Letter 8 The Art of Engineering
Dear Natasha and Nick,
I send you good wishes from my office which, to be honest, is perhaps a bit too dull. In contrast, some folks have interesting paintings, photos, posters, or statues in their office to inspire them in their work. I’ve thought about getting one of those diagrams or sculptures of the human brain that is divided into a left and right side. Based on some evidence from neuroscience and psychology, the left side supposedly deals with logic, order, rationality, step-by-step processes, and so forth. And the right side supposedly deals with creativity, emotions, imagination, lateral thinking, and the like. Together they make up a whole brain that allows us to function effectively in this world.
So, why should this be any different for engineers? Sometimes I think there’s a misconception that we engineers have been overly educated and trained to use only the left side of our brains, while completely ignoring or at least minimizing the importance of the right side. There may be some truth to that. But, any engineer who has a successful and satisfying career will probably tell you that they use the right side of their brain more than they often realize. It’s an integral part of who engineers are and what they do.
Engineers can be artistic by thinking of truly innovative ways for how technology can bring about a better future for human civilization in the short and long term. Engineers can use their imaginations to deliver products and services that positively affect human psychology and that also appeal to the 5 physical senses. Engineers can embrace curiosity, mistakes, and play as creative and valid pathways to discovery, design, and even problem-solving. And, that’s what this letter is about—the art of engineering.
W.I.B. Beveridge (1908–2006) wrote in his classic book The Art of Scientific Investigation (Vintage Books, 1950/1957) that “Imagination is of great importance not only in leading us to new facts, but also in stimulating us to new efforts, for it enables us to see visions of their possible consequences. Facts and ideas are dead in themselves and it is the imagination that gives life to them.” (p. 78). So, what I’d like to do here is discuss some of my favorite ways we engineers can stir up and utilize our creativity (see Figure 8.1), although I’m sure you’d be able to find other good resources written by real experts on the psychology of creative thinking.
Figure 8.1 Activating the right side of the brain brings out the creativity of engineering.
Ask Questions
First off, don’t be afraid to have an inquiring mind. Ask all kinds of questions. Odd questions. Silly questions. Funny questions. Bizarre questions. Persistent questions. If you don’t ask questions, you’ll never get answers. There’s an old proverb that says, “There’s no such thing as a stupid question.” Generally speaking, I’d say don’t censor yourself unless, of course, there is a really good reason to do so. The point of the questions is not to annoy or offend or belittle people, but rather to help them open up some new ways of thinking. Once the door opens up for them to consider things in fresh new ways, there’s no telling what unforeseen solutions might emerge to the engineering problems that they’re trying to solve. Of course, in turn, we should also be open to the questions that others pose to us, as well as even asking questions of ourselves so that our own innovative thinking can be unleashed.
As a senior mechanical/biomedical engineer, I’ve supervised a steady stream of junior engineers, student engineers, and medical students who’ve worked on various research projects. I’ve had the habit of asking them really basic questions that might seem obvious to them and that might make me—who is supposed to be an expert in the field—seem quite dull and uninformed: How did you measure that? Why do the data points stop there? Is there any electrical interference in the lab that might have caused that weird result? Where did you find that bit of information? Did you turn the specimen upside down and try it that way? What do you think is the best way to go forward? etc. There have been so many times students have said to me, “Oh, I never thought of it that way,” or something similar. As a consequence of such questions, problems were solved, new approaches were tried, serious errors were avoided, research projects were completed, and everyone learned something new.
Play Around
Another thing to do is to use play as a valid path to engineering discovery. You don’t always have to limit your engineering work to linear, logical, step-by-step processes. That’s not always going to get you to where you want or need to go. And you might find out quite accidentally that there are other better ways to get there more effectively and efficiently. So, once in a while at least, treat your workplace—whether it’s an office, workshop, laboratory, or factory floor—as an amusement park, a sports arena, or a gymnasium, or whatever. It’s a place to go to have fun with your engineering computations, drawings, experiments, etc., without any plans or pressure to get certain things done in a certain way by a certain time.
