Question 1

Aerospace Engineering

Accepted Answer

Aerospace engineering is the design, development and production of aircraft (aeronautical engineering), spacecraft (astronautical engineering) and related systems. Aerospace engineers may specialise in aerodynamics, avionics, structures, control systems or propulsion systems. It may involve planning maintenance programmes, designing repairs and modifications and exercising strict and quality controls to ensure airworthy operations.

Question 2

Asset Management Engineering

Accepted Answer

Asset Management involves evaluating multiple complex factors to predict, assess and manage asset condition, performance, maintenance and renewals, with a view to balancing cost, performance and risk. It encompasses cross-disciplinary expertise and deals with complex engineering issues.

Asset Management Engineering differs from general Asset Management, as it requires a deeper technical understanding of complexity and risk, engineering materials, structural performance and systems behaviour over time. It also relies on interdisciplinary collaboration and long-term financial planing, particularly within climate adaptation and sustainability frameworks, to support robust lifecycle decisions.

The field is guided by internationally and locally recognised standards and practice guidance such as the Āpōpō Guide, the New Zealand Infrastructure Asset Valuation and Depreciation Guidelines, the Global Forum on Maintenance and Asset Management's (GFMAM) Asset Management Landscape V3, the ISO 55000 suite, the International Infrastructure Management (IIMM), and the International Infrastructure Financial Management Manual (IIFMM), which are widely adopted as best-practice references.

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Question 3

Bioengineering

Accepted Answer

Bioengineering draws heavily on the Chemical engineering discipline and involves the engineered development of raw materials to produce higher value products, using biological systems (biological catalysts). The description also encompasses the general application of engineering to biological systems to develop new products or solve problems in existing production processes. As examples, bioengineers are found in medical research, genetic science, fermentation industries and industries treating biological wastes.

Question 4

Building Services

Accepted Answer

Building Services engineering is the application of mechanical, electrical and electronics and fire protection engineering principles, to enhance all aspects of the built environment from air conditioning and mechanical ventilation, electrical light and power, active fire protection services (e.g. sprinklers and alarms), water and waste services, information and communication technology, security and access control, and vertical transportation. Building Services engineering involves coordination with and an understanding of related building disciplines including structure, architecture, fire engineering (passive life safety features), and civil water and waste infrastructure and coordination and interfacing between the various building services sub-disciplines. 
The Building Services field is guided by international and local standards and the New Zealand Building Code where it is applicable to the various building services sub disciplines.Find out more

Question 5

Chemical Engineering

Accepted Answer

Chemical engineering is concerned with the ways in which raw materials are changed into useful and commercial end products such as food, petrol, plastics, paints, paper, ceramics, minerals and metals. Often these processes are carried out at large scale plants. Research of raw materials and their properties, design and development and equipment and the evaluation of operating processes are all part of chemical engineering.

Question 6

Civil Engineering

Accepted Answer

Civil engineering is a broad field of engineering concerned with the design, construction, operation and maintenance of structures (buildings, bridges, dams, ports) and infrastructure assets (road, rail, water, sewerage). The Civil engineering discipline underpins several engineering fields such as Structural, Mining, Geotechnical and Transportation engineering, in which civil engineers often specialise. General civil engineers are likely to be competent to undertake work that relates to one or more of these areas.

Question 7

Construction Engineering

Accepted Answer

Construction Engineering is the professional engineering discipline concerned with the engineering and execution of physical construction works, including the tendering, constructability, construction methodology, planning, construction management, and commissioning/decommissioning of built assets across their construction lifecycle.

Practitioners apply professional engineering judgement in live construction environments or in roles directly accountable for construction-phase engineering decisions. Their decisions materially influence safety, constructability, construction-phase technical risk, construction performance, regulatory compliance, cost, programme, and delivery outcomes of construction projects. 
Construction Engineering can apply to multiple engineering disciplines (e.g. civil, structural, geotechnical, mechanical, electrical, fire, water etc.) where professional engineering judgement is exercised specifically in relation to how assets are constructed, rather than solely how they are permanently designed. It may be a standalone field of practice or applied alongside another technical practice field.

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Question 8

Electrical Engineering

Accepted Answer

Electrical engineering is the field of engineering which deals with the practical application of electricity. It deals with the aspects of planning, design, operation and maintenance of electricity generation and distribution, and use of electricity as a source of energy within major buildings, industrial processing complexes, facilities and transport systems. It includes the associated networks and the equipment involved such as switchboards, cabling, overhead lines/catenaries, earthing control and instrumentation systems.

Areas of specialisation within the wider electrical engineering discipline, such as electronics and telecommunications are usually concerned with using electricity to transmit information rather than energy. For this reason, electronics and radiocommunications/telecommunications are captured under the field of Information Engineering.

Question 9

Engineering Academic

Accepted Answer

The Academic practice field is defined for engineering academic staff members from tertiary education including engineering researchers.

