Today, December 11, is celebrated the Day of the Engineer whose profession was regulated in Brazil by President Getúlio Vargas through Decree 23,569, of December 11, 1933, which also created the Federal Council of Engineering, Architecture and Agronomy (CONFEA) and the Regional Councils of Engineering, Architecture and Agronomy (CREA), responsible for overseeing the profession. It is known that Engineering is present in the entire productive sector, namely: in factories, in housing and infrastructure construction sites, in universities, in scientific laboratories, in technological research centers, in transport, in energy generation, in communications, in food production, among other undertakings. The great changes that have been taking place in people's lives, in the modern world, were generated by technology that is fed by accumulated knowledge and large investments in research and innovation. Humanity needs Engineering because it transforms the knowledge accumulated in universities and research centers, public and private, into products and services available to society.

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CONGRATULATIONS ON BRAZILIAN ENGINEER'S DAY, ONE OF THE
MAIN RESPONSIBLE FOR SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL
PROGRESS IN THE WORLD
Fernando Alcoforado*
Today, December 11, is celebrated the Day of the Engineer whose profession was
regulated in Brazil by President Getúlio Vargas through Decree 23,569, of December 11,
1933, which also created the Federal Council of Engineering, Architecture and Agronomy
(CONFEA) and the Regional Councils of Engineering, Architecture and Agronomy
(CREA), responsible for overseeing the profession. To commemorate this date and honor
Engineering and all fellow Engineers in Brazil and around the world, the text
“Engineering and scientific and technological progress”, presented in Chapter 3 - Science
and the advancement of knowledge of humankind in the book A ESCALADA DA
CIÊNCIA E DA TECNOLOGIA AO LONGO DA HISTÓRIA E SUA
CONTRIBUIÇÃO AO PROGRESSO E À SOBREVIVÊNCIA DA HUMANIDADE
(THE CLIMB OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY THROUGHOUT HISTORY AND
ITS CONTRIBUTION TO THE PROGRESS AND SURVIVAL OF HUMANITY) by
Engineer Fernando Alcoforado, published by Editora CRV of Curitiba, through which he
highlights the gigantic contribution of Engineering to scientific and technological
progress in Brazil and in the world, is presented below:
ENGINEERING AND SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS
Engineering and the Engineer have existed since the most remote times. It can be said
that Engineering and Engineer exist since the appearance of man on the face of the Earth.
If we understand Engineering as the art of using technique to accomplish what the human
imagination conceives, we will verify that, as long as humanity exists, Engineering will
be present. Engineering, understood as the art of doing, consists of applying scientific and
empirical knowledge to the creation of structures, processes and devices, which are used
to convert natural resources into adequate forms to meet human needs.
Engineering is synonymous with technical progress. Engineering has been used
throughout human history as a means to achieve better living conditions for society in all
countries of the world and also for military purposes. Engineering is the means through
which people can acquire conditions to live better, transport themselves more quickly,
communicate more widely and quickly, acquire comfort and safety, have access to more
nutritious and healthy food, etc. The proper functioning of Engineering, therefore, is not
of interest only to professionals and entrepreneurs in the sector. It is in the interest of the
whole of society, and is also synonymous with development. Since the dawn of humanity,
many people have taken care of various tasks that today are attributions of the engineer
who carried out countless and magnificent works of Engineering of Antiquity, such as the
Lighthouse of Alexandria, the Pyramids of Egypt, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the
Acropolis and the Parthenon in Athens, the ancient Roman aqueducts, the Appian Way,
the Coliseum in Rome, Teotihuacán in Mexico, the Pyramids of the Mayans, Incas and
Aztecs and the Great Wall of China, among many other works.
The first engineer was probably Imhotep who designed and supervised the construction
of the Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, a step pyramid at Saqqara, around 2630 BC-2611 BC.
[1]. From Antiquity to the 15th century, engineering works were much more the result of
empiricism and intuition than of calculation and true engineering. Scientific investigation,
including in the physical and mathematical sciences, was almost mere speculation,
usually without practical applications as its aim. There was, at most, some application for

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military purposes. Leonardo da Vinci and Galileo Galilei, in the 15th and 17th centuries,
for example, can be considered the forerunners of science-based engineering because
what they did was governed by physical and mathematical laws [2].
In the history of science, the period that began in the 16th century with the Renaissance
and lasted until the 18th century with the Industrial Revolution is called the Scientific
Revolution. From that period, Science, which until then was linked to Philosophy,
separated from it and became a more structured and practical knowledge. One of the
characteristics of the Renaissance was the use of a higher critical sense and greater
attention to human needs, which allowed man to observe natural phenomena more closely
instead of following the non-scientifically based interpretation of the Catholic Church
that dictated its thinking during the Middle Ages. Remarkable events of the Scientific
Revolution, at the beginning of the 16th century, were the publication of the works "On
the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres" by Nicolaus Copernicus and "On the
Organization of the Human Body" by Andreas Vesalius. The publication of the “Dialogue
on the two main systems of the world” by Galileo Galilei and the enunciation of Kepler's
Laws decisively boosted the Scientific Revolution [3].
With the Scientific Revolution, the objectives of the man of science and of science itself
ended up being redirected to an era free of the mystical influences of the Middle Ages.
Since the beginning of the Scientific Revolution, approximately four centuries ago, the
practice of Engineering has evolved rapidly with the increasing simultaneous use of
knowledge obtained in the most diverse areas of scientific activities. The birth of modern
Engineering was a consequence of two major events that occurred in the history of
humanity in the 18th century: the Industrial Revolution in England and the philosophical
and cultural movement called the Enlightenment in France. As the mathematical and
physical sciences developed, Engineering was structured, but only in the 18th century
was it possible to arrive at a systematic and ordered set of doctrines, which constituted
the first theoretical basis of Engineering.
Modern Engineering is characterized by the widespread application of scientific
knowledge to the solution of problems, dedicating itself to problems of the same kind as
the engineering of the past; however, with the distinct and striking characteristic that is
the application of science. It is known that Engineering is present in the entire productive
sector, namely: in factories, in housing and infrastructure construction sites, in
universities, in scientific laboratories, in technological research centers, in transport, in
energy generation, in communications, in food production, among other undertakings.
The great changes that have been taking place in people's lives, in the modern world, were
generated by technology that is fed by accumulated knowledge and large investments in
research and innovation. Humanity needs Engineering because it transforms the
knowledge accumulated in universities and research centers, public and private, into
products and services available to society [4].
The transformation of knowledge produced in laboratories by professionals from various
areas, including engineers, is up to engineers to design and carry out. It is not by chance
that in all the definitions of engineering, and there are many, we find the words “practical
application of scientific principles aimed at transforming nature with economy of
resources”. The human being currently has at his disposal products that knowledge and
technology are aggregated in a way never achieved before. The future now points to
Genetic Engineering, which, associated with information technology, offers an enormous
possibility of contributing to the solution of the problem of hunger in the world. Global
instantaneous communications, new chemical and pharmaceutical products, the

