It’s common knowledge that engineers have significant contributions to society in solving common problems, optimizing processes, creating algorithms, developing software, building infrastructure, and many more.
But aside from making our lives easier by optimizing everything to make things easier, more effective, and more efficient, many people don’t know that engineers can also save many lives through their technical knowledge and expertise.
Even in the medical field, even if healthcare professionals carry a lot of the load, engineering is still very much involved in saving lives.
Engineers help in developing vaccines and antibiotics. They can also help in sanitation to reduce the spreading of disease. In agriculture, engineers help make fertilizers to improve crop production to provide food for society. Engineers help make our roads safer. These are all great examples, but there are many other ways engineers save lives.
If you’re wondering how engineers save lives, read this article to learn more.
Search and rescue
Engineers can provide a great deal of help in search and rescue operations where there’s a risk of losing lives. Most of the time, search and rescue operations are necessary for scenarios where people are in a dangerous situation in a place that’s not easily accessible.
When it comes to search and rescue, engineers can be called upon to create devices and tools that can make it easier for the rescuers to rescue or communicate with the victims. For example, design engineers and electronic engineers can develop devices like personal beacons to help rescue workers do their job in incidents like avalanches and landslides.
Engineering is also used in building devices and software that can detect people through video. Using this, rescue workers can know where the people they need to save are.
Engineers can also develop drones and robots to help rescue workers reach areas without phone signals or places that aren’t easy to access.
One of the more recent examples of how engineers help in rescue operations is the Thai Cave Rescue, where a youth soccer team and their 25-year-old coach got trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand. While it was the Thai Navy Seals who led the rescue operations, they also had a team of top-notch engineers helping them.
A team of engineers from PTT Exploration and Production helped the rescue operation by piloting a trio of drones and sonar robots. Using these drones and robots, they rendered 3D maps of the cave.
By having drones and sonar robots, rescue workers didn’t have to risk their lives going inside without knowing what they might find inside. Furthermore, engineers also helped in managing the handheld comms and special transmitters to help improve the rescue team’s communications.
Restoration of old structures
Old structures are dangerous, especially when they’re old or poorly maintained. But, rather than completely demolishing structures due to safety concerns, engineers can help you by overseeing the restoration of old structures or buildings, which is especially helpful when it’s a structure with great significance to you or others.
By having engineers taking care of restoration or rebuilding operations, engineers can help you choose the right materials. They also work with the affected community and help in fixing roads, houses, water pipes, and drainage, if necessary.
Engineers can also take care of heating, ventilation, water, and power during the operation.
Survival
Survival is a necessity of life, and engineering has helped humans survive throughout history. Nowadays, computer-aided design (CAD) technicians and civil engineers can use their expertise to help people survive.
Whether it’s generating solutions for society’s shelter, water, food, infrastructure, transport, and many other needs, engineers can help find the most effective way for humans to survive.
One of the more significant fields where engineers help in terms of survival is biomedical engineering. Using their expertise, biomedical engineers develop smartphone-based light microscopes that help us find life-threatening diseases like malaria.
Another contribution of biomedical engineering is helping doctors in pediatric surgeries, which help them save children from diseases.
Furthermore, engineers can contribute to human survival by finding new sources of power and making sure that whatever power source we’re using, we’re using it as efficiently and effectively as possible.
Reducing the impact of dangerous situations and future disasters
Helping solve disasters and dangerous situations when society is already in that situation is good, but what’s even better is reducing the impact of disasters before they even arrive.
For example, to detect tsunamis before they get more dangerous, engineers can design special buoys or floating devices placed far out at sea. When at sea, these buoys can detect tsunami waves early.
Once a tsunami is detected, people living in coastal areas will be alerted. In this way, they can evacuate early and be at a safer place when the tsunami arrives. Furthermore, engineers can design special sensors placed on the ocean bottom to detect tsunamis.
Another example is self-controlled robots designed by engineers to reach places that are too dangerous for humans. For example, engineers can design robots that can help in stabilizing nuclear reactors.
If you’re looking for an example that’s more common to see, you don’t have to look farther than car seatbelts, which engineers have designed to keep passengers safe in case of sudden deceleration.
Engineering saves lives every day
Whether it’s in natural disasters, typical day-to-day activities, health concerns, basic survival, or safety at the workplace, engineering plays a huge role in saving lives, and engineering is at the centre of everything at Bendtech Defence.