But the jump from the creator of the Great Western Railway to the fictional inventor and his (excellent) plasticine dog (right) who make rockets in their potting shed is to be made by educationalist and writer Sir Christopher Frayling.

Dubbed by The Guardian as "evangelist for design, enthusiast for cinema,"  he is delivering the latest University of Dundee’s popular Saturday Evening Lecture series held at University’s Dalhousie Building on April 24th.
 
‘From Brunel to Wallace and Gromit - The changing public image of the engineer’, is an illustrated talk which will see (left) Sir Christopher, who is renowned for his study of popular culture,  examine the shifting public image and popular stereotypes of engineers.
 
Starting with the "missionary" image of the I930s, the lecture will move to discuss the "boffin" in the Second World War, the "teacher of the world" in the 1950s, and ‘Q’ in the James Bond franchise, before concluding with Wallace and Gromit. 

The question being asked is whether this kind of stereotyping really matters and what can be done to redress it?
 
“I’m taking a light-hearted approach to the subject, but there’s a serious message behind it,” he said.  “There is a negative image of engineers in the modern world, which may stop people considering engineering as a career.  It would be disastrous if we faced a serious shortage of skilled, inventive engineers, as these are the people we rely on to make things, drive change, create jobs and bring about improvements.
 
“If you look at the Victorian age, engineers were seen as heroes.  Men like Brunel and Stevenson were revered, but those who have followed haven’t found a way of putting themselves across in the 21st century in a way that is so effective.
 
“In those times, everyone could see the positive impact on their own lives, but these days engineers and scientists are seen as remote and elitist eccentrics who create strange little gadgets rather than working on grand schemes that benefit everyone.
 
“When I was visiting a school I asked all the pupils to draw a scientist.  Almost every one drew a man with glasses and a lab rat, very much fitting the mad scientist stereotype.  This was despite the science teacher being female and in no way resembling that stereotype.

“Why have scientists, engineers and manufacturing people earned a reputation that doesn’t tally with reality?  People are absorbing these negative images from somewhere, and I believe it’s from film and other popular culture,” says Sir Christopher.

Identities lost in the team approach?
ComputeScotland did a fast check on Google images, which does bear this out. Scientists do suffer the mad & gray putdown, with fairly few female scientists pictured. But engineering is actually positive, lots of teams of people, women included. Now manufacturers is probably the strangest, out of 14 graphics, only four carry people and certainly no individuals.

There seem to be two questions that raise their heads.  Look for the designer of Concorde or the Hawker Harrier and you will run into teams of engineers, but no single names. Is this to slide out of a negative image or because engineering design has become a group contributory creation?

Also, if you are to hunt for say a French bridge builder of repute, no problem:  the Millau Viaduct and its creator's name, Michel Virlogeux, causes no negative image. Or take German engineer Albrecht Graf von Goertz, who designed two legendary cars, the BMW 503 and BMW 507!

Could it be that it is only in the English speaking world that the engineer's image is in need of polish?

Image under an authority's microscope
Sir Christopher is Rector of the Royal College of Art and a trustee of the Victoria and Albert Museum.  Author of the 'Mad, Bad and Dangerous?  The Scientist and the Cinema’, his book examines the uneasy relationship with science and technology in film, where scientists are almost always impossibly mad or impossibly saintly, and where technology is nearly always very bad for you.
Shrunk would agree!(right)
 
He has critiqued subjects ranging from vampires to westerns, written and presented several television series on a wide variety of subjects, and conducted a series of radio and television interviews with figures from the world of film, including Woody Allen, Deborah Kerr, Ken Adam, Francis Ford Coppola and Clint Eastwood.

It should be an intriguing, even inspirational event.