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intensification of energy and transport consumption and production, the increase in
agricultural productivity, the incredible technological cooperation added to medicine, are
flagrant examples of this scientific and technological revolution.
In modern times, there are countless undertakings in the world that had and still have the
decisive support of Engineering, such as the gigantic hydroelectric power plants of Three
Gorges in China and Itaipu in Brazil/Paraguay, buildings such as the Empire State
Building in New York, the Capital Gate in city of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates
and the Kingdom Tower built in the city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, which has 275 floors,
reaching the incredible height of 1,600 meters, bridges as the longest in the world over
the sea of 36.48 kilometers built in the coastal city of Qingdao in China and Rio-Niterói
in Brazil, large soccer stadiums, shopping malls, airports, railways, highways and
viaducts, transatlantic ships, supertankers and superbulk carriers, jet planes, rockets and
spaceships, among others.
Engineering must be understood, therefore, as a culture, open to society, active in
promoting its development, seeking the best quality of life as a purpose. As technological
development fundamentally depends on engineering capacity, it can be said that
education, science, engineering and technology are closely related. Engineers are most
responsible for implementing the innovations generated by science and technology.
Engineering is strategic for the progress of humanity.
REFERENCES
1. WIKIPEDIA. Pirâmide de Djoser. Disponível no website
<https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pir%C3%A2mide_de_Djoser>.
2. ALCOFORADO, Fernando. Os desafios da engenharia brasileira na era
contemporânea. Disponível no website <http://lcfaco.blogspot.com/2014/12/os-
desafios-da-engenharia-brasileira-na.html>.
3. ALCOFORADO, Fernando. A gênese da ciência e sua evolução ao longo da história.
Disponível no website
<https://www.academia.edu/44100166/A_G%C3%8ANESE_DA_CI%C3%8ANCI
A_E_SUA_EVOLU%C3%87%C3%83O_AO_LONGO_DA_HIST%C3%93RIA>,
2020.
4. ALCOFORADO. Fernando. Os cinco grandes desafios da engenharia brasileira na
era contemporânea. Disponível no website
<https://www.slideshare.net/falcoforado/os-cinco-grandes-desafios-da-engenharia-
brasileira-na-era-contempornea>.
* Fernando Alcoforado, awarded the medal of Engineering Merit of the CONFEA / CREA System, member
of the Bahia Academy of Education, of the SBPC- Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science and of
IPB- Polytechnic Institute of Bahia, engineer and doctor in Territorial Planning and Regional Development
from the University of Barcelona, university professor and consultant in the areas of strategic planning,
business planning, regional planning, urban planning and energy systems, was Advisor to the Vice
President of Engineering and Technology at LIGHT S.A. Electric power distribution company from Rio de
Janeiro, Strategic Planning Coordinator of CEPED- Bahia Research and Development Center,
Undersecretary of Energy of the State of Bahia, Secretary of Planning of Salvador, is the author of the
books Globalização (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova (Des)ordem
Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2000), Os
condicionantes do desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado. Universidade de
Barcelona,http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e Desenvolvimento (Editora
Nobel, São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX e Objetivos Estratégicos
na Era Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of the Economic and Social
Development- The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Müller Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG,
Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe Planetária (Viena- Editora e Gráfica,

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Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e combate
ao aquecimento global (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011), Os Fatores
Condicionantes do Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012), Energia no
Mundo e no Brasil- Energia e Mudança Climática Catastrófica no Século XXI (Editora CRV, Curitiba,
2015), As Grandes Revoluções Científicas, Econômicas e Sociais que Mudaram o Mundo (Editora CRV,
Curitiba, 2016), A Invenção de um novo Brasil (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2017), Esquerda x Direita e a sua
convergência (Associação Baiana de Imprensa, Salvador, 2018), Como inventar o futuro para mudar o
mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2019), A humanidade ameaçada e as estratégias para sua sobrevivência
(Editora Dialética, São Paulo, 2021), A escalada da ciência e da tecnologia e sua contribuição ao progresso
e à sobrevivência da humanidade (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2022) and a chapter in the book Flood Handbook
(CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, United States, 2022).