The Art of Thermodynamics - Literally

A recent ASME Article reinforced ideas I have had about the connection between creativity and engineering. The article talks about Dr. Diana Bairaktarova, a professor at Virginia Tech, has recently published a paper, "Thermodynamics in High Rhythms and Rhymes: Creative Ways of Knowing in Engineering." Growing up in Bulgaria, her first love was sketching, however there was no art school in the area where she lived. So she chose mechanical engineering as a way to draw.

In a recent Thermodynamics class at Virginia Tech, she had the students do a special project where they were to create something involving a thermodynamic principle using an artistic medium such as a picture, poem, song, movie, comic strip, anything of their choosing. Though many of the students were clearly out of their comfort zone, the data on which her paper is based showed that the students did better in the area that they did their creative project.

Dr. Bairaktarova also discovered that the assignment created an environment in the classroom of "trust and risk taking that is not always the case in an engineering class." There is a national movement in education to use less "lecture-based" learning and incorporate more creative aspects. This is certainly a move in that direction. One of the classic books on how to draw is "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain." I can see someday in the near future a textbook titled, "Thermodynamics on the Right Side of the Brain." It might very well become a best seller for its innovative approach to learning. - Dr. Tom

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