Abstract :
Engineers normally become engineers because they like designing things and then making them work successfully. It takes some time before they realise that 20-35% of their working time involves calculating. A conversational computing system, working as it does on a step-by-step basis with its input/output units conveniently placed in boardrooms, offices or laboratoriesand costing no more than a manager or good engineer (say £2000-3000 per annum), permitsthe construction and manipulation of mathematical models in a manner not previously possible. Thus the engineer is now able to obtain a much deeper understanding of the interrelationship between variables, and designs can be optimised.
