En -Visualization, Modeling, and Graphics for Engineering Design

Preface

Leonardo da Vinci. You have probably learned

that he was a famous Italian artist during the

Renaissance. You may even subscribe to some of

the conspiracy theories about him that have

surfaced recently regarding secret codes and

societies. What you may not know about him is

that he was one of the very first engineers. (In

fact, many people consider him to be the first

engineer.) Some even say he was really an engineer

who sometimes sold a painting in order to

put food on the table. Artists played a prominent

role at the birth of modern-day engineering, and

some of the first artist-engineers included Francesco di

Giorgio, Georg Agricola, and Mariano Taccola. These were

the individuals who could visualize new devices that

advanced the human condition. Their creativity and their

willingness to try seemingly “crazy” ideas propelled technology

forward at a much faster pace than had occurred

in the previous thousand years.

This marriage between art and engineering has diminished

somewhat since the early beginnings of the profession;

however, creativity in engineering is still of

paramount importance. Would the Apollo

spaceship have landed on the moon without the

creative thinking of hundreds of engineers who

designed and tested the various systems necessary

for space travel? Would we be able to

instantaneously retrieve information and communicate

with one another via the World Wide

Web without the vision of the engineers and scientists

who turned a crazy idea into reality?

Would the modern-day devices that enrich 

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