My current job title is "Data Engineer", before this role I was a "Process Engineer". In my opinion those two jobs are actually pretty similar.
When I was working in process engineering I was trying to optimize the outputs from our industrial process on a day to day basis in this role broadly speaking I try to optimize the data extracted from the same industrial process.
Mostly I'm concerned with how can we extract data out of our plant, how do we represent and present that data (particularly to operators and technicians) and how can we better recognize and respond to underlying trends in the data.
Before I assumed the role (in 2011) my predecessor, who had a background as a statistician, was called a 'Process Statistician' so I assume my Manager changed the job title to reflect my background as an Engineer (Materials Engineering in my case).
What I would consider the difference between an engineer and not engineer (I am not an engineer) is delivering a qos or sla driven by measurement of tolerances and either empirical or imputed information from existing qos or tolerance information... Not necessarily the optimization part. Everyone does optimization to some degree (possibly negative) but not everyone is an engineer.
I think of engineering as the practical counterpart to science. Science is finding patterns/uncovering truths/building and testing models; engineering is the deployment of technology to fulfill an objective.
Engineering is more than just application. In some places you need to be certified as an engineer, for better or worse, which says that there is an understanding of how to calculate and communicate product tolerances and service level guarantees that go beyond just applying science. Basically be the bare minimum of applying science I would call hacking - which is a great thing, but there is value in the distinction between hacking a solution and engineering
Yes this is my view as well Engineering is applying theoretical knowledge to achieve practical solutions.
In my world, which is industrial manufacturing there are scientific theories - fluid dynamics, thermodynamics, kinetics etc. which govern the fundamentals and limits of the process.
As an engineer your take this knowledge along with your own intuitive experience and work to ensure the reactor is operating at peak efficiency.
When I was working in process engineering I was trying to optimize the outputs from our industrial process on a day to day basis in this role broadly speaking I try to optimize the data extracted from the same industrial process.
Mostly I'm concerned with how can we extract data out of our plant, how do we represent and present that data (particularly to operators and technicians) and how can we better recognize and respond to underlying trends in the data.
Before I assumed the role (in 2011) my predecessor, who had a background as a statistician, was called a 'Process Statistician' so I assume my Manager changed the job title to reflect my background as an Engineer (Materials Engineering in my case).