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Formerly known as the Engineering Education Advocate
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What Does an Engineer Look like?
My last post talked about taking a picture to provide a positive memory and get word of mouth marketing at the same time. The problem with engineering is that we don’t know what an engineer looks like and it’s an amorphous shape that changes over time.
You can put on a lab coat and people automatically think doctor or scientist. A headset implies telephone operator, sales person or receptionist. A space suit screams Astronaut. Pilots, firefighters, police people, photographers, teachers, construction people, farmers and many other occupations have a certain “look”. But what does an engineer look like?
One problem with determining the look is that the field is so broad. Engineers design, manufacture, build, research, write, investigate and present their findings. It’s easy to think of engineers designing rides at Disney or crawling around inside of a bridge to check for stress cracks. We know what that looks like but what about the engineers that don’t design things? How do we show an engineer that is checking air quality or researching new and safer ways to dispose of compact fluorescent light bulbs?
I don’t know the answer, but as a profession, we need to work on it.
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Posted by Celeste Baine on May 6, 2008
Talkback
Listed below are comments that reference What Does an Engineer Look Like?
From Regina DeVillier - There is an engineer icon out there already - Dilbert!
Posted on May 6, 2008 at 10:58 am PST
From Marcus Rasco - I thought the Feb. 08 issue of IEEE Spectrum did a good job when it photographed Ms. Tavaranan on page 42 in front of her solar panels installed in a refugee camp. They also photographed Mr. Putzey on page 33 and reminded the reader that simple guitar music may indeed be reproduced using a large amount of engineering.
Posted on May 6, 2008 at 12:42 pm PST
From Howie Hollander - I am not sure what an engineer looks like, but I know they look different now than in the '60s. To prove it, look at the men in Mission Control in the movie Apollo 13, white shirts and crew cuts and skinny ties, and compare them to the men and women in the IMAX movie Roving Mars, colorful and diverse.
Posted on May 6, 2008 at 6:17 pm PST
From Pete Mickelson - The other thing we need to address is the very meaning of the word "engineer" itself. In point of fact, it literally means "one who practices ingenuity" -- and I think we'd all agree there are many, many people who do this.
My favorite picture of an engineer is a little baby, placed in her crib carefully on her back at 8:00 PM, who -- without any teacher showing her how -- rolls over onto her belly at 2:00 AM. Or maybe a swallow building her nest in a barn out of all sorts of available but otherwise non-traditional materials.
This is exactly why engineering is so tantalizing to young people, who are never, ever told that this is engineering. By second grade, it's all gone. The "E" word is never spoken; there's never a class or a curriculum in "engineering." As Regina points out, there is an icon -- Dilbert -- that surely does little to draw in the minds of today's kids, whose daily existence depends on engineering's ingenuity.
Yet those of us "in" engineering know the satisfaction it can bring. Even though none of have ever been taught the etymology of the word.
Posted on May 7, 2008 at 5:18 am PST
From Charles A. Rodenberger - I am giving a talk to young people at our local small Library. I wrote a paper years ago entitled THE INVISIBLE PROFESSION. I plan to have the children look for the invisible engineers behind their roads, cars, farms, electrical power, air and space travel. I hope it works.
Posted on May 7, 2008 at 5:40 am PST
From Charlie Rodenberger - I've taught Pre-Engineering the last couple of years to youngsters during 45-minute after-school programs. It's a blast, and you'll have a lot of fun. I'd suggest, to complement your talk, that you include a simple engineering activity such as the ZOOM into Engineering activity "Gumdrop Dome" which is cheap and easy and gets their heads spinning. A handful of gumdrops and toothpicks and a short video and off they go. They'll never forget you!
See <http://pbskids.org/zoom/grownups/engineering/>
Posted on May 7, 2008 at 7:16 pm PST
From Lane Matheson - I teach Introduction to Engineering and Robotics. I am going to do an experiment with my students. For extra credit, they can create a poster depicting what engineers look like. They will have to take a picture and incorporate that into their poster. It will be interesting to see what 15-18 year olds come up with!
Posted on May 9, 2008 at 2:54 pm PST
From David Gore, P.E. - Today, most engineering graduates look for jobs doing "design" work (I was Engrg Mgr at Nissan before MTSU, and found many new hires were unhappy because they were not involved in the vehicle design, but more in supplier interfacing and manufacturing engineering). We have come up with a new engineering concentration, Engineering Systems Technology that addresses needs of local companies that want engineers that "hit the ground running" with education in PLC's, six sigma, lean manufacturing, as well as the basic core courses such as statics, thermo, engrg econ, etc. Contact me for further info, dgore@mtsu.edu
Posted on May 14, 2008 at 10:59 am PST
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