The Third of Three Women

Several weeks ago, HBO broadcast “Temple Grandin” - - the story of Temple Grandin, Ph.D., a gifted animal scientist that has designed one-third of all the livestock –handling facilities in the United States. Dr. Grandin is an Associate Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University and had “classic autism” right from the start. Like many autistic thinkers, she thinks in terms of pictures. Her book, Thinking in Pictures: My Life with Autism (2006), documents her unique ability to visualize problems and their solutions. The following passages highlight a key point that engineers should remember - - creativity has much to do with experience, observation, and imagination.

I credit my visualization abilities with helping me understand the animals I work with. Early in my career I used a camera to help give me the animals’ perspective as they walked through a chute for their veterinary treatment. I would kneel down and take pictures through the chute from the cow’s eye level. Using the photos, I was able to figure out which things scared the cattle, such as shadows and bright spots of sunlight. Back then I used black-and-white film, because twenty years ago scientists believed that cattle lacked color vision. Today, research has shown that cattle can see colors, but the photos provided the unique advantage of seeing the world through a cow’s viewpoint. They helped me figure out why the animals refused to go in one chute but willingly walked through another.

Now, in my work, before I attempted construction, I test-run the equipment in my imagination. I visualize my designs being used in every possible situation, with different sizes and breeds of cattle in different weather conditions. Doing this enables me to correct mistakes prior to construction. Today, everyone is excited about the new virtual reality computer systems in which the user wears special goggles and is fully immersed in video game action. To me, these systems are like crude cartoons. My imagination works like the computer graphics programs that created the lifelike dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. When I do an equipment simulation in my imagination or work on an engineering problem, it is like seeing it on a videotape in my mind. I can view it from any angle, placing myself above or below the equipment and rotating it at the same time. I don’t need a fancy graphics program that can produce three-dimensional design simulations. I can do it better and faster in my head.

I create new images all the time by taking many little parts of images I have in the video library in my imagination and piecing them together. I have video memories of every item I’ve ever worked with - - steel gates, fences, latches, concrete walls, and so forth. To create new designs, I retrieve bits and pieces for my memory and combine them into a new whole. My design ability keeps improving as I add more visual images to my library. I add video-like images form either actual experiences or translations of written information into pictures. I can visualize the operation of such things as squeeze chutes, truck loading ramps, and all different types of livestock equipment. The more I actually work with cattle and operate equipment, the stronger my visual memories become.