Reading a find from used book store about how engineers think.

Used a page where Madhavan cites a checklist from George Heilheimer:

Students then had to reflect on which step was most difficult, which step represented something they had not thought of before, and how this process was different from the work we do here.   As much as possible, I try and couch the project process as being something that exists outside of our school, as something that real folks have struggled with, as something that every scholar/mechanic/actor/entrepreneur has to develop for themselves.

One of the great parts of the conversation was that students focused on number two — “how is it done today” — and were able to acknowledge that they still have much to learn.   The adolescent binary of simultaneously knowing everything while declaring their helplessness was on full display; I try and poke this as much as possible.

The other focus came with the “who cares” question;  HG correctly noted that “it is difficult to get someone to care about what you’re trying to do” and JJ also pointed out that “we have to think if we finish this project, what difference will it make ?”

1. Madhavan, Guruprasad. Applied Minds: How Engineers Think. New York?; London: W. W. Norton & Company, 2015.