Since last September, I have been spending seven hours a day, with joyful research on the history of women in electrical engineering five days a week. So far I have revealed the names of more than 200 women who contributed to electrical engineering, the first step in a final book project. no disrespect Ada Loveless, Grace hopperOr Catherine JohnsonBut there are many other women in engineering about which you should know.
I’m doing my research Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering and TechnologyIn Canus City, Mo., and I am currently working through unpublished papers American Electrical Engineers Institute (An predecessor of today’s IEEE). These letters include conference presentations and main speeches which were not included in the magazines of the society. They take about 14 shelves in a closed pile in the Linda Hall. Most of the material is unavailable on the Internet or elsewhere. No amount that gives gogling or indication will reveal this history. The only way to find it is the person to go to the library and leaf through papers. It resembles historical research. This time is intensive and cannot be easily replaced by AI (at least not yet).
By April 2, my research was funded through one Fellowship with National settlement for humanitiesMy fellowship was going on through June, but the grant was Finished early, Perhaps you do not care about my research, but I am not alone. Almost all the NEH grants were cut likewise, as there were thousands of research grants from National Science Foundation, National Institute of Health, Institute of Museum and Library Services and Arts from National Endowment. Strict research cuts have also been cut or expected in departments of defense, energy, commerce and education. I was walking.
It resembles historical research.
There is a lot of resentment all around, but as a historian as an engineer, who now studies the engineers of the past, I have a special petition: Engineers and computer scientists, please protect humanities research as loudly as you can defend research in STEM areas. Why? Because if you take a moment to reflect your training, conduct and professional identity, you may realize that you give most of it for humanities.
Historians can show how the past has shaped your profession; Philosophers can help you think through social implications of your technical options; Artists can inspire you to design beautiful products; Literature can offer ideas about communicating. And, as I have discovered combing through those unpublished letters, it turns out that the 20th -century Begon engineers recognized this strong bond for humanities.
Historical relationship of engineering for humanities
Given, humanities have a few thousand years on engineering when it comes to formal studies. Plato and Aristotle were mainly in philosophy, even when they were talking about science-Y items. Formal technical education in the United States did not start until the establishment American military academyIn the West Point, NY, in 1802. What is now two decades has now come now Ranseseller polytechnic instituteDedicated to “Vigyan application for general objectives of life”, the first school in the English-speaking world established to teach Renseseller Engineering-in this case, Civil Engineering.
Electrical engineering, my graduate field of study, was actually not going as an academic discipline until the end of the 19th century. Nevertheless, most of the electrical training took the form of technical training.
During the 20th century a consistent trend is an engineer, the high level of concern on it.
In addition to looking at unpublished letters, I am paging through the entire run of magazines from AIEE, Institute of radio engineersAnd IEEE. And so I have a good understanding of profession’s development. A consistent, yet stunning, during the 20th century, the trend is a high level of concern on what to be an engineer. Who are we really?
Initially, the electrical engineers looked at the medical and legal fields to create professional societies, and codes of morality. He debated the difference between training for a technician vs. an engineer. They were worried about being very high brain, but their hands are also seen in the machine shop as dirty. During the Great Depression and other time of economic recession, there was a long discussion on the event in the unions.
To strengthen their position as legitimate professionals, engineers decided to make the matter that they were engineers, civilization’s caston. An adventure claim, and I do not have the necessary disagree, but what is interesting is that he connected engineering firmly with humanities. To be an engineer, he argued, to accept responsibility for the full weight of human values that reduce every engineering problem. And to be a responsible member of the society, an engineer needed formal training in humanities, so that he (and it was always that was) could find himself, identify his place within the community, and act accordingly.
Thomas L. Martin, Junior, Dean of Engineering at the University of Arizona supported this engineering course, in which humanities were responsible for 24 out of 89. Anne
What should be an engineering education
What does it mean in practice here. In 1909, no one else Charles Protius Steinmetz Advocating to include Classics in engineering educationAn education focused on empirical science and engineering was also “responsible for making man a one -sided.” Actually, he said, “This neglect of classics is one of the most serious mistakes of modern education.”
In the 1930s, William WikendenCase Western Reserve University, President of Case School of Applied Science, wrote Impressive report on engineering educationIn which he argued that at least one-fifth of the engineering course should be dedicated to the study of humanities and social science.
The study of humanities within engineering seemed even more pressured within the Engineering, after the start of the Second World War and the deployment of the II World War and the Atomic Bomb, the onset of the Cold War and the entering the Vietnam War.
In 1961, CR Well, a professor at Duke University, “culturally semi -graduate engineering, which may be immediately useful in engineering activity, but unable to apply fundamental physical concepts to solve problems faced by new techniques that emerged.” In his opinion, incorporating an entire year of humanities coursework will stimulate the beauty, moral, intellectual and spiritual development of the engineer. Thus ready, future engineers “will be able to recognize the sociological consequences of their technical achievements and feel a real concern for great dilemmas that face mankind.”
In a similar vein, Thomas L. of Engineering at Arizona University. Martin, Junior proposed an engineering course, in which humanities and social sciences were responsible for 24 of the 89 credits.
Many engineers of that era thought that it was their duty to stand for their beliefs.
Engineers in the industry also had an opinion on humanities. James Young, an engineer with General Electric, argued that engineers “needs awareness about” social forces, humanities and their relationship for their professional fields, if he is to detect the potential impact or areas of conflict. ” He urged the engineers to participate in the society, whether it was in the affairs of the neighborhood or the nation. “As an educated person,” the engineer has more than a casual or average responsibility to protect the integrity of this nation and the legacy of morality, “Young believed.
Actually, many engineers of that era thought that it was his duty to stand for their beliefs. “Can engineering students ignore the existence of moral issues?” In a 1962 paper, UCLA professors D. Rosanthal, AB Rosenstein and M. Asked the tribus. “We should answer, ‘he cannot do’; at least if we live in a democratic society.”
Of course, here in the United States, we still live in a democratic society, a constitutionally speech, protects the freedom of the assembly, and petitions the government for redressal of complaints. And yet, strongly, I have seen that today engineers are more mitted than others to engage in public discourse or opposition.
Will it change? Since the Egyptian era, American universities have rely on the federal funds of research, but in the last few weeks and months, that relationship has been increased. I wonder whether today’s engineers will take a Q from their predecessors and decide to take a stand. Or perhaps the industry will select renewal in fundamental and long -term R&D in the 20th century. Or maybe private foundation and billionaire philanthropists will move.
No one can say what will happen next, but I would like to think that it will be one of the times when the past is proposed. And so I will repeat my petition to my engineering colleagues: Please do not make my back on humanities. Embrace the moral center that your professional predispositions believed that all engineers should promote their career. Stand for both engineering and humanities. They are not separate and separate enterprises. They are beautifully entangled and depended on each other. Both need to flourish the civilization. Both are required for better tomorrow.
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