Many years ago, when I did my PhD in mechanical/biomedical engineering, my research topic was using ultrasound images to measure the stresses in total knee implants—which are made of metal and plastic—for treating osteoarthritic patients. At one point, my experimental apparatus was no more than a fish tank full of water, a bunch of metal and plastic bits and pieces, and an ultrasound probe. I was having trouble getting things to work. And I was worried. One day, my supervising professor walked into the lab. He encouraged me to do some trial-and-error tests, play around, just have fun, and let my curiosity take its natural course. And so, I tried to develop this new attitude and approach. I’m glad to report that eventually, I did get my experiments to work properly and, of course, I got my PhD as a consequence. And that wise advice from my professor stayed with me throughout my engineering career.
Play Right Brain Games
It’s also helpful to engage in right brain games. This is different than just playing around without any plan or goal in your office, workshop, laboratory, or factory floor, as I discussed earlier. Rather, the games and activities I’m talking about here are intentionally designed to stimulate the right side of the brain in order to enhance your creativity. You can do some of these by yourself or in a group. There is good psychological evidence for it. So, here is a brief list of some games and activities—most of which are obvious from their names—that you can do before or during your engineering work to make you more imaginative: breathe through your left nostril; create a group story as each person adds only one sentence at a time; doodle or scribble randomly; draw a connect-the-dots picture; draw with your non-dominant hand; listen to music; play a musical instrument; play catch with a real or imaginary ball; read a fictional short story; sing a song; write down your dreams; write in mirror letters; write with your non-dominant hand.
I remember years ago when I was a teaching assistant helping a professor with an engineering design course at university. For this course, the students were always organized into small groups of 4 students each, and they sat at their own table in the large classroom. At the start of each session, the professor would ask the students to play a right brain game for, say, 10–15 minutes in order to activate their creativity. After the game was done the professor would then assign the actual engineering task that they had to complete that day. One of the right brain games I remember quite clearly was playing catch with an imaginary ball. One student would throw the imaginary ball to another student and so on. But each time one student threw the ball, they would have to speak out a nonsense word or sound that would mimic the throwing action, like blerp, boing, klomp, shoop, whoosh, and so on. Although to some people such an exercise may seem silly, it did stir up each student’s visual and verbal imagination, as well as encouraging them to be free, spontaneous, and unreserved. These are helpful qualities when generating innovative engineering ideas.
Do Some Brainstorming
A very useful method for all engineers regardless of specialty is brainstorming. This is a common and effective group technique—although it can easily be used by an individual—for generating a lot of creative ideas very quickly for solving engineering problems. If you’ve done this with a group either in-person or online, you’re already familiar with the idea. But, I’ll go over some basics because brainstorming is often not done properly.
First, gather your group of engineers, but a large group needs to be split into several smaller groups so everyone can participate. Get a whiteboard, sheet of paper, laptop computer, or video/audio device to record ideas. Assign one person to record the ideas that people will speak out. Communicate to the group that all ideas are welcome no matter how bizarre since you want people to feel bold and free to speak out. State that no one is allowed to make positive or negative comments about any idea that is offered, since now is not the time for analysis. Clearly define the engineering problem or question to be addressed. Then, let the group speak out their ideas in a rapid and free-flowing way. Limit the brainstorming time to only 20–30 minutes, so people have enough time to think of ideas, but not enough time to overanalyze their own thoughts and suppress themselves. Then, you should take a break for, say, a few minutes, an hour, or even a day, and then repeat the exercise once or twice more to arrive at your final list of concepts.
However, there are some cautions to keep in mind about brainstorming. Extroverts can tend to dominate the time by speaking out more frequently, thereby intimidating the introverts. And employees may feel hesitant to speak out suggestions that could contradict their boss’s ideas. So, you could also encourage everyone to write down some ideas that will be added anonymously to the final list later on. Furthermore, brainstorming can also be done fully anonymously without any group interaction by asking each individual to send their ideas to the brainstorming coordinator via paper notes, smartphone texts, emails, etc.; however, the drawback of this is that it can take away from the synergy of group sharing where one idea spontaneously inspires another idea. Eventually, the group needs to evaluate the ideas that were generated and choose the best one(s), but that is an entirely different topic that I’m not going to talk about here.