In tertiary education, academic staff members may be involved in engineering activities in various roles, from building engineering prototypes, to contributing to knowledge in engineering. Engineering academic staff members may not be directly involved in the engineering design process but undertaking cutting edge engineering research to lead and enhance engineering activities. Examples of work samples of engineering academic staff members may be their authored quality assurance publications in engineering disciplines, and/or their authored quality assurance engineering reports at NZQA level 7, 8, 9 or 10 (graduate or postgraduate level). Academic staff members who are teaching an engineering programme without quality assurance publications in engineering disciplines or quality assurance engineering reports, may not qualify for academic practice field.

Question 10

Engineering Management

Accepted Answer

Engineering Management is a field of practice where engineers from any technical engineering background exercise engineering judgement and use their knowledge and skills to manage people, projects, and resources to achieve required outcomes in related processes or business activities that contain multi-disciplinary frameworks. 
 
An Engineering Management practitioner may work in areas on activities requiring complex decision making on frameworks that may not include technical activities. Alternatively, engineering managers may use their technical skills as well as general or business management skills and may or may not be directly involved in the engineering process.
 
Engineering management differs from project management in that it requires applying engineering judgment and technical expertise to manage complex, interconnected organisational systems with uncertain variables and conflicting goals, whereas project management focuses more narrowly on planning and delivering specific projects within defined scope, time, and resource constraints. 
 
In order to become an Engineering Management practitioner, it is expected that an applicant will have previously demonstrated their competence as a professional engineer (i.e. through a CPEng assessment or similar) and have undertaken some form of advanced business management training before applying for this practice field.
 
Key responsibilities include, but are not limited to, governance, resource allocation, budgeting, and team leadership. Practitioners must possess a strong foundation in both technical and general management skills to guide diverse teams and ensure organizational cohesion. The following aspects differentiate Engineering Management from other (similar) practice fields and the management of engineering work competency grouping for other practice fields:
The number of involved variables be they technical or business.
Connectivity of the management process – how the elements are connected and work together, impacting each other when the engineer makes changes.
The role of time and developments within an organisation. How will changes impact other parts of the organisation or operation with time, and what is required to deal with those impacts?
The lack of transparency (in part or full) about the involved variables in the organisation or operation and their current values i.e. there will be unknown unknowns.
Conflicting goals – there are likely to be goal conflicts, where altering one part of the system negatively impacts another.

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Question 11

Environmental Engineering

Accepted Answer

Environmental engineering draws on the Civil and Chemical engineering disciplines to provide healthy water, air and land to enhance human habitation. Environmental engineers devise, implement and manage solutions to protect and restore the environment, within an overall framework of sustainable development. The role of the environmental engineer embraces all of the air, water and soil environments, and the interactions between them.

Question 12

Fire Engineering

Accepted Answer

Fire engineering draws on knowledge from the range of engineering disciplines to minimise the risk from fire to health and safety and damage to property through careful design and construction. It requires an understanding of the behaviours of fires and smoke, the behaviour of people exposed to fires and the performance of burning materials and structures, as well as the impact of fire protection systems including detection, alarm and extinguishing systems.

Question 13

Geotechnical Engineering

Accepted Answer

Geotechnical engineering involves application of knowledge of earth materials in the design of structures, such as foundations, retaining walls, tunnels, dams and embankments. Geotechnical engineers assess the properties and performance of earth materials such as their stability and strength, and the impact of groundwater.

Question 14

Industrial Engineering

Accepted Answer

Industrial Engineering is the branch of professional engineering concerned with the application of mechanical or electrical engineering principles to the planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of production equipment, industrial equipment, production lines and production processes. Industrial engineers understand plant, equipment, production processes, industrial safety, and other requirements specific to industry. Industrial engineers typically work in, for, or in close connection with industrial facilities and operations.Find out more

Question 15

Information Engineering

Accepted Answer

Information engineering is based on the Electrical engineering discipline but also draws heavily from Computer Science. Three areas of further specialisation can be identified:

Software engineering – the development and operation of software-intensive systems that capture, store and process data.
Telecommunications engineering – the development and operation of systems that encode, transmit and decode data via cable systems (including fibre optics) and wireless systems (radiocommunications).
Electronics engineering – the design, development and testing of electronic circuits and networks that use the electrical and electromagnetic properties of electronic components integrated circuits and microprocessors to sense, measure and control processes and systems.

Question 16

Mechanical Engineering

Accepted Answer

Mechanical engineering is the branch of professional engineering concerned with research and analysis, design and development, manufacture, testing, commissioning, operation, maintenance and decommissioning of mechanical systems, equipment, structures and machinery. It applies principles of mechanics of machines, structural mechanics, materials science, thermodynamics, fluid dynamics and control systems to develop safe, reliable and efficient solutions to complex engineering problems. Mechanical engineers exercise professional judgement to manage risk, ensure compliance with relevant legislation and standards, and optimise performance across the full asset lifecycle. Practice spans multiple industries, including energy, manufacturing, transport, water, process and building services 
systems.

