Engineering: A Call to Create
by Rodney Meadth, Middle and Upper School Principal and Engineering Academy Director
An avid science fiction fan, I recently decided to tackle the Ender series by Orson Scott Card. Brilliantly and beautifully written, this multi-part series weaves together a plethora of seemingly unconnected ideas, including time dilation, microbiology, politics, love and marriage, the Catholic church, and artificial intelligence.
Thinking into being
In the third installment, Xenocide (1991), several characters travel to a place outside our universe—fittingly called “Outside.” In this what-if scenario, such travel is accomplished by simply thinking about arriving there. But once they arrive Outside, the characters find they also have the ability to create things instantly out of thin air—again, simply by thinking about them. I won’t ruin the story any more than I already have—you’ll have to read it for yourself to see just what the characters create with their thoughts and what happens next!
Orson Scott Card does a brilliant job making this far-fetched premise plausible, and his writing made me think about my own life as an engineering teacher. The ability to instantly call things into existence by mere thought is surely the domain of fantasy and the Lord God himself, but I couldn’t help but ponder: as children of God created in his image, we certainly possess a lesser but similar power. In fact, what are engineers but those who create by thought?
Exercising creative thinking
This past week, one of our engineering students exercised precisely this power. It began with a simple idea: Coach Evan Covell, Providence School athletics director and track and field coach, described a need for two stepping boxes. One would be twelve inches high, the other six inches high. Each would be about two feet wide. These items, simple though they are, would help with track and field training. Coach Covell asked me: could it be done?
Never one to shy from a project, I decided that such a design would be best produced using three-quarter inch plywood pieces, assembled like a three-dimensional wooden puzzle. After making a sketch on paper, I rallied the key players together: science teacher Taylor Hurt, who supports the Providence Engineering Academy, would select a student who had the necessary CAD skills (computer-aided design) to translate my sketch into a precise computer model, helping him or her along the way.
The team at Campovans, a vehicle outfitting business in Santa Barbara, which includes Bryan Sheets (2018 alumnus), would receive that CAD model and cut out the pieces on their computer-controlled milling machine. Freshman Annie Haugen took on the project and produced just what we were looking for. She learned to use professional-level CAD tools in Bryan Anderson’s Engineering Design class this semester.
Before long, we’ll have in our hands the two completed boxes, glued, assembled, and ready for use in training. The idea that began in Coach Covell’s mind will then be solid and visible—our thoughts will have become physical reality. Again I ask: is this any different than the experience of Orson Scott Card’s characters, other than his fictional process taking four seconds and ours taking four weeks?
Answering the call to create
The fact is that we all exercise this creative power constantly; we all have a call to create. Whether writing essays, planning events, starting a business, or building furniture, it is our very thoughts that become reality. In our Providence engineering classes, these thoughts take physical form: quadcopter drones, workout equipment, architectural models, stage sets, robots.
Considering the consequences
We would do well to remember the words of scholar Richard M. Weaver, however: ideas have consequences. Orson Scott Card’s characters do indeed turn their thoughts into reality, but the things they create are by no means neutral. As reflections of their creators, these created things carry moral and ethical consequences for good and for bad, shaping the plot and altering the course of many lives.
Again, are engineers any different in this regard? When engineers create artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms, or machines that can safely fly long distances, or prosthetic limbs, these things are not neutral. The physical manifestation of the thoughts of human engineers, men and women who are (1) created in the image of God and (2) fallen through sin, must surely carry with them this same complex and multi-faceted potential. Ideas do indeed have consequences.
How glad it makes me, then, to train engineering students who are not only competent in trigonometry and CAD, but also well versed in ethics, history, literature, economics, and the very word of God! Our engineering students are called to create; may they bring into reality the very best things, reflections of hearts obedient and submitted to the one true God.
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Rodney Meadth is principal of the Middle and Upper Schools and director of the Engineering Academy. He enjoys bringing innovative solutions to the world’s problems, encouraging his students to do likewise. If he’s not in his garage building the latest Engineering Academy invention, you’ll find him and his wife, and his wife, Brittany, out exploring Santa Barbara trails, bike paths, and beaches with their four sons.