When buildings collapse, car accidents or a major electrical accident occur, it is the job of forensic engineers to investigate the causes and damage.
A forensic engineer is one who applies his engineering background to forensic issues. Forensic engineers often work with civil cases involving products that did not work as expected, but they may also be involved in criminal cases and may be called upon to investigate patent disputes and other legal matters that require the assistance of an experienced engineer. A typical forensic engineer has at least a bachelor’s degree in engineering and may also have one or two graduate degrees.
In a classic example of how forensic engineering can be applied, after a bridge fails, the city government might call in an engineer to find out how and why the bridge broke and who might be responsible. Lawyers and law enforcement agencies may also use forensic engineers in product liability cases and in other situations where the failure of an designed product has caused an undesirable result. In patent claim investigations, forensic engineers can examine the product being patented and determine whether or not it is truly original.
In criminal cases, a forensic engineer may discuss various engineering-related conditions that are relevant to the case. If, for example, someone is accused of lining someone else’s brake cables with the goal of breaking them and causing the brakes to fail, a forensic engineer can talk in general about how brakes work and what techniques can be used to make them. fail. , and he or she could examine the actual physical evidence to see what happened and whether or not the case is valid.
Engineering can also become relevant in more abstract ways, ranging from a defendant’s claims, which are designed to provide an alibi that could be refuted by an engineer, to the examination of homemade weapons to determine how they were designed, what level of experience would have. taken to make them, and how they would have worked. Forensic engineers work both in the laboratory and in the field, relying on a variety of tools and skills to do their jobs.
In some cases, a forensic engineer may be hired by a government agency, such as a police force. Others work for companies that specialize in forensic engineering or for companies that make products like automobiles, which require extensive engineering expertise to make their products safe. Others may work as teachers or instructors, also serving as forensic engineering consultants.