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Question 17

Mechatronics Engineering

Accepted Answer

Integrates specialist knowledge in mechanics, electronics and computer systems to design and develop integrated automated systems, such as chassis-stabilising systems, anti-lock brakes, engine control units, disk drives, cameras, service and surgical robots and medical devices. Often these systems are largely mechanical in nature but could not function without their essential electronic and computer control system components.

Question 18

Mining Engineering

Accepted Answer

Mining engineering involves extracting and processing minerals from the earth. This may involve investigations, design, construction and operation of mining, extraction and processing facilities.

Question 19

Petroleum Engineering

Accepted Answer

Petroleum engineering is a field of engineering relating to oil and gas exploration and production. Petroleum engineers typically combine knowledge of geology and earth sciences with specialised Chemical engineering skills, but may also draw on Mechanical engineering expertise to design extraction and production methods and equipment. Petroleum engineering activities are divided into two broad categories:

Upstream – locating oil and gas beneath the earth's surface and then developing methods to bring them out of the ground.
Downstream – the design and development of plant and infrastructure for the refinement and distribution of the mixture of oil, gas and water components that are extracted.

Question 20

Software Engineering

Accepted Answer

Software engineers apply the process of analysing user needs and designing, constructing, and testing end user applications that will satisfy these needs through the use of software programming languages. A fundamental aspect is the application of engineering principals to software development. In contrast to simple programming, software engineering is used for longer and more complex software systems, which are used as critical systems for business and organisations.

Question 21

Structural Engineering

Accepted Answer

Structural Engineering is a specialised field within the broader Civil engineering discipline that is concerned with the design, construction monitoring and assessment of structures. Structures might include buildings, bridges, wharves, towers, retaining walls, temporary works, in-ground structures and reservoirs. To do this, Structural Engineers perform activities such as: Defining and scoping the client brief during project establishment. Design and analysis of structures to meet the client brief, including options assessment. Development of structural specifications and reports; and supervision or development of structural drawings and/or BIM models. Structural performance assessment of existing structures, including definition of investigations. Structural inspections, development of maintenance and rehabilitation plans. Design of repairs and strengthening for existing structures. Construction monitoring.Find out more

Question 22

Systems Engineering

Accepted Answer

Systems Engineering is a multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary engineering practice that integrates technical, human, and organisational elements to enable the successful realisation, operation, and retirement of engineered systems. 
A “system” in this context is an organized combination of interacting, interdependent elements - such as hardware, software, people, processes, and facilities - designed to work together to achieve a specific unified purpose or goal that the parts cannot achieve alone.

Systems Engineering applies engineering principles, scientific and mathematical methods, and systems concepts to define, design, and manage complex systems across their lifecycles. Systems Engineers enable successful interfacing between disciplines by maintaining through-life visibility of stakeholder needs, ensuring integration, managing risk, and enabling systems to meet stakeholder and performance objectives.

Key differentiators for Systems Engineering are that they consider the complete context of a problem, coordinate multidisciplinary teams to better understand and manage systems and their complexity, and they consider a system’s whole lifecycle and unique risk profile. To do this, Systems Engineers perform activities such as:
Defining and scoping customer or stakeholder needs and required functionality early in the development cycle.
Establishing appropriate system lifecycle models, processes, and governance structures, that take the levels of complexity, uncertainty, and change into consideration.
Applying architectural and design skills to generate and evaluate alternative solution concepts and architectures.
Developing agreed system specifications.
Planning and performing structured validation, verification and integration of the sub-systems while continuously considering the complete system problem, and context of the system including interfacing systems and stakeholders.
 
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Question 23

Transportation Engineering

Accepted Answer

Transportation engineering is a specialised field of practice in the civil engineering discipline relating to the movement of goods and people by road, water, rail and air.

A transportation engineer might specialise in one or more of:
pavement design
asset maintenance/management
construction/project management
traffic operations and control
transportation planning and systems analysis
freight transportation and logistics
road safety
railways or public transport systems

Question 24

Water Engineering

Accepted Answer

Water engineers specialise in water based projects; many will have a civil engineering or environmental background. Water engineers generally deal with the provision of clean water from sources or treatment plants, return of waste water and treated sewage to the environment and the handling of stormwater including the prevention of flood damage. Asset management may be a major part in a water engineer's job. This involves design, operation, maintenance and construction of infrastructure for water resources as well as planning for the maintenance and replacement of three water assets to maintain performance and minimise whole of life costs. These can include but are not limited to pipes, treatment devices, pump stations and reservoirs.

Engineering practice fields

What are engineering practice fields?

Aerospace Engineering

Asset Management Engineering

Bioengineering

Building Services

Chemical Engineering

Civil Engineering

Construction Engineering

Electrical Engineering

Engineering Academic

Engineering Management

Environmental Engineering

Fire Engineering

Geotechnical Engineering

Industrial Engineering

Information Engineering

Mechanical Engineering

Mechatronics Engineering

Mining Engineering

Petroleum Engineering

Software Engineering

Structural Engineering

Systems Engineering

Transportation Engineering

Water Engineering