Who is the world's top engineer and why ?

[Hal.]

Who is the world's top engineer and why ?

[CaptainPanic]

To my knowledge, there is no ranking.

Engineers just get the job done, but don't boast about it. It's other people, often in public functions (politicians), who will take the credit.

[Hal.]

This is William Thomson , ' Lord Kelvin ' , whose temperature scale is fundamental to how Engineering is . For his wiki page click here and for a comparison of his and other temperature scales , also from the folks over at the wiki , click here .

 

 

[A Tripolation]

This is William Thomson , ' Lord Kelvin ' , whose temperature scale is fundamental to how Engineering is . For his wiki page click here and for a comparison of his and other temperature scales , also from the folks over at the wiki , click here .

 

.....what?

 

To my knowledge, there is no ranking.

 

He only says this because he's a terrible engineer. Like when ugly people say beauty is only skin deep.

[InigoMontoya]

This is William Thomson , ' Lord Kelvin ' , whose temperature scale is fundamental to how Engineering is .

There's nothing fundamental about the Kelvin scale. One could make up virtually any absolute scale and everything still works just fine with some tweaks to mathematical constants. The Rankein(sp?) scale works just fine. You could make up your own scale based on the growth rate of your thumbnail if you like.

[Hal.]

When I said " fundamental " , I meant that the Kelvin scale is the scale that uses the S.I. fundamental unit of a Kelvin .

 

 

[Airbrush]

Who is the world's top engineer and why ?

 

The Australian Kia Silverbrook with 3967 US patent families (USPF). Second place is Japan's Shunpei Yamazaki with 2638 USPF, and Thomas Edison is third with 1084 USPF.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_prolific_inventors

Edited July 4, 2011 by Airbrush

[Hal.]

....

 

That's a very mathmatical/mathematical way of trying to decide . Should a weighting factor be introduced to describe patent importance ? Are these patents the work of the person ? , a lot of people don't realise that if they work for somebody , that person has a right to their work because they are being paid .

 

....

 

 

 

This is William Thomson , ' Lord Kelvin ' , whose temperature scale is fundamental to how Engineering is . For his wiki page click here and for a comparison of his and other temperature scales , also from the folks over at the wiki , click here .

 

 

.....what?

 

 

Are you confused ?

Edited July 4, 2011 by Hal.

[InigoMontoya]

Too... There's the argument that a good engineer should be able to solve any problem with off the shelf technology. Why invent something new if something old will do the trick? In industry I've seen it many times... Some "hot shot" engineer designs some new, fancy gizmo to do a job and is all proud and everybody is oooohing and awwwwing... And then some "boring" engineer will chime up with "Why not just go to Home Depot and [insert $5 solution to same problem here]?"

Edited July 7, 2011 by InigoMontoya

[Danijel Gorupec]

Sure. A good engineer is, first of all, a practical person. Second, he/she excels in art of guessing (estimating) thus is able to make things in fewer number of tries -> he/she can guess how to simplfy a problem without chaning it too much.

 

World's top engineer is probably an unknown person (except if the question is about top-paid engineer).

 

If you only consider famous historical persons, great science experimentalist are good candidates (M. Farady for example).

[Hal.]

This is Isambard Kingdom Brunel and for a read of his history ,

thanks to the folks over at the wiki , click here .

 

 

[waitforufo]

In electrical engineering Edwin Howard Armstrong would definitely be on the top 10 list. His bio is here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Howard_Armstrong

[Newbies_Kid]

The question is too general, i think we should evaluate base on engineering discipline because engineers don't work alone to design and build a things.. Ok, in automotive engineering i think it was very competitive. But from my personal opinion, italian engineers are the best. May be second for Japanese

[A Tripolation]

Are you confused ?

 

Yes. Because in many of the engineering courses I've taken, the Kelvin scale isn't special in any way. It's not even the most frequently used one. So it seems to me like a lapse in judgement to call him the world's best engineer.

[Hal.]

I suspect you imply your confusion stems from your previous education . Any engineering course I have ever taken has made it clear , within the first few minutes of the first lecture , that temperature will be measured in the Système international d'unités and will be in kelvin , it is the fundamental unit of measurement . If a person wants to go and use their own preferred temperature scale , that person doesn't have to ask for any permission , but must convert to the required standard when necessary .

 

If you could show me where I called William Thomson the world's best engineer , I would be so greatful . In fact , I merely introduced him as a notable man , who in my mind is currently battling with Isambard Kingdom Brunel , amongst others who may or may not make an appearance here , for my conclusion in a future post as my choice for who I think is the world's top engineer .

[CaptainPanic]

I suspect you imply your confusion stems from your previous education . Any engineering course I have ever taken has made it clear , within the first few minutes of the first lecture , that temperature will be measured in the Système international d'unités and will be in kelvin , it is the fundamental unit of measurement . If a person wants to go and use their own preferred temperature scale , that person doesn't have to ask for any permission , but must convert to the required standard when necessary .

 

If you could show me where I called William Thomson the world's best engineer , I would be so greatful . In fact , I merely introduced him as a notable man , who in my mind is currently battling with Isambard Kingdom Brunel , amongst others who may or may not make an appearance here , for my conclusion in a future post as my choice for who I think is the world's top engineer .

In all fairness, I think that engineers are typically people who (soon after they leave school) don't really care what they learned in school, and instead adopt whatever method is practical on the job. Personally, I use Celsius all the time. Not because I don't agree that Kelvin is more fundamental, but simply because quite a few people I work with don't know Kelvin all that well, and they still have to understand what I'm talking about. So, I adapt to the knowledge of the other people (unless I have to do some thermodynamics when it's necessary to use the Kelvin scale).

[InigoMontoya]

Except that Kelvin isn't required for Thermodynamics. Rankien works just fine.

[Airbrush]

Too... There's the argument that a good engineer should be able to solve any problem with off the shelf technology. Why invent something new if something old will do the trick? In industry I've seen it many times... Some "hot shot" engineer designs some new, fancy gizmo to do a job and is all proud and everybody is oooohing and awwwwing... And then some "boring" engineer will chime up with "Why not just go to Home Depot and [insert $5 solution to same problem here]?"

 

Good answer! I believe the world's top engineer is the person who can do the most, using the least. But that would be in a positive, human and environmental, problem solving, direction.