Hey!
This week in bioengineering we are going to be discussing engineering and how it almost seems invisible in the world, yet it is omnipresent and very important in people's everyday lives. To kick off this discussion, and to get a better understanding of what engineering is and what engineers created over the years, we were told to look up the "Greatest Engineering Achievements of the Twentieth Century" according to the National Academy of Engineering. Before I went to this website, I decided to come up with my own list of 20 greatest engineering achievements. (My list is the result of collaboration with two friends at 3 o'clock in the morning. They thought I was insane, and they made fun of some of my listed "achievements,"particularly credit cards...)

Jess's List of the Greatest Engineering Achievement's in the 20th Century
1. microwaves
2. television
3. refrigeration
4. air conditioning
5 computers
6. internet
7. calculators
8. GPS
9. cell phones
10. artificial hearts
11. commercial air planes and high speed trains
12. credit cards (the magnetic strip?)
13. LEDs
14. CFLs
15. laptops
16. nuclear bombs
17. hybrid cars
18. biofuels
19. water purification systems
20. space and things to do with space (transportation, exploration, imaging)

After I looked on the website, I realized that my list was more specific; for example, I put "artificial hearts" while the website had "health technologies." The following is the list from the National Academy of Engineering.

1. Electrification
2. Automobile
3. Airplane
4. Water Supply and Distribution
5. Electronics
6. Radio and Television
7. Agriculture Mechanization
8. Computers
9. Telephone
10. Air Conditioning and Refrigeration
11. Highways
12. Spacecraft
13. Internet
14. Imaging
15. Household Appliances
16. Health Technologies
17. Petroleum and Petrochemical Technologies
18. Laser and Fiber Optics
19. Nuclear Technologies
20. High-performance materials