Applied Minds: How Engineers Think

Winner, IEEE-USA Award for DistinguishedLiterary Contributions Furthering Public Understanding and the Advancement ofthe Engineering Profession Winner, American Society of Engineering Education Technological and Engineering Literacy/Philosophy of Engineering Division Meritorious Award "Engineers are titans of real-world problem-solving. . . . In this riveting study of how they think, [Guru Madhavan] puts behind-the-scenes geniuses . . . center stage."NatureDubai's Burj Khalifathe world's tallest buildinglooks nothing like Microsoft's Office Suite, and digital surround sound doesn't work like a citywide telecommunication grid. Yet these engineering feats have much in common.Applied Minds explores the unique visions and mental tools of engineers to reveal the enormousand often understatedinfluence they wield in transforming problems into opportunities. The resulting account pairs the innovators of modern historyThomas Edison, the Wright brothers, Steve Jobswith everything from ATMs and the ZIP code system to the disposable diaper.An engineer himself, Guru Madhavan introduces a flexible intellectual tool kit called modular systems thinking as he explains the discipline's penchant for seeing structure where there is none. The creations that result from this process express the engineer's answers to the fundamental questions of design: usefulness, functionality, reliability, and user friendliness.Through narratives and case studies spanning the brilliant history of engineering, Madhavan shows how the concepts of prototyping, efficiency, reliability, standards, optimization, and feedback are put to use in fields as diverse as transportation, retail, health care, and entertainment. Equal parts personal, practical, and profound, Applied Minds charts a path to a future where we apply strategies borrowed from engineering to create useful and inspired solutions to our most pressing challenges.