
was the consequence of two great events that took place in the history of humanity in the
18th century: the Industrial Revolution in England and the philosophical and cultural
movement called Enlightenment in France. As the mathematical and physical sciences
developed, Engineering was structured, but only in the 18th century was it possible to
arrive at a systematic and ordered set of doctrines, which constituted the first theoretical
basis of Engineering.
Modern engineering is characterized by the generalized application of scientific
knowledge to the solution of problems, dedicating itself, basically, to problems of the
same kind as the engineering of the past, however, with the distinct and outstanding
characteristic that is the application of science. It is known that Engineering is present in
the entire productive sector, namely: in factories, in housing and infrastructure
construction sites, in universities, in scientific laboratories, in technological research
centers, in transport, in energy generation, in communications, food production, among
other undertakings. The great changes that have been taking place in people's lives in the
modern world were generated by technology that is fueled by accumulated knowledge
and large investments in research and innovation. Humanity needs Engineering because
it transforms the knowledge accumulated in universities and research centers, public and
private, into products and services available to society.
The transformation of knowledge produced in laboratories by professionals from various
areas, including engineers, is up to engineers to design and carry out. It is not by chance
that in all engineering definitions, and there are many, we find the words “practical
application of scientific principles aimed at transforming nature with economy of
resources”. The human being currently has at his disposal products that knowledge and
technology combine in a way never achieved before. The future now points to Genetic
Engineering, which, associated with information technology, offers an enormous
possibility of contributing to the solution of the problem of hunger in the world. Instant
global communications, new chemicals and pharmaceuticals, the intensification of
consumption and production of energy and transport, the increase in agricultural
productivity, the incredible technological cooperation added to medicine, are glaring
examples of this scientific and technological revolution.
Nowadays, there are countless undertakings in the world that have had and count on the
decisive support of Engineering, such as the gigantic hydroelectric plants of Three Gorges
in China and Itaipu in Brazil/Paraguay, buildings such as the Empire State Building in
New York, the Capital Gate in city of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates and the
Kingdom Tower built in the city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, which has 275 floors, reaching
the incredible mark of 1,600 meters in height, bridges as the longest in the world over the
sea of 36.48 kilometers built in the coastal city of Qingdao in China and Rio-Niterói in
Brazil, large football stadiums, shopping malls, airports, railways, highways and viaducts,
transatlantic ships, supertankers and super bulk carriers, jet planes, rockets and
spaceships, among others.

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Engineering must be understood, therefore, as a culture, open to society, active in
promoting its development, seeking the best quality of life as its purpose. As
technological development fundamentally depends on engineering capacity, it can be said
that education, science, engineering and technology are closely related. Engineers are
most responsible for realizing the innovations generated by science and technology.
Engineering is strategic for the progress of humanity.
* Fernando Alcoforado, 82, awarded the medal of Engineering Merit of the CONFEA / CREA System,
member of the Bahia Academy of Education, engineer and doctor in Territorial Planning and Regional
Development by the University of Barcelona, university professor and consultant in the areas of
strategic planning, business planning, regional planning and planning of energy systems, is author of the
books Globalização (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova (Des)ordem
Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2000), Os
condicionantes do desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado. Universidade de
Barcelona,http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e Desenvolvimento (Editora
Nobel, São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX e Objetivos Estratégicos
na Era Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of the Economic and Social
Development- The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Müller Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG,
Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe Planetária (Viena- Editora e Gráfica,
Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e combate
ao aquecimento global (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011), Os Fatores
Condicionantes do Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012), Energia no
Mundo e no Brasil- Energia e Mudança Climática Catastrófica no Século XXI (Editora CRV, Curitiba,
2015), As Grandes Revoluções Científicas, Econômicas e Sociais que Mudaram o Mundo (Editora CRV,
Curitiba, 2016), A Invenção de um novo Brasil (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2017), Esquerda x Direita e a sua
convergência (Associação Baiana de Imprensa, Salvador, 2018), Como inventar o futuro para mudar o
mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2019) and A humanidade ameaçada e as estratégias para sua sobrevivência
(Editora Dialética, São Paulo, 2021) .