Engineering and Abstraction I would begin my blog with this post which comprehensively explains what I have figured

out about how an engineer is different from a scientist. As an engineer one has to learn how to deal with abstraction. Abstraction is a key approach followed in the branch of engineering to adapt scientific knowledge to develop solutions to real world problems. An engineer is more concerned about the application of a scientific principle or a mathematical model. He is uninterested in the intricacies of science. To elaborate more on abstraction: Abstraction is a process by which a concrete concept or a phenomenon is stripped of all information which is irrelevant for a particular situation or application. As an example to illustrate the power of abstraction, think of this question: Let us assume that there are two train stations A and B. There is only one railway path that connects the station A to B. Assuming that there is a train that leaves from A to B and at about the same time there is an other train that leaves from B to A, what is the chance that there will be a collision? Let us consider what data is required to predict a collision between the trains. Details like the length of the train, whether its passenger/goods, outline of the path are irrelevant and unnecessary to solve this problem. Details like visibility(fog), attention and responsibility of people who run the train are more important factors in predicting a collision. Abstraction is exactly this! We leave out the details which are unnecessary and include the facts that are required to solve a problem. For clarity let us take a look at an other example. I assume that everybody knows basic physics: If I ask you what is the acceleration of a body when a force F is applied on it, you would immediately ask me what is its mass and report the answer as F/M. Well, this is correct. But only under certain restrictions. By doing this, we are actually neglecting the fact that the body may not be a point-mass. By doing this approximation, we are neglecting the possibility of a whole bunch of crazy things like: Torque that could be acting because of its weird dimensions which could cause it to rotate, the point of application of force is also not considered,whether the body is elastic or not. This is part where engineers differ from scientists. Scientists aim at making general laws which can explain everything in nature. They are concerned about all possible things that could have happened to that body. They will be interested in studying all the interactions of the body and its responses. But an engineer will say, Look Im going to restrict certain properties of the body and create a discipline. All the objects that satisfy this criterion is allowed to be in this discipline. By discipline I mean a group of objects satisfying a certain criterion. So as an engineer what Im going to do is that I restrict the object to be of circular shape. Now I use this as a wheel!(Of course I have put some more restrictions on it. But for the sake of understanding it will be highly technical). Now as long as its circular, I dont care about a whole bunch of things like is it made of wood/rubber! But as a scientist, I will not impose these restrictions and study the response of force on any general object of any arbitrary shape and size. (This is a highly simplified example of abstraction!). Engineers think of finding a group of things out of all random assortment of things which could be

of practical use whereas scientists are more general in their approach and their purpose is not application. Engineering is a blackbox approach to science. To create an electrical circuit all you have to know is how different components behave at different voltages, what is the relation between the current/voltage, relation between input voltage or output voltage or something like that. This is the approach to electrical engineering. But a scientist will try to analyze how electrons flow to produce such a relation between current and voltage. I would like to conclude my first post by this thought: what if one could be both engineer and scientist at the same time? What if Im able to create such blackboxes for other engineers to create such useful items?