''Engineering and the Mind's Eye'' (1992) is a book by

Eugene S. Ferguson Eugene Shallcross Ferguson (January 24, 1916 – March 21, 2004) was an American engineer, historian of technology and professor of history at the University of Delaware, particularly known for his 1992 work '' Engineering and the Mind's Eye.'' ...

, an

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

and historian of science and technology. It was published by

MIT Press The MIT Press is a university press affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts (United States). It was established in 1962. History The MIT Press traces its origins back to 1926 when MIT publ ...

. In it, Ferguson discusses the importance of the

mind's eye A mental image is an experience that, on most occasions, significantly resembles the experience of 'perceiving' some object, event, or scene, but occurs when the relevant object, event, or scene is not actually present to the senses. There are ...

for the practicing engineer, including

spatial visualization Spatial visualization ability or visual-spatial ability is the ability to mentally manipulate 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional figures. It is typically measured with simple cognitive tests and is predictive of user performance with some kinds of ...

and

visual thinking Visual thinking, also called visual or spatial learning or picture thinking, is the phenomenon of thinking through visual processing. Visual thinking has been described as seeing words as a series of pictures. It is common in approximately 60� ...

. A major argument of the book is summarized as follows in the preface: The book comprises 7 chapters and two additional sections on notes about the text and its figures. The chapters are: #The Nature of Engineering Design #The Mind's Eye #Origins of Modern Engineering #The Tools of Visualization #The Development and Dissemination of Engineering Knowledge #The Making of an Engineer #The Gap between Promise and Performance.

References

External links

Eugene Shallcross Ferguson papers
at

Hagley Museum and Library The Hagley Museum and Library is a nonprofit educational institution in unincorporated New Castle County, Delaware, near Wilmington. Covering more than along the banks of the Brandywine Creek, the museum and grounds include the first du Po ...

1992 non-fiction books Engineering books Science books {{engineering-book-stub