[iancackett]

Having studied Software Engineering as a degree, I can assure you they teach software engineers the definition of "engineering", and stress that we are practicing something else or, at a stretch, an extension of engineering somewhat different from civil or mechanical. I realise that building projects probably suffer from many of the same weaknesses, but the degree of rigour, and ability to reason about the project, is definitely way higher than on software projects. I knew a few civil, mechanical and aeronautical engineers, and they tend to agree. That said, definitions like this can be hard to pin down!