Education for the functional divisions of engineering

Abstract

The functional divisions of engineering are considered to be those functional divisions found within the highly organized industrial organizations, — namely, research, design, supervision (of physical plant and of physical and chemical processes), management (of labor and business features) and engineering sales. To provide a background for the discussion of the proposed reorganization of the engineering courses along these functional lines, the features of the existing engineering courses are first presented and briefly discussed. It is pointed out that the existing courses, while intended to provide a broad foundation for engineering work in general, are each intended to provide a more thorough and specific foundation for work in some one of the industrial divisions of the engineering field. The grounds for selection between the existing engineering courses are then discussed. The question is discussed as to whether the student and his counselors would not be required to consider and to choose between the more basic types of engineering if each major engineering course were laid out to provide the best foundation for one of the functional divisions of the engineering field. The general features of the proposed functional courses are discussed and contrasted with those of the existing courses. The need for more than one type of treatment of many of the subjects is presented and the conclusion is drawn that the distinctive general feature of the functional engineering courses should be the separate provision for the needs of men of superior aptitude and for those of moderate aptitude by profoundly technical and moderately technical treatments of the different branches of science, particularly of the mathematics and physics of the first two years. The distinctive features of each of the functional engineering courses and the conditions of transfer from one to the other are discussed. The merits and possibilities of a method of determining the student's aptitude for the work in an engineering college before enrolling him in the college, by requiring him to report before the opening of the school year for a month of work and counsel with mature educators, are pointed out. The closing discussion relates to the relative parts played by survey courses and by profoundly technical courses in the development of clear, trustworthy breadth of vision.