In general terms, engineering can be defined as the art or science of making
practical applications of the knowledge of pure sciences. Here, by art we
mean the manifestation of extraordinary skill in performing any human activity.
Germane to any engineering endeavor is a design process (plan to product)
whereby an engineering product results. Technology plays a key role in any
engineering design process since it can be defined as the totality of means
employed to provide the objects which will compose a final product. An engineering
design process, seen as a sequence of problem-solving steps, usually represents
an iterative process encompassing many phases such as analysis, synthesis,
evaluation, decision making, and action or product implementation. Technology
is thus used in one etc. one of them being an evaluation phase.
It is unquestionable that we are experiencing a revolution in the way we
do engineering today. One of the manifestations of this is the way the abstract
concept of information reality is apprehending as a representation aspect
of the physical reality. This is being accomplished through different approaches.
One of them is the fabrication of smart sensors. They permit a much better
data acquisition process, making the representation ever more faithful for
better interpretation and understanding. Data acquisition (sensing) is the
way we perform observations. For ourselves to perceived these sensations,
we resort most of the time to visualization, hence the importance of scientific
visualization.
The other approach deals with the modeling of the physical world, being
a simulation component a very important aspect in this process. The last
important approach is the design of actuators and manipulators for interfacing
with the physical world, in the most general sense. They permit to shape
or to alter the physical world according to a desired prescription or objective.
Information technologies, which are essentially based on digital electronics
and the microprocessor, are of significant importance nowadays. They are
playing two important roles in engineering. First, they are serving to accelerate
the evolutionary iterative process prevalent in many engineering design
efforts. Second, they are serving to redefine the concepts of analysis,
synthesis, evaluation, etc., in the context of an engineering design process.
The theme of the CRC '96 Conference is "how to efficiently harness
the information technologies to better our society." We thank all the
participants for their arduous efforts in making this conference a success.
