DEAN HUGHES DESCRIBES ENGINEERING EDUCATION

Engineering Sciences as a field of concentration are discussed in the following article written especially for the Crimson by Dean Hector James Hughes '94 of the Engineering School. This article is the fifth of a series which the Crimson is publishing to supplement a pamphlet on she choice of a field of concentration which was published in 1922. Dean Hughes in this article discusses particularly the courses which a student in the College who intends to take up engineering after graduation should take.

The undergraduate who plans to follow a scientific career, such as engineering in one of its many fields, will be well advised to prepare himself while in college for the studies of the engineering school. By wise planning, and without interfering with the attainment of a liberal education, he can thus avoid the unnecessary and irksome prolongation of professional studies beyond the age when he should begin the practical part of his career. It is desirable to continue the study of mathematics through the calculus, to take a course in general physics, one in chemistry, and in some cases a course in geology, or in biology. He should learn to draw; and he may to advantage begin the study of mathematics. The preparation that he needs rarely amounts to more than five or six courses, consisting of subjects that may well be included in any well-rounded plan for a general education, whatever one's lifework is to be; and the number of these subjects is so small as to permit the student to concentrate in any field that may interest him.

Engineering Requires Wide Knowledge

Engineering is after all but the application of science to a multitude of activities, such as: the gathering of minerals, oils, coal and other natural products, and preparing them for use; the production of light, heat and power from fuels and falling water; electric communication; the manufacture of chemicals, engines, machines and innumerable commodities; railway, highway and water transportation; and the construction and operation of numerous works for the public safety and welfare. These enterprises require many kinds of talent in a great variety of duties, such as the planner, the builder, the inventor, the scientific investigator and the executive, requiring a knowledge of men and things as well as a training in science.

The education of the engineer should then include a mastery of certain scientific principles, a training to develop the power to reason in terms of such knowledge in its application to practical conditions, practice in expressing his ideas clearly in drawing, in writing and in speech. He should have a broad general education, and an open mind.

Undergraduate Courses Are Important

The undergraduate should realize that his early courses in physics and mathematics in college are as important to the future engineering student as a course in turbine or bridge design in an engineering school. He is inclined to look upon the study of mathematics, physics, or chemistry as something abstract, a kind of preliminary warming up for the real job which is to come later in the professional school. And this conception is not infrequently due to his elders who prate about "pure" science and "applied" science. It seems to him a far cry from the simple steam-engine and the dynamo of his first course in physics, to a fifty thousand kilowatt turbo-generator. Although some of his courses may be labelled "physics" and others "engineering", they are all parts of some field of science.

Student Should Have Avocations

Although it is desirable that the college undergraduate should lay a sound foundation of mathematics and science for his subsequent engineering studies, it is quite as important that he acquire a knowledge of men and of things outside his chosen professional field. While he has the opportunity, he should cultivate an interest in and an appreciation of, some field of human activity, such as art or literature that will serve as a recreation from the daily work of his profession or business. Such avocations will not only enrich his life, and enlarge his points of human contact, but they often also help to develop a frame of mind which may make him more successful in his professional work.

Preparatory Courses Few

The undergraduate in Harvard College who intends later to study engineering is limited in his choice of concentration chiefly by his own wishes; because the preparatory courses that he needs are relatively so few that they can be included in any reasonable plan for concentration and distribution. He should by all means concentrate in the field that most interests him; and because his life work is to be in science it would seem wise for him to choose a field that is not in the direct line of preparation for his lifework, such as arts, letters, history or philosophy. If he has no sufficiently keen interest outside of science, it would in general be better to utilize his concentration to prepare for his professional studies which he can do in a variety of ways. He can then use his other courses to widen his mental outlook.

A group of courses which emphasize the fundamental principles of certain parts of mathematics and physics are given in the College by professors of engineering under the title of "Engineering Sciences". They consist of drawing, descriptive geometry, mechanics, and an elementary treatment of the physics of metals. The undergraduate who concentrates in engineering sciences, must take four specified courses in this field, Mathematics 2, and another related subject, usually Physics C. He will also need Chemistry A or B. He will then be prepared for the courses in mechanical engineering. For electrical engineering he will need in addition Physics 3a and 3b. For civil engineering he will need Geology 4 in addition to his concentration; and for mining engineering Geology 4 and 5, and Mineralogy 2. Concentration in Physics is equally good for future work in electrical engineering; in some respects better.

For mining engineering concentration in Geology has certain advantages. Concentration in Chemistry is the logical choice for the future study of industrial chemistry or chemical engineering, sanitary chemistry or metallurgy. And undergraduates intending to study sanitary engineering should add zoology and botany to the preparation for civil engineering. In general the preparatory studies will amount to about a third of the requirements for a college degree, and they can be combined with non-scientific courses in a thoroughly well-rounded course of study.