What is a Ren
aissance Engineer?
Call them jacks of all trades, one man bands, multidisciplinary, they have many names. A Renaissance engineer – or Rengineer for short, is someone who can take a project from start to finish. The design, the electronics, mechanics, software, hardware, packaging, You name it.
“It” could be a commercial product, a hobby project, or anything in between. They’re the makers, the doers. The ones other people go to when a particularly tough problem has to be solved.
Who are these Rengineers?
First off – you don’t need a degree to be one. Many of the best rengineers I’ve known never received a formal degree. Having an engineering degree doesn’t necessarily qualify you either. Though, don’t worry – there is no formal test.
It’s well known that engineers look at the world a little differently – they see problems and work out solutions. A lot of them stay in their own specialty. The Rengineers are the ones that have interests all across the board. Robotics are a great example. Classic engineering says you need mechanical engineers to work out the kinematics, statics, dynamics – the nuts and bolts of the system. Electrical engineers would choose the hardware – the interfaces to the motors and sensors. Software engineers would then write the code that then read the sensors and move the motors.
If you read through each of those roles and said “hey, i can do that” welcome to the club – you’re a rengineer. (Please allow 6-8 weeks for your membership card to arrive)