Most people would have problems answering this question. Sure everybody knows an engineer or has heard of engineering.
Most people know very little more about the profession.
Even other students that I've encountered majoring in the field of engineering are unsure of just exactly what engineering is. I am in no way suggesting that engineering is some incomprehensible, foreign, or rare field. The question is raised in engineering far more than other fields such as history or biology. Basically meaning that engineering uses science and known knowledge to invent products that are beneficial to society. Now that we have a relatively general definition of engineering, let's discuss the specialists in the field, the engineers.