Lecture 2: Nick's Response

More about the lectures

Get more background on the lectures; listen to recordings and read the transcripts on the BBC Radio 4 Reith Lectures site.

In the forum

You've heard the lectures. You've seen what our experts have to say. But what do you think? It's time for you to join the debate.

Our experts' views

'Is there a technology that we would only regard as good?'
Joyce Fortune

'What are we aiming for - what is a "better life"?'
Derek Matravers

'Does the imperative for wealth creation inspire technological creativity?'
Nick Braithwaite

'Is advanced technology the only place to be?'
Tom Hewitt

Nick's response to the second lecture of the 2005 series of Reith lectures

The Engineer as Problem Solver. In 2002 we chose this as the title of a second level Open University engineering course that covered a wide range of technical topics including structures, dynamics, energy, endurance and human factors. In it we recognize the importance of creating from a team of individual specialists a ‘machine for creating engineering solutions’. Effective, interdisciplinary communication is essential. The most important element for innovative technology, yet the hardest thing to teach, is creativity.

Broers makes some important observations on how creativity has been fostered of late. First, the importance of co-operative work within teams is seen as the hallmark of today’s advances. Second, he notes that your team must be working at the forefront, inspired by the latest findings and spurred on by the most immediate needs. Third, he suggests that when innovation is given free rein the long-term consequences are virtually unimaginable.

Less clear are the roles of commercial and political incentive. Does the imperative for wealth creation inspire technological creativity? When does the framework we have for patents and intellectual property obstruct and when does it promote ingenuity. Does a drive for military supremacy ever hijack the creative sparks? Managing innovation is a worthy pursuit for industry and for governments, but it may mean doing less, rather than more.

In helping our engineering students to become problem solvers we encourage them metaphorically to pick up the problem and turn it over in their fingers and to reflect again and again about the need that led to the posing of the problem in the first place. In fact we suggest that what technologists should do is not so much to solve problems as to dream up, or create solutions. It takes a good deal of faith to leave time and space for creativity to give birth to the next generation of the unimaginable.

Content last updated: 11/04/2005

About Nick

Nicholas Braithwaite joined the OU in 1987 as a lecturer in the Technology Faculty. He has worked on several engineering courses, specialising in the subjects close to electronics and materials engineering. His research interests concern the technological applications of electrically conducting, gaseous plasmas. In 2004, as professor in Engineering Physics, he moved across to the Science Faculty where he has a research group investigating Plasma Physics.