Engineer and Engineering Sense
On this page 4 headings
Start here Look around the room you’re sitting in. The roof keeps out the sun and rain. The fan cools you. The internet brings you this lecture. Can you find one thing an engineer has not touched? Engineering isn’t just a degree. It’s a way of thinking anyone can learn.
This week is taught mainly by Prof. Sivakumar M S, with discussions with Prof. Kartic, Lt Col Jayakumar, Prof. Prasanna and Prof. Shiva. Another name for engineering sense is “thinking with hands”.
Engineering is as old as humans
- Engineering was born from need: to change the environment for food, shelter and security.
- The driving force: the wish for a better, easier, more comfortable life.
- Humans invented the wheel, farming, engines, weapons, computers and the internet.
- Ancient Indian engineers had no degrees, yet they built amazing things. They observed, studied and honed their skills.
What went wrong?
The Industrial Revolution (about 200 years ago) brought prosperity, stability and security. But it also made us compartmentalised: everyone is a specialist (heart specialist, foot specialist…). We forget that the whole is more than the sum of its parts.
- Today we respect the degree more than real engineering ability.
- We are great at solving back-of-the-chapter problems, but less ready for real-life problems.
Key idea: An engineer is not just a degree holder. It is anyone who makes things happen: who creates products, processes and services that make life better. Engineering is a habit. Anyone can build it with practice.
The habits of an engineer
Prof. Sivakumar lists these habits (“a modest list, not complete”). The next pages explain each one.
| # | Habit | Page |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Planning | 2 |
| 2 | Approximating and estimating | 2 |
| 3 | Technical auditing (what is conserved?) | 2 |
| 4 | Where can I apply what I learned? | 3 |
| 5 | Cause and effect (root cause analysis) | 3 |
| 6 | How can I make it better? | 3 |
| 7 | Changing perspective | 3 |
| 8 | Big-picture thinking | 4 |
| 9 | Abstraction and detailing | 4 |
| 10 | Divide and conquer | 4 |
| 11 | Classifying (taxonomy) | 5 |
| 12 | Dimensions, units and numbers | 5 |
| 13 | Associative understanding of features | 5 |
| 14 | Quick rough (“jugaad”) experiments | 5 |
| + | From the discussions: documenting, exchanging ideas, debriefing, mental models, perspectives | 2, 6 |
In one line: Engineering sense is a habit of making things happen — planning, estimating, improving and solving real problems — and anyone can learn it, degree or not. Exam words: engineering sense, thinking with hands, food–shelter–security, compartmentalised, the whole is more than the sum of its parts, engineering is a habit.