Vocabulary

Across

4. — A working model or early version of a product or system built to test ideas, identify problems, and gather feedback before the final design is made.
5. — Professional principles that guide engineers’ decisions about safety, honesty, public welfare, and responsibility for impacts of their work.
7. — Repeating a design cycle where each version is tested and then modified to improve performance, fix issues, or better meet requirements.
9. — A limitation or restriction (such as cost, time, materials, safety, or environment) that affects how engineers design solutions.
11. — A type of malware that encrypts a victim’s files or systems and demands payment (a ransom) to restore access.
13. testing — The set of experiments and measurements performed on a prototype to evaluate its performance, durability, safety, and compliance with specifications.
15. — A limit or restriction (such as size, cost, materials, time, or safety) that affects how a solution can be designed or built.
17. — Short for “malicious software”; any software designed to harm, exploit, or otherwise perform unwanted actions on a computer or network (examples: viruses, worms, ransomware).
20. — A weakness or flaw in software, hardware, or procedures that can be exploited by attackers to gain unauthorized access or cause harm.
22. science — The study of the properties, structure, and performance of materials (metals, polymers, ceramics, composites) and how engineers choose and use them.
23. — A detailed, precise description of requirements, materials, dimensions, and performance that a design or product must meet.
24. — A choice made when improving one part of a design causes another part to become less effective; designers balance trade-offs to reach the best overall solution.

Down

1. / Criteria — A specific requirement or measurable standard used to judge whether a design meets the project's goals (plural: criteria).
2. — An early, working model of a product or system used to test ideas, find problems, and gather feedback before full production.
3. — The process of proving that someone or something is who or what they claim to be, often using passwords, PINs, biometrics (like fingerprints), or security tokens.
6. thinking — An approach that considers a whole engineered system (and its interacting parts) rather than focusing on individual components in isolation.
8. design — A repetitive process of designing, testing, analyzing, and refining a product or system until it meets goals and requirements.
9. pathway — A sequence of education, training, and job roles that lead to a career in a particular engineering field (for example: education → entry-level technician → engineer → specialist/manager).
10. — The method of converting data into a coded form so only authorized users with the correct key can read it; used to protect information during storage or transmission.
12. — The forces, weights, pressures, or other stresses that a structure or component must support during use.
13. — A cyberattack technique where attackers send deceptive messages (often emails) that appear legitimate to trick people into revealing personal information or clicking harmful links.
14. — A security system (hardware or software) that monitors and controls incoming and outgoing network traffic based on set rules to block unauthorized access.
16. — Designing and choosing materials, processes, and systems that meet present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs; includes environmental, economic, and social factors.
18. — A step-by-step set of instructions or rules used to solve a problem or perform a task; in engineering, algorithms often control how software or devices make decisions.
19. mode — A specific way a component or system can fail; engineers analyze failure modes to prevent problems and improve safety and reliability.
21. — The process of making a design, system, or solution as effective, efficient, or functional as possible within given constraints.