SUMMARY OF RESEARCH RESULTS
Mathematics in the structural engineering design process
The first phases of the project were concerned with developing an overview of the design
work of engineers, progressively focusing our investigations on the particular specialism
of structural engineers.
We identified three main classifications of work for structural engineers: design, analysis
and review. The separation that the engineers made between analysis and design was
ubiquitous and striking: “When I’m analysing I’m not designing, I’m doing the
calculations that justify my design”. Furthermore, this separation is inherent in the career
path of engineers: younger engineers are apprenticed over a period of years into the
practice of engineering design, initially being given the relatively routine tasks of
analysis, and gradually being given more responsibility for design. This suggests that over
time, the mathematical profile of activities with which an individual engages tends to
become less explicit (and performed), and more tacit (and performed by other people).
Finding 1: There is a division of mathematical labour which separates
'analysis ’ from 'design ’ in structural design work. As engineers become more
experienced, their work roles shift from analysing (calculating) to designing.
Design and Analysis: Where is the mathematics?
We encountered a widespread view that the majority of experienced engineers, with their
work focussed on design, did not do mathematics of any sophistication, and that, whilst it
was important for engineers to develop an appreciation for advanced mathematics in
university, it is something they would rarely be expected to use, especially after they have
served their years of apprenticeship in analytical work.
However, we hypothesise that the belief of the engineers that few of the concepts they
regularly use are mathematical in character is due to their having become so intimately
bound up with the meanings of engineering practice. This transformation in the character
of mathematics appears to be not simply a quantitative one, a replacement of
mathematical activity by professional expertise and experience. To understand this more
deeply, our research attempted to characterise what mathematical knowledge “remained”
in design work, a crucial aspect being the “remainder” of mathematical knowledge which
allows design engineers to understand, and make use of, mathematical work that is done
by others.
Finding 2: What is consciously thought of as mathematics by engineers
appears to be only the visible component of a larger body of mathematics in
use. There is a qualitative, epistemological and cognitive restructuring of the
mathematics used by engineers as it becomes ‘embedded’ in engineering
expertise.