Princeton University - Bric A Brac Yearbook (Princeton, NJ)

Page 31 text:

Professor C. D. Perkins, Chairman, De- partment of Aeronautical Engineering Professors H. M. Chandler, Jr., W. C. Johnson, Chair- mang C. H. Willis, Department of Electrical Engineering Professor W. M. Angas, Chairman, De- partment of Civil Engineering Professors A. E. Sorenson, E. W. Suppiger, C. P. Kittredge, W. E. Reaser, Department of Mechanical Engineering that develops the capacity of the individual to extend himself in his Held of endeavor. In professional education, the criterion of value is not what the graduate knows Five minutes after his graduation, but what he has become in fifteen years. Dugald C. Jackson once said: . . . lt is the business of the engineering schools to produce, not Hnished engineers, but young men with a great capacity for becoming engineers. The goal training in thought processes actually means education in the engineering way of thinking. A defif nition of the engineering method of thinking, which has been defined by many educators, includes two key conf cepts-the ability to think directly toward an answer and the ability to think in terms of specific things. Briefly, it is nonfabstract reasoning -toward a definite conclusion. To think as an engineer, a person must irst know enough about a problem to see what is relevant. Then he must be able to use his general knowledge to set up the -problem so that it can be solved. Third, he must have the proficiency in Ending solutions. And, hnally, he must be able to relate his solution to the practical conditions that exist in the 'business or industrial world. It is this ability to think clearly and objectively in a logical, orderly manner that gives meaning and value to an engineering education. That this value is recognized more and more is evidenced by the positions of great responsibility in government and business, as well as in the field of technology, which are occupied by men with an engineering education.

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Professor H'. Menaild, Jr., Department of Mechanical Engineering ENGINEERING By Howard Menand, Jr., AB., M.B.A. Assistant to the Dean of the School of Engineering In order to determine properly the value of an engineer' ing education, it is necessary to define the role of an engineer in our society. Basically, an engineer utilizes natural resources and human resources for the heneit of mankind. The engineers education must he designed, therefore, to enable 'him to ill this role. Such a function requires, obviously, a broad training. The engineer must understand and he ahle to apply the laws of natural science. He must he completely familiar with all materials-in liquid, gaseous, or solid form-in order to design structures and products and have them function properly. And, to accomplish this, he must work with and through people-that is, he must he ahle to handle people, These responsilhilities result in an educaf tional program, onefthird to the field of engineering and onefthird is reserved for the use hy the student in electing courses in the humanities and social sciences. Since engineering is a profession, in addition to prof viding the young man with a halanced education, his undergraduate schooling is planned to enahle him to achieve proficiency in his future occupation. Professional education is the training of the mind as a preparation for mastery of a field. It is education, not vocational training, Professors J. C. Elgin, Chairmang E. F. Johnson, Jr., Department of Chemical Engineering Professors P. Kissam, Department of Civil .Engineeringg F. 'A. Heacock, Chairman, Department of Graphics and Engineering Drawingg G. P. Tschebotarioff, Department of Cwll Engineering

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MILITARY SCIENCES By Benjamin Scott Custer, Ph.D., U.S.N., Professor of Naval Science The Military Sciences are Johnniesfcomeflately to the Princeton campus, but despite this disadvantage the ROTC faculty tries to make up with energy and enthusif asm what it may lack of the Princeton heritage. The aim is to furnish moderately well qualined junior oflicers to the Armed Forces. The atmosphere of Nassau Hall, however, is liberal, and as the mission is military, somewhere between the poles of humanistic teaching and military training must be found a satisfactory plane on which to anchor studies in Military Sciences. Princeton, to be sure, has prided itself for generations on its record of developing civilian leaders in every area of government, business and scholarship, but it is now our job to lay the ground work for extending Princeton's leadership to that high plane of service offered in the career officers corps of the Armed Forces, The under' graduate must be challenged with the possibilities of a service career while he is drilled and taught to be a competent junior officer who, upon graduation, will be ready to perform his duties effectively in competi-tion with the TradefSchool graduates and his fellows from other universities and colleges. Perhaps by steering a fair course between the i'winds of the humanities and the wshoals of engineering we can better qualify future graduates in the technical skills of warfare so that they may inflict more damage on the enemy while suffering fewer wounds than their va-lorous, but militia trained, Princeton predef cessors of earlier wars. Many college undergraduates today are looking for the area of minimum required military service while the staffs of the Military Sciences are, not unlike other faculty members, looking for the maximum syllabus hours in which to provide optimum training for the development of quali-Hed junior officers. To reconcile the conflicting demands of the University, the student, and the Pentagon while carrying on effective training demands considerable flexibility and an uunmilitaryu willingness to accommodate on the part of the 'Itechniciansftinkersfandftradefschoolf boys who make up -the faculty of the Military Sciences. It is perhaps unfortunate for the overall popularity of the courses offered in 'these departments that infantry drill is a required credit during laboratory periods. No person and no nation has ever popularized this form of mass exercise: footfsoldiers were grumbling about it long before the VALERIA VICTRIX, Rome's last British legion, left England to fight in Gaul, and footfsoldiers have been grumbling everywhere ever since. Infantry drill was not introduced, nor is it offered, at Princeton, as a means of hazing the individual, but rather as the one economical and effective means of training each member of the RCTC to submerge his will and harmonize it with the group under the direction of the leader. Captain B. S. Custer, U. S. N., Professor of Naval Science Colonel A. J. Ball, Jr., U. S. A. F Professor of Air Science Colonel B. Thielen, U. S. A., Professor of Military Science