1. 1. 1 Engineering Problems

At the start of the considerations one faces an engineering or even a management problem which has to be solved. Such a problem can be posed in a rather abstract and non-physical manner. In general, at this level a rigorous consideration does not play an important role at all, whereas strategic deliberations are more ostensible. The kinds of questions which are posed may be related to the effects which are caused by the configurations and situations in question.

The most common reason for raising physical questions is to obtain an optimized method, device, or process so that a specific, non-scientific goal can be reached. In most cases the focus is not even put on the immanent physical effect of the device but on a more abstract, mostly human related effect. Typical engineering questions which are the starting point of a computer simulation are:

• How can the power consumption of a microchip be minimized?
• How can $\texttt{CO}_2$ emissions be reduced?
• What is the optimum traffic regulation means for a city?
• What is the optimum workload-balance system for a facility?
• What is the optimum shape of a high voltage insulator?
• How do I earn most money with it?

It is clear that such an engineering problem cannot be answered by a state-of-the-art computer program, because the computer lacks an intrinsic in-depth knowledge of the specific scientific field. Moreover, automated answering of these questions is only possible for a very small range of specified problems.