Software & Computing

Software engineering in the context of this guide is not application development but the tools engineers of every discipline reach for when the calculation becomes code: a programming language with numerical libraries, a scientific working environment, and tools for diagrams and documentation.

Moving from a spreadsheet to code is one of the most significant upgrades in engineering work. A calculation written as code can be versioned, tested automatically, and re-run in two years to give exactly the same result — three things a spreadsheet does not offer.

This is also where the robotics and embedded systems tools sit, which are in practice the junction between software and hardware.