Armour Institute of Technology - Cycle Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

Page 30 text:

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING Melville B. Wells Both the faculty and the students of the Civil Engineering Department realize now, more fully than at first, the great loss that they sustained in the death last year of Doctor Alfred E. Phillips, for many years the head of the department. However, those upon whom the responsibility for the guidance and development of this branch of our school now rests have had the advantage of long association with him, know his plans and his ideals, and they arc following these as closely as possible. No changes have been made in the subjects taught or in the time given to them. Changes have been made in the faculty, however, and in the assignment of subjects. The transfer of Professor H. T. Heald to the Dean’s Office has reduced his teaching time so that he now has but one class in Strength of Materials each semester. Two new instructors have been engaged. Assistant Professor Harold A. Vagtborg is teaching Highway, Water Supply, and Sani- tary Engineering, also Contracts in Engineer- ing. Professor Vagtborg is a graduate of the University of Illinois. He is now a member of the firm of Allen and Vagtborg, Municipal Iinginecrs. The good work that he is doing as a teacher is appreciated by everyone in the department. The Structural work for the students in Architecture, that has been done by the Civil Engineering faculty, is now in the hands of one instructor who gives all of his time to it. Assistant Professor Sholto M. Spears is doing this work very satisfactorily. His problem is to find a way to adjust the requirements of Structural Design to the specal methods used by the Architects in most of their other studies, and he is meeting with success in the solution. Professor Spears has been en- gaged in structural work since his graduation in Civil Engineering at the University of Kentucky in 1922. There has been no change in the subjects of the courses offered in the Aeronautical Option of the Civil Engineering Department, but the content of the courses is being changed each year to keep up with the rapid advances in the science of Aeronautics that results from the research and study that is going on. Each member of the faculty recognizes the fact that similar, though less rapid changes arc going on in the other branches of en- gineering included in the curriculum. Each man is endeavoring to have some part in these changes and to improve his work both in the material taught and in the method of teaching. Twenty-six

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DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING During the past year, the electrical depart- ment inaugurated a comprehensive rehabili- tation program. This program has been par- tially completed and includes the more effi- cient use of available space, the painting and decorating of all laboratories, lecture rooms and offices, the installation of modern light- ing the repair of motors, generators, meters and auxiliary equipment. The motor-generator set, received from the General Electric Company, for the study of wave form, has been completely installed with switching and control equipment so that variable single or three phase wave-forms may be studied. A systematic method of detailed supervi- sion of all equipment and meters has been adopted. Daily records of all damaged equip- ment arc maintained so that responsibility may be established and the apparatus may be repaired and replaced in service with mini- mum delay. The electrical department office, formerly in the same room as the advanced electrical measurement laboratory, was moved to an- Erncst . Freeman other room, increasing the space available for the junior laboratory. This provided space for the permanent connection of many pieces of standard equipment involving com- plicated circuits so that the student may de- vote more time to the major problems of the experiment and less time in making compli- cated connections. It also provided required space for the development of experiments in electronics, necessitated by the modern de- velopments in this field. The plan of arranging the program so that the laboratories may be used in the morning as well as in the afternoon has proven very satisfactory and has reduced the conflict in regard to the use of meters and equipment to a minimum. Display cases have been arranged in which interesting electrical equipment and instru- ments which are seldom used and others rep- resenting various stages of development of the art, are displayed. The increase in confidence in the equip- ment, the pleasure in working under the im- proved conditions, have resulted in a general improvement in morale and a decided in- crease in the efficiency of the students and the department as a whole. Tu (Iily-fit e

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DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING The Department of Chemical Engineering commenced to plan better methods of in- struction and better facilities for instruction in the spring of 1931. These plans included the attendance of three of our teachers of chemical engineering at the summer school for chemical engineering given jointly by the Society for the Promotion of Engineering • Education and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers at the University of Michigan. Professors Schommer and Bentley and Mr. Martin attended the entire three weeks of the conference, while Professor McCormack attended only the last two days of the con- ference. During this time various questions concerned with the training of chemical en- gineers and the preparation for future em- ployment were discussed. Representatives from sixty colleges and universities were present. Some topic connected with chemical en- gineering instruction was presented each day by a teacher presumably best qualified to pre- sent this particular topic. The paper was then discussed by those in attendance. This procedure led to an exchange of ideas impos- sible to secure in any other way and, un- Harry McCormack doubtcdly, will mean much in the unification and advancement of chemical engineering education. Several of the laboratories devoted to chemistry and chemical engineering were re- modeled during the summer and early fall. The laboratories receiving particular atten- tion were those devoted to electrochemistry, physical chemistry and chemical engineering unit processes. A considerable addition to the floor space available in laboratories was provided, en- abling such expansion to be made as would take care of our needs for the next few years. The changes possible in the chemical en- gineering unit process laboratory were par- ticularly desirable, as the equipment used in these courses was crowded in so closely that space was not available for satisfactory operation of the equipment by the students. This handicap has now been overcome and we believe that our laboratory facilities to date arc as satisfactory for these courses as any which may be found. Accompanying the remodeling of the laboratories was the revision of the laboratory instruction given to the junior and senior students in chemical engineering, this revision taking account of the increased facilities for accomplishing the work and of recent devel- opments in engineering theory and practice. T unity-sere n