The power of brainstorming is nicely described in Guy Gugliotta’s article “One-Hour Brainstorming Gave Birth to Digital Imaging” for the February 20th, 2006, edition of the Wall Street Journal. The article tells how Willard Boyle and George Smith had a one-hour brainstorming session in 1969, in which they conceived—and later patented—a rudimentary memory chip for storing digital information. The storage chip they invented became very attractive to astronomers who wanted better quality photos from their telescopes and the military who wanted higher resolution photos from their satellites. Over the years, the original chip was developed further and became the foundation for modern digital still and video cameras. Consequently, years later in 2006, Boyle and Smith were recognized for their achievement by being awarded the Draper Prize from the National Academy of Engineering in the US.
Welcome Mistakes
It’s also important to learn from our errors. Usually, when people say something like this, they mean we should learn from our mistakes, so that we never repeat them again. Now, that’s a good policy for engineers, especially when it comes to how the technologies we develop can affect public health, safety, happiness, and prosperity. But, in contrast, what I mean by welcoming mistakes is that we might discover something new and important through accidents, defects, errors, or weird results. Normally, we might be tempted to throw out specimens, prototypes, or data that don’t go along with our plans, expectations, or hypotheses. I’m suggesting, instead, that we should slow down to take a good close look at those so-called mistakes. There might be a nice surprise awaiting us. But our minds must be ready to receive these surprises.
As Thomas Kuhn (1922–1996) explained in his 1962 groundbreaking book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, the step-by-step process of normal everyday science usually functions within an existing overall paradigm. But, occasionally, anomalies are discovered that start to reveal flaws in the old paradigm. As more evidence accumulates, the old paradigm is forced to give way to a new paradigm, despite the objections of the critics and laggards who desperately cling to the old way of thinking. And then normal everyday science resumes within the new paradigm. Thus, he coined the term “paradigm shift.” Science, therefore, progresses slowly through long periods of evolutionary steps, which are punctuated occasionally by revolutionary jumps. All because scientists—who are mentally prepared—don’t simply ignore strange results. Similarly, I suggest that engineers should pay attention to mistakes that arise in their work. If an engineer analyzes and understands such mistakes more thoroughly, it could help them be more productive in the designing, building, inspecting, repairing, and/or disposing of products or services.
I refer again to Beveridge’s book The Art of Scientific Investigation, where he states that “Although it is common knowledge that sometimes chance is a factor in the making of a discovery, the magnitude of its importance is seldom realised.” (p. 43). He then gives over 30 examples of purely accidental scientific discoveries. I’ll only mention a few of his examples, but add some of my own. The ancient engineer Archimedes (287–212 BC) yelled “eureka” when he accidentally discovered water weight (or volume) displacement while getting into a bathtub. Luigi Galvani accidentally detected electric current via a twitching dead frog in 1780. Michael Faraday accidentally liquefied chlorine in 1823. Louis Pasteur accidentally discovered immunization in 1880. Wilhelm Roentgen accidentally observed X-rays in 1895. Antoine-Henri Becquerel accidentally noticed radioactivity in 1896. Alexander Fleming accidentally discovered penicillin in 1928. Enrico Fermi accidentally encountered slow neutrons in 1934. Percy Spencer, an engineer, accidentally noticed the presence of microwave energy via a melting chocolate bar in 1946. Benoit Mandelbrot accidentally observed fractal patterns in electric signals in the 1960s. Robert Wilson and Arno Penzias accidentally heard unknown buzzing noises on their research antenna in 1964—which turned out to be background microwave radiation left over from the Big Bang—for which they won the Nobel Prize.
Take Breaks
Don’t forget to change focus by taking breaks from time to time. Of course, it’s always good to rest your mind and body from the grueling work that engineering sometimes requires. If you’re tired, hungry, thirsty, and not thinking clearly this will make you less effective. You owe it to yourself and to your employer to rest, relax, and do something completely different and then get back to work with more vitality. But, there’s more to it than that. There’s some psychological evidence that taking breaks to do something completely different can allow your mind to keep working on ideas and solutions at a subconscious level. So, go visit your friends, play some sports, go for a walk, read a novel, watch a movie, or whatever you need to do to change your mental focus.
