Art without engineering is dreaming. Engineering without art is calculating.

– Steven Roberts

“I want to be an engineer.” As an educator, scientist and most recently as an educational and college consultant, I have heard this steadfast phrase repeated by misguided teenagers more times over the last two decades than you can possibly imagine. In that time I have untangled this resounding statement with students, and a consistent pattern has emerged.

An innocent middle school student shows some talent for math. In high school, this same student enjoys the attention that accompanies being “good at math” and actively chooses to pursue STEM subjects: science, technology, engineering and math. At some point, a well-intentioned adult suggests, “You should be an engineer.” Unfortunately, in a majority of these cases – of which there are many – students then blindly focus on this target like a seductive beacon of hope and meaning. Education suddenly has a purpose, a target, and meaning. A default statement soon evolves and becomes the pat answer offered when people ask the all too familiar and somewhat rhetorical question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Without much reflection or intention these students habitually and emphatically respond, “An engineer.”

One might rightly ask, “Why is this such a travesty?” I offer two main reasons: 1. In more cases than you can imagine, the “engineer” suggestion is often provided by someone who doesn’t really understand what an engineer actually is, and 2. Being a good – and happy – engineer requires so much more than being good at math. In most cases, ask a student what kind of engineer they want to be and you will be on the awkward side of a vacant stare. This common disconnect between the fabulously different flavors of engineering and the enormous variability in skills and strengths required to be successful in each is a solid testament to the problem. Do we expect jet pilots to be passionate about sailing just because planes and sailboats are moved by air? Then why do we assume that building a rocket to reach Mars and creating a new strain of disease-resistant corn leverage the same skills and passions? That’s just silly.

There are more types of “engineers” than there are flavors of ice cream. If we really wanted to do students justice we should ask them, “What flavor of engineering interests you?” and then rattle off different engineering disciplines: structural, chemical, materials, bio, systems, mechanical, electrical, computer, aero, aerospace and the list continues to grow every year. I recently spoke to someone who is a “paper engineer.” He is one of the world’s most successful pop-up book designers… or rather, builders. And that is the core and essence of all engineering – a drive to create, build, or using the en vogue work, Make. Engineers are builders. They imagine, design, build, test and analyze their creations. Cooks are engineers. Woodworkers are engineers. Toy makers are awesome engineers. Engineers also push their designs to fail and break, which is followed immediately by much thinking and head scratching. While math is one of the tools that many engineers use, imagination, curiosity, perseverance, and a love for building things are much more important.

Knowing that engineering is a way of thinking and passion for building, we would do our world a great service by asking students who have a proclivity and love for art and making things, “What kind of engineering do you like most?” This isolates one of the most important, and heartbreaking, pieces of the “unhappy engineer’s narrative.” If you do not love to imagine, build, test and break things – followed by much pondering, and yes, sometimes a little bit of math – you will likely be a very unhappy engineer. One thing is true of all great engineers I have known – they are passionate about creating something new, fervently pushing it to perform, and identifying ways to make a better one.

I was always fascinated by engineering. Maybe it was an attempt maybe to get my father’s respect or interest, or maybe it was just a genetic love of technology, but I was always trying to build things.

– James Cameron

I was a science teacher for nearly a decade and then directed an aerospace internship for thirteen years. I know many students who are really…really… good at math. In that time I have also worked with many incredible engineers, and unfortunately, many of them should never have pursued engineering. They will tell you this. I have also asked many unhappy engineers why they pursued the occupation and the most common response is, overwhelmingly, “Because someone told me I would be good at it.” As a college consultant, I ask any student who states an interest in a specific field, such as engineering, what they think an engineer’s life is like and if they have ever talked to one. Seldom does the reality of engineering match their vision or interpretation.

Having hired hundreds of talented engineering students, from high school juniors to students working on their second engineering Ph.Ds, one characteristic is invaluable and consistent. In order to hire the best engineering interns the most telling and useful questions is “What have you built recently?” If there is one definitive attribute that runs true for the majority of happy and successful engineers it is a passion – and in most cases, a need or compulsion – to build stuff. I purposely indicate “stuff” rather than “planes” or “computers” because the best engineers build many different things and are always learning new ways to create and fill their tool belt with more skills. I know rocket engineers who build muscle cars, surfboards, little houses, exotic furniture, bicycles and yes, amazing food. I also know glassblowers who would be able to build an airplane.

Honestly, it is easier to teach an artist math than it is to teach a good math student to have a passion to build things. However, I also firmly believe that all people – especially young people – are born engineers, and it is important to provide them with a marvelous and full picture of what engineering means rather than make the slapdash correlation that math means engineering. If we want to help students find a course of study in college and path to professional and life enjoyment, maybe we should encourage them by suggesting, “What would you like to build?”

Creativity is not just for artists. It’s for businesspeople looking for a new way to close a sale; it’s for engineers trying to solve a problem; it’s for parents who want their children to see the world
in more than one way.

– Twyla Tharp