Columbia University School of Engineering - Yearbook (New York, NY)

Page 24 text:

The 1934 COLUMBIA ENGINEER very wide field over which these branches range leads readily to the admission of the wisdom of choosing a very dehnite portion of the work and confining our efforts thereto. The era in which we are now living has been called the age of specialization, and concomitant with the appellation comes the accusation that it is tending to standardize our lives-to pattern after one mold a mosaic in which the individual is lost. Yet in the execution of a great engineering project we can have no general practitioner responsible for the whole: on the contrary, we need experts for each portion of the work. However, the line of demarcation between the various branches of engineering is not so sharply dehned that we may with security lay out the boundaries of each and place dennitely a given piece of work in its proper sphere. It follows that we must all have a knowledge of the branches allied to our chosen one, that we may see its relation to the whole and be able to estimate or at least allow for the effect of the other fields upon our own. The very inten- siveness of specialization tends to minimize the importance and preclude any con- sideration of these other branches. Entirely aside from these aspects comes the question of the possibility of the leading of the good life -a state of being which includes the liberal. cultural side of life as well as the prosaic technical. Unfortunately there exists no yard- stick with which we can measure the value of a liberal education-no gage by which to evaluate the returns to us of efforts expended along these Lines. A student is very apt to chafe at the requirements of an engineering school which demands apparent unessentials such as languages, literature, history, economics, and the like, if, indeed, he does not forsake the school entirely in favor of one applying itself more directly, as he considers it, to his interest. This again is in line with the idea of specialization, the application of one's whole self to a predetermined occupation to the exclusion of other worth-while though not directly applicable interests. Since his student days comprise the molding period of the engineer, it is- then that he has his best opportunity of laying the founda- tions of a well rounded out life and that school best serves the student which gives him the chance to make the most of his opportunity. The student merging into the engineer is next likely to carry with him the influences of hi-s formative period, and if now he should decide to specialize along a certain line, these influences may combat the tendency toward the abnegation of the good life which is inherent in the very quality of specialization. It would appear then that specialization tends to make one move in rather a narrow groove. Certainly the benefits accruing to the individual are not as apparent as those recurring to society as a whole as a result of his efforts. And yet there is something admirable in his splendid isolation. He lives, as it were, in a world of his own making, the essentials of a difficult, involved mental task now clearly lambent to him in the rehections of a flame kindled by his own efforts. To be a master of one thing worth while, to possess the ability to do that thing better than anyone else, to live with it constantly and further it along until it results in another boon to mankind-these are values of no mean order of magnitude. Wfhether we wish to specialize along any line is a question each of us must decide for himself, undoubtedly circumstances, opportunities, and abilities play a large part in the determination of our destinies, yet withal the will to do also becomes a powerful force when combined with the industry to support the will. ' H. F. S. Tzwuiy-tlzree

Page 23 text:

The 1934 COLUMBIA ENGINEER The 1934 Qiulumhia Qingimzer PROFESSOR THOMAS I-I. PIARRINGTON H07Z0l'G7'j' Ealifor IIENRY F. SIEGER E0 fl'O7'-1.7L-ClI'f6f :XRTI-I UR I. GLOSTER ilfanagiazg Editor THOMAS C. HANA Bzrsivicss Manager RICI-I.XRD O. A. PETERSEN C'l.7'ClllU-lfI07'l Manager JUNIOR BOARD COLUIUBIA ENGINEER STAFF :lOI1X H, BOSE Bose 1605311 BURLEIGH BOYD Petersen Harrifigfou SIABQFI' Hana SIDNEY ROSEN hitnrial ASPECTS OF SPECIALIZATION IN ENGINEERING NGESTION WITHOUT DIGESTIUX means congestion in the field of ideas. To rela- tively few of us is accorded that divine gift of a mental digestive system which can assimilate the varied though not unrelated to such a degree as to cause the fortunate possessor to be reckoned an authority whose opinion is sought and respected. The demands for exhaustive knowledge in the many branches which the profession of engineering embraces might well tax gargantuan men- talitiesg it becomes, therefore. necessary for us to place a limit upon the activities which we can undertake and upon which we can hope to exert our sphere of inliuence. The advantages of such limitations from the viewpoint of society are mani- fold. We owe many of the advances made in the various fields of human endeavor to men who have clone specialized intensive work along a certain definite line. Thus, we cannot safely design a structure such as the Empire State Building piercing the sky, as it does, a distance of nearly a quarter-mile, without adequate knowledge of the stresses occurring in a building of such a height. which knowledge is not likely to emanate from one who has not devoted considerable time and thought to methods of analysis of stresses. XN7e cannot erect it at all without specialized advice on methods of construction for which no precedent exists. Nor can we safely devise a foundation without encountering new problems de- manding solution. Certainly the whole project. from conception to completion, calls into play the results of the efforts of many men along many lines. So it is with all the work which may properly be classed as engineering work,-civil, mechanical, mining, electrical. chemical and industrial-and a recognition of the Twenty-fwo

Page 25 text:

SECOND YEAR CLASS