The Missing Basics

Engineering has never been an easy job. Engineering brought forward the sciences and theories into reality, into real world applications, into everyday uses, and will continue to do so. On the other hand, engineer has never been purely science, nor purely technical.


The process of engineering is composed of bringing up the ideas and realizing it. The idea may or may not be original to the engineer himself, and may be channeled to the engineer through one way or the other. Then the engineer has to gather forces around the idea to formulate a plan for the realization. They (team members) have to overcome any potential problems that may arise during the course. Finally, they have to market the product, or find someone to market the product for them.


You realize in every one of these steps, collaboration is essential. Engineers in this very century have to work in teams, small or large, and have to have the fluidity of moving between teams, between projects without hassles. That is when communication skills comes in as essential. Communication, together with problem solving, are the two main procedures of a successful engineering process.

(Artwork by ~Fahad-Vision of deviantART)

Communication - when there is collaboration, there must be communication. Fellow engineers have to communicate with each other to exchange ideas, express opinions and conduct commands. The idea itself have to travel from the "innovator" to the "engineer" by means of communication. The idea and virtues behind a invention, have to be expressed by the engineers to the end users, optionally through a marketer. Communication here is not merely the Newman 101 Prof. Goldberg mentioned, but also includes the skill of questioning and visualizing ideas.

(Artwork by lumaxart of flickr)

Problem solving - Problem solving is almost the most critical part of engineering, which is after all, overcoming the problems from bringing scientific theories to real world applications. In this process, not only the "hard skills" of technical knowledge to thoroughly understand and analyse the problem is important, but also the "soft skills" of decomposing, modelling and labeling of the problem will be essential. Without any of these skills, it is almost sure that problems can't be efficiently solved.



Be aware that communication and problem solving are not two separate procedures in engineering, but rather a mutually inclusive component in engineering. You have you cooperate in a team to solve problem, which involves in itself, is heavily relied on communication. However, there are also overlooked points in the missing basics.


1. Creativity - Creativity is truly essential to engineers in this era. Engineers have to have good creativity to come up with creative ideas. Having a creative idea is the first step to successfully engineering a new, innovative product/technology. They also have to think out of the box to sought creative ways to solve the problems they are currently facing. When they are not creative, they will get stuck in front of a  problem where no textbook solutions are applicable.


2. Design - This is an often missing element to engineering. Many of the engineers are satisfied with a working thing, but a "working thing" is only the first alpha version, or first prototype, of the real product. A good engineer will continue to pursue for a better solution that is both more efficient and easier to use. The process of refining and the pursue for a better design is often an overlooked element in engineering.


3. Leadership - modern engineers are no longer one-man-teams. Engineers have to cooperate and collaborate not only with fellow engineers, but also with people from other fields (e.g. design, management, scientists etc. ) Having good leadership skills will allow the engineer to go beyond the workers' role, to a new level of coordinating different aspects, which is the core of how an idea is realized. With the combination of technical knowledge and leadership, the engineer is bound to succeed in realizing his dream.


Again, these qualities are not alone by themselves. These 3 qualities are useful in the process of communication and/or problem solving. They also have overlapping areas, for example, creativity is definitely required in design processes, and leadership may involve creative ideas to manage people.

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In defense of the traditional engineering education, the missing basics are not really the basics of an engineering education. All of the missing basics mentioned above, including the few points I added, are qualities required to succeed in whatever disciplines you are in. No matter you are a computer scientist, electrical engineer, mathematician, businessman or an economist, you have to posses all these qualities to accomplish the success you are after. In the traditional system, college education was highly selective, meaning that all of those who can enter posses, by definition, these qualities. Or maybe, the job of teaching the future generation these qualities, lied on primary and secondary education institutes. What it turns out to be, starting to grow the seedlings of these important qualities from young will find their roots deeper into our minds, and prove to be more effective than what Prof. Goldberg is trying to do now.


Unfortunately, as a matter of fact, our education system was unable to provide this sort of division of labor - education given before high school virtually became mere playgrounds. So many of the engineers went into and out of college with the same misunderstanding, that technical knowledge are the only holy grail to pursue in the field of engineering. It is a disappointing fact that these missing basics, which are supposed to have been deep-rooted in our hearts from childhood, are indeed missing from the "products" of our education system.


There are many occasions, many chances, where we can incorporate these missing basics into the future generation. College is not the only one of them, and probably not the best one of them. Maybe, it's time to rethink our education system to organize it in a more efficient way.

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plan below added by Maurice on September 14, 21:03
My mini action plan

• Take more initiatives. No matter it is offering help to other students in class, cold emailing someone of interest, trying to help in organization-level problems or asking for help.
  Due: This semester
• Share my ideas. I am quite a thinker so I will contribute by sharing more of my ideas to everyone. Hopefully some will bear fruit.
  Due: This academic year
• Follow through my ideas. Follow up from the first point which is to ensure that the wonderful idea I thought up will become reality
  Due: This academic year