Critical Thinking in the Engineering Curriculum

Engineering Critical Thinking.

The main goal of the Viterbi School of Engineering is to produce engineers who have a solid foundation of applicable knowledge in math and science with a general understanding on how the world works. This in mind, there is not much an engineer can do in the way of critical thinking. There is absolutely no leeway in math and science, as the facts are facts. There is no getting around the minute details. Thus, on the smallest of levels, there is no critical thinking in engineering.
Taking a step back however, critical thinking can be seen nearly everywhere in the field of engineering. With mechanical engineers trying to build cars or civil engineers trying to build bridges, how do you think any improvements were made over the last century? Critical thinking. Change in the field of engineering only happens when someone says "Wait, that can't be right. This would make it work so much more efficiently." When questioning the design of the product itself, critical thinking is what fuels technoloigical change. Thus, without critical thinking, engineering would be a dead field; everyone would be able to do it.
Critical thinking is always good as it facilitates for change. In the early stages of engineering, with such a regimented set of prerequistes, critical thinking is hard to come by. As of now, there seems to be as much critical thinking as possible. If there isn't, more critical thinking is always good.