There may well come to be fields of study in which those interested in Engineering also study other fields in which applications may be made. In a sense, this already exists. There is Chemical Engineering in which machinery is designed to contain and assist large scale chemical reactions. Geological Engineers exist to assist in the building of water retention systems such as dams. There are, no doubt, other examples, which do not readily come to mind.
In the increasingly important field of medicine, in particular replacement body parts such as hips and joints, has received the benefits of the engineers knowledge in the construction of durable parts that are not rejected by the body. As to medical robotics, I am not so certain. In designing such devices, the entire education provided to surgeons may be over-kill, but a thorough knowledge of (possible) procedures and of physiology would be of enormous help to an engineer interested in designing robots for surgery.
The field of robotic surgery does not, at present, involve autonomous robots putting on the gloves and picking up a scalpel. The devices act as assistants to the physician, increasing the precision of control, and often doing things that the physician simply cannot do. Rather than crack the rib cage open to get to the heart, robot assisted surgeons can enter the body through small openings and do their procedures with minimal disruption to the body. Many procedures involve entering the area of interest through the circulatory system, a method not otherwise available to the surgeon.
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