What do engineers do when they (don't) do mathematics
C. Bissell (Open University, UK) and C. Dillon (Open University, UK)
The professional training of engineers includes a great deal of mathematics. Yet practising engineers often claim never to have used the majority of the mathematics they were taught. This apparent paradox is best understood within the social context of the use of mathematics. We consider examples of how engineers have developed pictorial techniques that avoid the use of complex mathematics, and enable ways of seeing and talking that draw on the graphical features of such models. In a community of engineering practice the interpretation and understanding of these visual representations are learnt, shared, and become an essential part of being an engineer.