Competence of an industry comes from its expertise in one of the discrete domains in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (again, stem). Take the example of Google. it was built based on an innovative search algorithm (a mathematical domain). The name “Google” is a play on the word “Googol”, a mathematical term for a specific number of 1 followed by 100 zeros.
But “stem” is not enough for a “plant” to grow. an organization needs new “branches” of human intellect to become successful in the longer run – broadly, the new areas could be the art of usability, and sciences of sociology, and environment.
The key point of this article is that it is not enough for engineering students to know just engineering, but also other art forms to introduce innovative products to the world. the success of apple, and Steve jobs is a pointer.
One can attribute the market dominance of apple not just to engineering but to design. a tablet product was pioneered not by apple. There were many precursors to tablet. In fact, Wipro had a tablet like product called e.Go. but what made apple’s tablet very famous is its design focus.T the company looked tablet not as a hardware or software, but a design that would give an unique experience to customers.
Apple successfully married arts and science, in a way. it was not for the first time, Apple’s Mac OS was the first operating system to have come with a graphical user interface. The question is what helped apple infuse design and engineering. it was the “broader education” that apple’s founder and CEO, Steve jobs had. While still at college, Steve jobs learned a course on calligraphy. His ideas of good looking fonts, when applied to programming codes, became graphical user interface that we all enjoy using today.
Why is “broader education” important? in other words, why engineers are expected to be out of the box innovators, having at least rudimentary knowledge in subjects like sociology, environment, and usability? The reason is: to design successful products.
System thinking: engineering is all about creating products. Typically, engineers will start designing a product with the brief they get from the management. Design, in a way, is the process of making right trade-offs within the given context. Designers need clarity on the context to make the trade-offs. A luxury or affordable car market gives enough clarity for the designers. The job of the designer is to make suitable trade-offs among the three constants, depending on what market segment the product in question is being designed for. The design of an Audi does not have to bother too much about cost, while the design of a Nano cannot afford to work on comforts at the cost of affordability.
Traditionally, innovations aim to improve existing product ideas in terms of time, cost, and quality. The game is about making a product “faster, cheaper, and better”. But now engineers have to connect new dots to make a product successful.
Product failures: let us look at some of the case examples of product failures first.
Case Example 1 : Poor, rural hospitals in African and Asian countries had to discard sophisticated incubators, donated by aid agencies to save just born babies. The reason: the incubators are too high-tech to be repaired by local mechanics.
Case Example 2: The US government has reportedly demolished over 500 dams in the recent past. Because, the government has found that dams affect eco-systems and thus, the supply of ecosystem services, without which agriculture cannot flourish.
Case Example 3: In urban centres, growing car population causes traffic jams. car is a failure product in a specific city settings.
Product innovations such as incubators, dams, and cars once wowed the world but they have become undesirable in certain contexts of social, economic, demographic, or environmental settings.
Broader education is the way out. Because broader education helps engineers think about the larger systems. let us go back to the three cases of product failures and see what happens when we apply broader education.
“cost effective” incubator for “rural technical support” system: A multi-stakeholder group, facilitated by Stanford, created a low-cost incubator with automobile parts so that they can be repaired by an average two-wheeler or car mechanic, who are easy to find anywhere in a developing country.
“Better” dam for “eco-hydro-livelihood” system:With the understanding that water alone cannot produce results in an agricultural field, our innovators can set creating an “eco-friendly and livelihood friendly” water storage and supply system, as their context.
“Smarter” car for “inter-modal-transport” system: one solution proposed to avoid the global gridlock, as enumerated by Mr Bill ford of ford motor company, is to design smart internet of transport things: smart cars, smart roads, smart trains, and so on.
These were some of the solutions or proposals that have come from engineers knowing more than engineering. Recently, a group of eminent people from different walks of life, have come together to establish an university which will teach students engineering and arts. Named Ashoka University, being set up in Delhi, the university will offer such combined courses in association with Carleton college of the united states.
Says Prof Arjendu Pattanayak, Carleton college, “A thriving democratic society (like India) requires broadly trained individuals, who have learned to think in multiple ways, who can speak across disciplinary and intellectual boundaries.”
However, one does not have to take up multiple courses from colleges. With the advent of massive open online courseware (MOOCS), there are many colleges that offer free, mini courses on different subjects, completely free. Such courses are available at Coursera, Edx, Udacity, Udemy, and khan academy.
To sum up, today’s engineering students have to “take the agency of your education in your own hands”, to quote Salman khan, khan academy, pursue “broader education” and become successful product innovators.