While in many university courses attention is given to the human side, as opposed to the technical side of engineering, it is by and large an afterthought. Engineering is, however, a technical, social, and personal activity. Several studies show that engineering is a community activity of professionals in which communication is central to the engineering task. Increasingly, technology impacts everyone in society. Acting as a professional community, engineers have an awesome power to influence society but they can only act for the common good if they understand the nature of our society. To achieve such understanding they have to understand themselves. This book is about understanding ourselves in order to understand others, and understanding others in order to understand ourselves in the context of engineering and the society it serves. To achieve this understanding this book takes the reader on 12 intellectual journeys that frame the big questions confronting the engineering professions.

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John Heywood is a Professorial Fellow Emeritus of Trinity College Dublin-University of Dublin. He was given the best research publication award of the Division for the Professions of the American Educational Research Association for Engineering Education: Research and Development in the Curriculum and Instruction in 2006. Recently, he published The Assessment of Learning in Engineering Education: Practice and Policy. Previous studies among his 150 publications have included "Learning, Adaptability and Change; The Challenge for Education and Industry," and co-authored Analysing Jobs, a study of engineers at work. He is a Fellow of the American Society for Engineering Education, a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, and an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Engineers of Ireland. In 2016 he received the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice award from the Pope for his services to education.