For instance, perhaps you’ve heard the well-known story about the chemist Friedrich August Kekulé (1829–1896) who was trying to figure out the chemical structure of benzene. One day while working, he decided to take a nap. He dreamed of a snake that formed a circle by biting its own tail. After he awoke, he was inspired to figure out that benzene was organized as a circle—that is, a hexagonal ring of 6 carbon atoms connected to each other—but with additional bonds sticking out so that each carbon atom could also simultaneously be attached to other atoms or rings. This idea went on to revolutionize organic chemistry.
In a similar way, consider the renowned electro-mechanical engineer Nikola Tesla (1856–1943). As he recounts in his 1919 memoir My Inventions: The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla, one day he went for a walk with a friend in a city park and started to recite some poetry he had memorized. Suddenly, as in a flash, came a revolutionary idea. He bent down, grabbed a stick, and started to draw a picture on the ground of a rotating wheel of electromagnetic energy. This was the basis of his invention of the brushless AC (alternating current) induction motor. This is the main way massive amounts of power have been generated and distributed to cities, industries, workplaces, and homes ever since.
Read and Watch Science Fiction
The video Isaac Asimov: Visions of the Future (Analog SF Magazine and Quality Video, Inc., 1992) was hosted (not surprisingly!) by the famous sci-fi and science writer Isaac Asimov (1920–1992). In the video, he asked, “how do you differentiate between science fiction and science?” In answer to his own inquiry, Asimov responded that “it’s very difficult to do so because not only is the boundary fuzzy, but it changes all the time—and very rapidly sometimes—usually in the direction of science.” So, because of its inherent connection to science, I’d encourage you to occasionally read and watch sci-fi. Many sci-fi books, short stories, television shows, internet shows, and movies have been, and continue to be, created. Some sci-fi writers and creators are, in fact, educated as scientists and engineers. And some of their stories are solidly rooted in the established principles of biology, chemistry, and physics. High-quality—and even sometimes low-quality—sci-fi works can inspire scientists and engineers with outside-the-box thinking and innovative technologies. It can encourage scientists and engineers to come up with new concepts, approaches, and solutions in order to advance human society.
So, for example, Jules Verne’s 1865 novel From the Earth to the Moon was a century ahead of its time in predicting that humans would one day land on the moon via rocket ship. H.G. Wells’s 1903 short story “The Land Ironclads” narrated how a small group of massive steel vehicles with automatic guns conquered a traditional army of foot soldiers defending their trench, which was published 14 years before the invention and use of tanks in World War I. Karel Capek invented the term “robot” in his 1920 play R.U.R. in which a factory called Rossum’s Universal Robots manufactures flesh-and-blood androids equipped with artificial intelligence, which is being developed in modern times. Sir Arthur C. Clarke’s 1979 novel The Fountains of Paradise described a tower-like space elevator used for transporting people and goods to a spacecraft docked at the tower’s top, which has been researched in real-life by dozens of universities and NASA.
Similarly, the original 1960s sci-fi television series Star Trek and its spin-offs depicted many intriguing technologies. The “phaser” was a powerful handgun that shot laser-like energy beams to temporarily stun or totally vaporize an enemy. The “replicator” created any drink, meal, or gadget requested by the user seemingly out of thin air. The “tractor beam” was an energy tether that allowed a spaceship to capture an object in space and pull it along. The “transporter” was able to disassemble a person atom by atom in one location and then fully reassemble the person in another distant location. The “tricorder” was a portable handheld device that gave a full medical diagnosis after a quick scan of a patient. The “warp drive” could propel a spaceship at multiple times the speed of light. Some of these things may one day become reality, while others may be impossible due to the laws of physics, but can still inspire engineers to think creatively.
So, What’s the “Take Home” Message of This Letter?
We engineers are usually data-driven, evidence-based, rational, and logical, so we mostly function using the left side of our brain. Step-by-step processes in our engineering work are definitely a central part of what we do. I’m not arguing against that at all. But, let’s realize our need to stir up the right side of our brain to be even more productive in our work. By deliberately activating our creative forces, we will be better prepared to solve engineering problems in outside-the-box imaginative ways. And, thus, we will potentially deliver much more effective products and services to our clients, customers, and society. That’s what the art of engineering is all about.
All the best,
R.Z.