This week’s MNN guest of honor was David E. Goldberg from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Let us tell you how we got to know David. Two months ago in our class of “Innovation, Design and Strategy” we discussed a presentation of David about the missing basics in engineering education. We then realized that he shares the same thoughts as we do and we contacted him by mail in order to explore possible ways of collaboration between our department of Business Landscaping at the Tecnológico de Monterrey and the iFoundry, the Illinois Foundry for Innovation in Engineering Education.

Who would have thought that we would be so privileged to have David as our guest at the Tec so soon? Right on his arrival day he gave us a talk about philosophy and engineering.

Asking what engineers can learn from the conceptual rigor of philosophers, David invited us to go back in the history of thought and to start at the human beginnings of conceptual clarity.

Why isn’t there a philosophy of engineering? David’s interest in this question led him to establish a forum gathering philosophers and engineers. By the way, the 2010 Forum on Philosophy, Engineering, and Technology (FPET-2010) will be held on 9-10 May 2010 in the Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO, and is open for submissions.

Engineering hasn’t cared much about philosophy for a long time, yet this is changing. As for philosophy, it only punctually gave attention developments in the world of technology.

But why is philosophy important to engineering right now and vice-versa?

The answer is this: Times have changed – again.
At the beginning of 20th century there was the crisis of physics when the notions of space and time were upset. There we had a tight link between science and philosophy!

Today, at the beginning of the 21st century, we are facing a disorientation of a different kind due to the fast pace of technological change and to the growing need to understand the human element in our engineering endeavors. Trying to understand people is a challenge. Yet there is an urgent need to integrate our knowledge of human beings into what we do.

Take Google for example – it is a human preference engine, as David describes it. It is a proof that for designing and understanding complex systems today we need to know how people function.

From A class with David E. Goldberg

To learn more about David E. Goldberg’s activities and thinking, visit his personal blog: The Entrepreneurial Engineer.