What Makes Engineers Tick? Readers Share Their Thoughts on the Matter

We put that question to our technical-savvy audience and received insights on why the public doesn't get engineers--but should.

Qmed Staff

"Engineers understand the cold physics of a thing, and can make it work. Nonengineers throw emotional content at it... and hope it works," says Robert Poyser, quality and regulatory manager of UK-based David Thomas Contact Lenses Ltd.

"Engineers think quantitatively which is the bedrock of good decision making," adds professor Richard Dealtry, chairman of the Global Association of Corporate Universities & Academies.

Engineers often grew up as tinkerers. As children, they might make intricate models or take to computer programming at an early age or take household items or cars apart to see if they can reassemble them

Above all though, engineers have an appreciation for how things are made. "We are always looking at how things are made. Going to the store is fun because there are all these products to get ideas from. We are always looking to see how things work. Cause-and-effect connections," says Jim Gillingham, product and tooling engineer at Performance Engineered Products.

This attraction to cause-and-effect connections, which greatly exceeds that of an ordinary person, gives engineers a unique outlook that is often the subject of jokes. Consider this one, shared by Fokko Pieter Wieringa, senior scientist, medical equipment at TNO (The Hague, the Netherlands):

In the medical device realm, engineers are necessarily focused on how to minimize the risk of product failures. "As a engineer in the medical device profession, I typically view the world in terms of what will potentially fail and consequently make decisions to limit the extent of that failure. Non-engineers generally misread my perspective of things as seeing things 'half empty' and dismiss me as pessimistic, which is not the case," says Chris Campbell, senior manufacturing engineer at Abbott Vascular.

Bob Ward, president and CEO of ExThera Medical, has a similar take. Engineers are drawn to problems not because they are pessimistic, but because they find problem solving stimulating and addictive. "[Problems provide] an opportunity to apply their experience and education to create a solution that is beyond the capabilities of non-engineers."

"Engineers are more results oriented [than academic scientists]," Ward continues. "Good ones aim for the simplest solution, in part because they know they will be held responsible for implementation, e.g., translation to manufacturing."

Engineering often takes a more selective skill set than become an expert in a scientific niche. "Engineers can do science, but scientists cannot often do engineering." Ward says. Consider as an example the fact that many lab-developed biomaterials developed by researchers are ultimately not suitable for their future use in the manufacturing of medical devices.