Emotional Engineering

Chris Byrne

doi:10.24908/ijesjp.v2i2.5105

Abstract

I want to talk about emotions. Well, I don’t really want to. Frankly, not having to deal with emotions was one of the attributes of engineering that attracted me to this field of study. I liked keeping interactions on an intellectual level. Answers to Math and Physics homework sets were cut and dried and the odd numbered ones could be found in the back of the book. There was security in knowing the right answer. However, despite the promise of clarity, even as an engineer, I found questions finding their way in, or their way out, questions that were rooted in my emotional landscape. Is this all there is? What do I want my life to be about? How am I making the world a better place by the work that I do? These weren’t academic questions for me; they were soul searching questions that challenged the core of my identity. Could I be an engineer and be whole, whatever that might mean? I’m proud of the work I have done to become an engineer, but there is something missing.

Highlights

In my meandering relationship with my emotions, I have come to believe that emotions are not just a bug in the program that need to be controlled, but the unacknowledged feature that holds the critical key to our work towards social justice
It hurts us because we aren’t acknowledging our whole selves. It hurts our quest for social justice and peace because we certainly can’t acknowledge the whole planet if we don’t even know ourselves
The ESJP conferences are where I feel most connected to the emotional dimensions of an engineering community, aligned to the pursuit of social justice

Summary

Introduction

I’m proud of the work I have done to become an engineer, but there is something missing. The emotional tumult was still there, but with different questions. We need to embrace the emotional aspect of our engineering lives. The level on which our profession of engineering operates is one which de facto denies emotions.

Results

Conclusion