Abstract
We think of modern civilization as a technological society, fed by scientific advance and engineering implementation resulting in new products and services. The role played by engineers in this process is every bit as important as that played by scientists, yet the public associates scientists with technology, not engineers. And when engineering advances are made, such as the recent fabrication of an 80 micron electrostatic motor, the news media announced the event by saying, "Scientists at the University of California at Berkeley have... " This despite the fact that they were engineers. Even engineers seem to like being referred to as scientists. The news media frequently refer to "scientific achievements" and "engineering failures." I think that engineers have lost, or perhaps never found, their identity. Finding this identity is a crucial step in the evolution of the engineering profession, and, I believe, it could lead to advances in the art itself.
