The importance of ignorance in engineering research
July 15, 2026
When Dr. Evan Main contacted Dr. Gary Bowlin, chair of the Herff College of Engineering’s Department of Biomedical Engineering, he didn’t know the first thing about engineering. With an undergraduate degree in physics, Main considered himself a long shot to be accepted into Bowlin’s graduate program.
Luckily for Main, who now holds a PhD in biomedical engineering, Bowlin accepted him with open arms.
“I hadn’t taken a biology class since freshman year of high school,” Main said. “But I had never heard of tissue engineering or regenerative medicine, and I was enthralled by it. I reached out and said, ‘I know I may not have the background you’re looking for, but are you looking for a PhD student?’” He told me to come on and took a chance on me.”
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What Main didn’t know at the time is that his ignorance was his greatest strength. Bowlin calls it the “importance of stupidity.”
“Engineers are learners, because what are we doing? We’re tackling problems that haven’t been solved yet. There’s no answer. We have to muddle through it and figure out a solution the best we can,” Bowlin said.
A student without preconceived concepts and an open mind has more room to learn and Bowlin admits that, as an instructor, he’s often learning right alongside his students.
“I like to tell my students why I’m here. I’m here to watch you fail,” Bowlin said. “Because if we’re not failing, we’re not doing something right. We’re not doing something that’s unknown, creative and moving life forward. I want to see you failing. And that’s a problem with this generation of students. They’ve never failed.”
Bowlin said real learning begins when he lets students loose in a lab with a societal problem that has no answer.
“You need to stress that early in the curriculum and allow them to do that. Give them open-ended questions. If we give them a complete, unknown, open question that nobody has an answer to, what will they do? How will they tackle it? It’s not about answers. It’s about the approach,” Bowlin said.
Of course, for intelligent people who are unaccustomed to facing problems they can’t immediately solve, continuous failure can be frustrating and discouraging. Bowlin said understanding that feeling of inadequacy is key.
“It really shuts us down,” Bowlin said. “It can be a driving force at a low level of ignorance and stupidity. But it could be debilitating if it gets too much for a person. As engineers, we have to be aware of what we’re getting into and find a way to maintain that level.”
When that feeling becomes overwhelming, Bowlin said a good way of dealing with it is to put the problem to the side and wait for inspiration.
“I get approached to solve problems all the time and I don’t have an instant answer. It needs to go into my head and do whatever it’s doing in my brain for whatever period of time. I’ll think about it. I’ll come back and forth to it and then I’ll be trying to fall asleep, or I’ll be driving to my office and all of a sudden, an idea comes. Try this. What do you think about this? And that starts the process,” Bowlin said.
Though people in the field may not realize it, engineering is very much a creative art. It’s a field that requires free thinkers and the ability to create something beautiful out of nothing.
“Life, in general, everything we see and do is our toolbox, going in there to solve these problems. Our education is part of that as well. But I think the life aspect is more important because that brings empathy in, as well, in understanding the problem and trying to solve the problem the best we can,” Bowlin said.
But even when that problem is “solved,” that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s complete. Part of the creative process, according to Bowlin, is returning to a project with fresh eyes and new ideas to see how it can be improved.
“I need to come back to it eventually and say, ‘What can I do? How can I improve this?’ As a person, I’m always learning. As engineers, we’re always working. I may learn something from someone tomorrow that convinces me I need to go back to that project and try it. Just see what this new idea may bring to solving the problem,” Bowlin said.
So, if you find yourself in a lab feeling like you don’t understand the problem, that’s okay. Just know that you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be to begin the process of finding a solution.
“As engineers, we should always approach problem-solving with a beginner’s mindset, with curiosity, not certainty,” Bowlin said. “Overall, invention and problem-solving are a balance between knowledge and naivete. Thus, tackle the challenges you face as engineers with curiosity, naivete, continuous learning, persistence, empathy and the courage to be different. Do that and you will leave a lasting impact.”