The author seems like an academic and doesn't seem to have practical engineering knowledge.

Engineering is the process for solving problems, usually at business scale.

Mechanical Engineering solves problems of moving widget A into widget B, at scale of thousands or millions of widgets.

Electrical Engineering solves problems of moving electrical power form point A to point B, at scale of generating and delivering electrical power to millions of customers.

Software Engineering solves problems of moving digital data from point A to point B, at scale of collecting Billions of user data into databases and generating metrics reports.