Is "Engineer personality type" a folk term for Asp

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Engineering is a field that relies heavily on mathematical and practical evaluation and relies very little on social skills, and therefore would be an attractive option for someone with aspergers or other form of autism.

As for their children, since the parent (the engineer) is more likely to be on the spectrum, and is more likely to know someone on the spectrum than someone in another field, they may more aware of it and be better able to see the signs of it in their child. This would mean that even if children of engineers being on the spectrum is the same as those in other occupations, the rate of an engineer's child on the spectrum being on the spectrum actually getting diagnosed may be higher than children who's parents are in other fields.

Just a theory I thought of on the spot, though.

That is an interesting point.
My mother actually somewhat suspected herself to be autistic during her young years seeing parallels to autism, but that was in times when the stereotype of "only - and really only - classic autism is autism" was more than common, hence she disregarded it as a stupid thought.
Only after the suspicion was rised in me she got a whole new perspective on that. So I guess, if not for the stereotypes/lack of knowledge on that topic, I surely would have been diagnosed earlier as well. Things changed nowadays, so I assume your post could definitely be true as not just the overall awareness increased, but also more diagnosis are given and those who were diagnosed or suspect it in themselves and read up on it, might as well recognize it faster in their child(ren).
It somehow reminds me of the "There are actually as many autistic women as autistic men, just the women (due to the "social structure") tend to hide it better"-statement. It might be very true as well when investing some more thoughts into it.

Many of us make decent innovators, actually. It's not that we're particularly creative; it's just that we don't really follow social conventions, and that includes not thinking in the way that other people think when they solve problems. Thinking of a new solution comes naturally to us even though, on average, we're no more creative than anyone else.

And I should remind you folks that "lack of creativity/lack of pretend play", while it is an autistic trait, is probably the single most disputed trait, and the one that so many autistics lack that some professionals consider the idea of autistics as lacking creativity to be a dead-end in research--that, in fact, the apparent lack of creativity is more a function of a diminished ability to participate in cooperative activities and a diminished desire to communicate ideas to others.

Yes it is. There are many short-hand references in culture that can mean "Aspie".

"He is a software developer, you know how they are".

I have an "extreme systemizing brain" according to the test, but that's only because my EQ is very low.

The only reason my SQ side appear "stronger" and more pronounced is simply because my EQ side is very low in comparison.

I know there are aspies who have genuinely high SQ, while having low EQ, but then again you can have normal EQ and high SQ (essentially a technic-smart NT), also a "systemizing brain", but which would be much more qualified as an engineer than me.

I can easily believe that most Engineers have a high SQ yes. I just don't believe that having a high SQ fits in any way with the diagnositic criteria for aspergers/autism.

Take the following diagnostic criterion: "apparently inflexible adherence to specific, nonfunctional routines or rituals".
Surely a lover of systems would not stick rigidly to an arbitrary routine, especially a "non-functional" one.
They would think about it, experiment a lot, and find the optimum.

And another..."encompassing preoccupation with one or more stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest that is abnormal either in intensity or focus".
A lover of systems would be interested in patterns/structure of data rather than the data itself. For example, a systematically minded historian would see fundamental parallels between different broad areas of history, rather than e.g. knowing everything there is to know about Ancient Greece.

Highly systematic, scientific thinkers notoriously tend to be INTJ. As @LoveNotHate pointed out on the last page, one of the characteristics is big picture thinking. As I'm sure you all know, AS is associated with exactly the opposite.

Not that I am saying SBC is wrong. Or that you are wrong @Callista in saying that people with AS are often very innovative thinkers. I am saying that there is a mismatch between these theories and the diagnostic criteria. Maybe the criteria are out of date, and need sorting out.

I agree with a lot of the previous posters, engineering requires skills that plays into a lot of people with AS' strengths. Visual perception, attention to detail, logical reasoning, diligence...all of these are assets in the world of engineering. Of course there's always exceptions.

It's interesting that engineers tend to have higher rates in their families, a lot of it could be socio-cultural as well as biology. Since there's no single "cause" of Autism Spectrums, it's probably a combination of different factors.

I'm very good at inventing and macguyvering things, but I dropped out of comp. sci. because it was BORING BORING BORING!! ! I have very little interest in engineering.

My strengths are in writing, visual art, musicianship. I'm also highly autistic.