One of the sentences that most fascinated me thus far in To Engineer is Human was this:
Petroski goes on to talk about the process of engineering involving as much technical experience as writing poetry and, thus, that understanding and appreciation of that process and the resulting products are as open to us (or our students) as poetry (or art, or music). I am taken with this attitude, because it matches my own belief that, no matter our field of endeavor, we may all act as artists. Art for me is a way of thinking, an openness to seeing things in new ways, as well as caring deeply about what you do, transmitting that sense of caring into all your efforts, and communicating that passion to others. While before I may have seen engineering as a cold, mechanical process, this sentence changes everything for me. I am curious to know how others view this statement, particular those who are or have been professional engineers.
Poetry & Engineering
To me, engineering has been about getting the right answer to a problem. But now I see it more as being creative, not so strict. So, in a way, like art, in the broad term. It takes the scariness out of it of having to be right all the time.
ReplyDeleteThis thinking I will take with me into the classroom and share with my students.
One of the critical things about engineering is that it is finding a good solution to a problem, not the right answer to the problem. While there are lots of wrong answers (that's the scary part), there are also often many fine answers. Sometimes the choice between what's wrong and right depends on whose deciding rather than any objective fact. So in my world of structural engineering, the basic wrong answers are the things that will fall down, or don't meet legal standards or are way more expensive to build than another option. A less obvious wrong answer might be designing a post out of steel to learn that the builder only has a hammer and nails - should have used wood. But the owner doesn't trust wood. Perhaps the builder can make some wooden forms and fill them with concrete and then remove the forms. Now everybody's happy. There is less flexibility than art (that to me is one of the distinguishing elements of engineering - there ARE definite wrong answers) but there is still the big wonderful fuzzy world of possible right answers.
ReplyDeleteThrough reading the book and the comments my thoughts about engineering have changed. I too thought of it as rigid and structured. But now it seems more open ended and creative. I understand the confines of materials and solutions but there are options available to try. I need to provide more options in my class.
ReplyDeleteI have no formal engineering background, however at one point in my life I had the opportunity to study the history of architecture. As I think back to learning about the evolution of the arch, or the staircase for that matter, it seems to mean that the original design was based on function and that over time, the human need to transform mere function into something that was beautiful as well, took over. The transformation from the rounded Roman arch and the pointed Gothic arch to the flamboyant Gothic arch was inspired by the human need at the time to reach to the heavens. The Roman arch worked perfectly, however did not satisfy the souls of the engineers of the Middle Ages. It seems that humans appreciate function and strive for beauty as well.
ReplyDeleteI just checked in with my husband, Chris, who majored in physics, is now retired, and worked as an electrical engineer, industrial engineer, and a mechanical engineer during his professional life.
ReplyDeleteChris’s view is yes, there are a lot of similarities between Art and Engineering. Engineering is creating and applying what you learned to the issue at hand. In Art, such as painting, and this can apply to other disciplines, one applies the tools learned to whatever it is one wants to paint, there are lots of way to go at it.