Seminar: 1 pm, Tuesday 4th April, School of Mechanical Engineering, Room 1.05.

The presentation for this workshop was recorded using lecturnity. (Download Lecturnity Player to view recordings from here). The download documents are around 30Mb.

"Technical Knowledge - What Engineers Know"

Lecturnity presentation / Flash presentation

James will discuss his recent work on technical knowledge that throws some light on how university technical courses contribute to engineering work.

Recent analysis shows that most of the technical knowledge that engineers use is learned after leaving university, and much of it is never written down. Engineers also seem unaware of how much knowledge they carry with them.

Last year James reported work that showed that most of what engineers do is learned after they leave university. Nothing has changed to contradict this. If this is true, just how does the technical material that students learn at university come in useful (if at all)? What is it that distinguishes university trained engineers from people who learn "the hard way", working their way up from the shop floor? Do engineers really have to learn how to solve differential equations or how cracks propagate through amorphous solids?

Comparisons of Japanese, American and European engineering work have revealed some interesting organisational factors. The work on technical knowledge starts to provide explanations for the differences that offer powerful explanations for Japan's success in electronics product development.

This is work in progress.