Most people are aware that an engineer needs to be pretty confident with his maths and physics and that’s true. There is something else though, that makes an even bigger difference.
Just before I spill the beans, there’s another thing which isn’t the one that makes the big difference. I’ve been teaching diploma level engineering in Australia’s TAFE system for 15 years and in that time I’ve taught probably 98% boys. (Architecture is the exception, you do get more girls taking an interest in Architecture1.) But it isn’t gender that makes the difference although it may be a factor according to some research, its not just a boy thing.
Success and failure in engineering education.
So, in my teaching I’ve seen students do well and I’ve seen some fail. The deciding factor is one that is only coming to light in recent years. Engineering has a language of its own and it’s a graphical language. Engineers produce drawings with orthogonal views, isometric views and they add copious notes all around the drawing views. I’m sure you’ve seen these and you know what I’m talking about. A good example is a house plan that an architect produces.
Let me introduce this with a story about a bright student in one of my classes. A few years ago I had a student who caught my attention. He handled some really tricky geometry in a CAD program with ease and finished very early, way ahead of all the others. I sat down for a conversation and learned something very interesting. He was part of a group of students in the degree program and he knew exactly why I wanted to talk to him. He told me that he had just transferred to our uni from another not too far away where one of the engineering professors was doing research on what makes some students succeed in engineering and others fail. All of them very bright and having scored very highly in the state wide university entrance exams. This professor had noticed that out of all these bright, high scoring first year students there was a clear distinction between those who stayed and those who failed. It wasn’t academic ability, it was the ability to look at a two dimensional drawing on a page and see a three dimensional object in their minds eye. Spatial ability. This student told me that before he transferred to our university he had been assessed and tested by this professor and found to be in the top three percent for spatial ability.
A year later there was an international engineering design conference in our city; Melbourne, Australia and this boys former professor spoke on his research into spatial ability in first year engineering students. I was there and heard his presentation. He spoke on how it was more indicative of success or failure in an engineering degree than the commonly expected measures of maths and physics scores. its easy enough to find academic papers on this general topic if you search. I have included several links at the end of this article2. Interestingly, females don’t score as highly as males according to the studies. This doesn’t mean that girls never have it, its just not so common. I’ve met some who do.
A fast changing industry
Engineering used to be about skilled workers making nifty widgets in factories, not so much these days, now they are knowledge workers. They used to use slide rules and clever measuring equipment but now an engineers tools are mostly software. The Information revolution is making a big difference to engineering and to manufacturing as well. Now it’s about robots and computer controlled machines. No one designs things on a drawing board anymore and the changes seem to be happening more quickly. For example I teach CAD and its hard work to keep up with all the improvements and changes to the software every year.
Everyone in engineering uses the same software
Here’s an interesting thing I’ve observed in my career as a technician, a manager and more recently as a teacher, all of those employees in engineering and manufacturing use the same software tools, known as CAD, CAM and CAE. More particularly, they all use the same CAD software for designing components and products as well as for the manufacturing steps and then the sales and marketing all are working with the same CAD models.
It all revolves around the CAD software.
Computer Aided Design (CAD) is the tool you need to use if you are going to pursue a career in engineering or manufacturing. I’ve had professional engineers in my CAD classes, tradesmen and technicians as well as office staff who need to make sense of the drawings and models in order to do their work. There was a time that anyone could go over and pick a drawing sheet out of the plans cabinet but now, more and more its about using CAD software on the computer.
See if you are good at CAD
As mentioned above, those with good spatial ability are often good at learning CAD software. This will likely make the biggest difference for those interested in engineering. Geometry is a branch of mathematics which depends on spatial ability, and that might give you a clue. You can sometimes tell if someone is good at reading maps and can navigate from a map but I can always tell in my classrooms by how fast a student learns CAD. Some take to it naturally and some otherwise very bright ones struggle. Its not easy to pick but a short course in CAD can make the matter clear.
If you are confident with maths and physics and over 12 years of age, try my short online introductory course in CAD. It will soon be apparent if you are picking it up easily or struggling. Yes, I picked age 12 arbitrarily, you don’t have to be too strict on that.
For those under the age of 12, I would recommend some computer based geometry which will also indicate spatial ability. I recommend Bonnie Roskie’s books3 linked below where she teaches geometric concepts using Sketchup software. It’s a short step to a CAD program from there.
What if I’m not good at CAD?
If you have difficulties with CAD there are oodles of other occupations that may suit you better. One thing I can say for sure though, is that you will never know until you try.
What now?
Check out my introductory course in CAD. Click this link
Footnotes:
1 American Institute of Architects membership was 18% women in 2012
2 Several academic papers on spatial ability:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S027826261000179X
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160289606000821
3 Bonnie Roskie’s website where you can find plenty of excellent educational material for school age children. Look for the ones on geometry at:-
http://www.3dvinci.net/geometricks
2 responses to “How to tell if you could be an engineer.”
Hey Arnold, my name is Jimmy Simon, Sr., I have wanted to learn how to operate in the CAD environment for a number of years, but up until I saw your course on Youtube a few days ago, I was always left knowing less than from those guys, than I did when I started listening to them. There was a fraise that was used in the military where they “taught by the numbers” during our training lectures. And I quickly noticed that you are much better than most teachers on the web, because you teach like I was taught in the military: By the numbers. In other words, unlike many instructor, you don’t seem to take it for granted that a person know something when they might not. But that you take the time go into very great details about the mater, as though you’re teaching a child…..which is very smooth and easy.
Thank you for the time you take to teach us how to use a very complexed tool, and not only make it easier to understand, but you make it a lot of fun learning the many ways in which to use it.
I don’t use Facebook or Twitter in my communication, so can I contact you in another format? Thanks
Thanks for your kind words, Jimmy. I’ll send you an email, I see your address.