CSE/PHI 484/584, Spring 2007

What Is Engineering?

And Is Computer Science an Engineering Discipline?

Last Update: 19 February 2007

Note: NEW or UPDATED material is highlighted

Significant items are in boldface; items are listed in chronological order.


  1. Some interesting websites that attempt to define "engineering":

    1. National Academy of Engineering FAQ
    2. ASEE K12 Center
    3. Johns Hopkins University Whiting School of Engineering
    4. University of Washington College of Engineering
    5. UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
      • Can you find the UB Engineering definition of "engineering"?

  2. Bunge, Mario (1974), "Towards a Philosophy of Technology" in Michalos, Alex C. (ed.), Philosophical Problems of Science and Technology (Boston: Allyn & Bacon): 28-47.

  3. Arden, Bruce W. (1980), "COSERS Overview" [PDF], in Bruce W. Arden (ed.), What Can Be Automated? The Computer Science and Engineering Research Study (COSERS) (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press), Ch. 1, pp. 1-31.

  4. Abrahams, Paul (1987), "What Is Computer Science?", Communications of the ACM 30(6) (June): 472-473.

  5. Loui, Michael C. (1987), "Computer Science Is an Engineering Discipline" Engineering Education 78(3): 175-178.

  6. Denning, Peter J.; Comer, Douglas E.; Gries, David; Mulder, Michael C.; Tucker, Allen; Turner, A. Joe; & Young, Paul R. (1989), "Computing as a Discipline", Communications of the ACM 32(1) (January): 9-23.

  7. Hartmanis, Juris, & Lin, Herbert (eds.?) (1992), "What Is Computer Science and Engineering?" [PDF], in Juris Hartmanis & Herbert Lin (eds.), Computing the Future: A Broader Agenda for Computer Science and Engineering (Washington, DC: National Academy Press), Ch. 6, pp. 163-216.

  8. Florman, Samuel C. (1994), The Existential Pleasures of Engineering, 2nd edition (New York: St. Martin's Press).

  9. Abelson, Harold, & Sussman, Gerald Jay, with Sussman, Julie (1996), Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, "Preface to the First Edition".

  10. Brooks, Frederick P., Jr. (1996), "The Computer Scientist as Toolsmith II", Communications of the ACM 39(3) (March): 61-68.

  11. Davis, Michael (1998), Thinking Like an Engineer: Studies in the Ethics of a Profession (New York: Oxford University Press).

  12. Davis, Martin (2000), "Introduction", in Martin Davis, The Universal Computer (New York: W.W. Norton).

  13. Petroski, Henry (2003), "Early [Engineering] Education", American Scientist 91 (May-June): 206-209.




Copyright © 2004-2007 by William J. Rapaport ( rapaport@cse.buffalo.edu)
file: 584/S07/whatisengg-20070219.html