What Engineers Know and How They Know It

rdf:langString What Engineers Know and How They Know It

rdf:langString What Engineers Know and How They Know It

rdf:langString What Engineers Know and How They Know It

rdf:langString Cover of 1 ed edition, paperback

rdf:langString United States

rdf:langString English

rdf:langString Paperback

rdf:langString What Engineers Know and How they Know It: Analytical Studies from Aeronautical History (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990) (ISBN 0-8018-4588-2) is a historical reflection on engineering practice in US aeronautics from 1908 to 1953 written by Walter Vincenti (1917-2019) an accomplished practitioner and instructor. This period represents the dawn of aviation which was fraught with uncertainties and numerous paths to many possible worlds. The book captures two main conclusions from this period. The first order conclusion of this book is about "what engineers know." Five case studies from the history of aeronautical engineering are used to argue engineering often demands its own scientific discoveries. Thus, engineering should be understood as a knowledge-generating activity that includes applied science but is not limited to applied science. The second order conclusion of this book pertains to "how engineers know" by using the same case studies to reveal patterns in the nature of all engineering. These patterns form an “epistemology” of engineering that may point the way to an “engineering method” as something distinct from scientific method. Walter Vincenti ends the work with a general "variation-selection model" for understanding the direction of technological innovation in human history. The book is filled with numerous additional observations and stories told by a practitioner and instructor. This may be why Dr. Michael A. Jackson, author of Structured Design and Problem Frames, once concluded a keynote address to engineers with the statement, "Read Vincenti's book. Read it carefully. Read it one hundred times."