Breaking Engineering Assumptions: Prompt One

Engineering is a very broad and sometimes misunderstood field, and there are many stereotypes that come to mind after hearing the word "engineer". Here are a few examples:

• Engineers love math
• Engineers work better alone
• They are usually introverts

After very little research one will find out that many of these are false. For example, group work is essential for engineers, as it makes designing something new faster and more efficient. The book Thinking Like an Engineer: an Active Learning Approach, introduces many of the engineering fields and goes into detail explaining the tasks that are part of said field. This book also deals with other things that people usually do not think about when they begin their engineer careers, such as ethics and social responsibility. 

This source of information is very helpful because while the stereotypes can be easily proven false, not many people think about ethics and social responsibility when they begin to think about their engineering careers.  

The ethical part is actually extremely important. One example of this would be if someone was working for a cellphone company, and the boss ordered that person to design a new phone that has to stop working after 3 years (so it forces consumers to buy new ones). The person designing the new phone gets very unhappy about that, so the boss says he will get a great bonus and a raise if he creates this new phone. What you do in this situation? Ethics can be very complicated because what you think is right can be wrong for someone else.

Source:

Thinking Like an Engineer: an Active Learning Approach, Third Edition by Elizabeth A. Stephan, David R. Bowman, William J Park, Benjamin L. Sill, and Matthew W. Ohland

Copyright 2015, 2013,  2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.

New York, New York

Joao Martins