TEHRAN – Iran marks National Engineer's Day on February 23, honoring the efforts and achievements of the engineers who are behind nearly any development to change the world for the better.

National Engineer's Day commemorates the birthday of Khajeh Nasir al-Din Toosi, a polymath and prolific writer, who is considered to be one of the greatest Persian scholars. He is also known as a philosopher, mathematician, astronomer, theologian, physician, and prolific writer.

Toosi was born in Toos in the year 1201 and began his studies at an early age. He studied Arabic, the Quran, Hadith, logic, philosophy, mathematics, medicine, and astronomy.

The Mongol ruler, Hulagu Khan, built an observatory in Maragheh for Toosi. Toosi is considered the first of the Maragheh School of astronomers, who made significant contributions to the development of astronomy.

He was perhaps the first to treat trigonometry as a separate mathematical discipline. He also wrote extensively on biology and is one of the early pioneers of a kind of evolutionism in scientific thought.

What is the role of engineers in our life?

Engineering is a profession in which scientific knowledge and mathematics are used and experimented with to develop ways that benefit mankind, making it extremely important to society for several reasons.

Engineering encompasses a whole range of industries that could include on-site, practical construction work as well as evaluating safety systems from an office. They use the knowledge they have within a specific industry in order to make things work and solve problems, whether this is with transport, medicine, entertainment, space, or the environment. In fact, engineering is behind everything.

Healthcare has also improved dramatically thanks to advancements in medical technology thanks to engineers. The improvement of medical technology has meant that the discovery of illnesses and treatment has helped to save and improve the lives of many people.

The importance of engineering in the modern world

The world is changing, and engineers are the ones behind so much of this development. The majority of today’s services and products had some element of engineering involved in their conception at least, paving the way to long, fulfilling, and healthy lives for the people influenced by them.

Engineers must be critical yet creative; curious yet capable; as well as ready to handle the constantly changing world.

In an advanced technological world, we need engineers to bring ideas into reality. By applying the principles of mathematics and science, engineers develop solutions to the world’s biggest technical issues.

The engineering portfolio knows no bounds, but these people are all working to the same common goal: building a sustainable world. Whatever you wish to contribute to society through your engineering dedication, nothing compares to the knowledge that you’ve achieved something that’s impacted people’s lives for the better.

Iran's ranking in engineering

Iran is ranked 10th in the world in the field of engineering, and in some scientific fields, it also ranked below 10, Gholam-Hossein Rahimi, deputy minister of science for research and technology told ISNA on Wednesday.

In 2020, Iran was ranked 15th in ISI and 14th in Scopus (International Citation Database) in terms of the number of scientific articles produced, he noted, adding, we have registered more than 6,000 scientific articles and documents in the world's reputable scientific databases in 2020.

World Engineering Day

The World Engineering Day for Sustainable Development was proclaimed by UNESCO at its 40th General Conference in 2019. It is celebrated worldwide on March 4 of each year since 2020. The day offers an opportunity to highlight engineers and engineering achievements in our modern world and improve public understanding of how engineering and technology are central to modern life and for sustainable development.

The World Engineering Day 2021 (WED2021), with the theme “Engineering for A Healthy Planet- Celebrating the UNESCO Engineering Report”, will focus on celebrating the launch of the 2nd UNESCO Engineering Report “Engineering for Sustainable Development: Delivering on the Sustainable Development Goals”.

The Day is also an opportunity to engage with government and industry to address the need for engineering capacity and the quality of engineers around the world and develop strategic frameworks and best practices for the implementation of engineering solutions for sustainable development.

The celebration of World Engineering Day is also about promoting engineering as a career and how it is an opportunity to change the world for the better. There is a great deal to be done especially to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals in developing countries to ensure that everyone has access to clean water, sanitation, reliable energy, and other basic human needs.

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