Qualifications of the Machine Design Teacher.—The essential qualifications of a good teacher for the machine design courses are not different from those required of any good teacher of technical subjects, and may be briefly summed up as follows: 1. He must have command of the subject, that is, he must be well grounded in theory and must have had some practical experience so that he may thoroughly understand the application of the theory to practice. 2. He must keep himself informed as to the latest theories pertaining to special problems in machine design and should keep abreast with modern tendencies in machine design. In short, he should be familiar with the literature of the subject. 3. He should have some knowledge on the economics of the subject under discussion, and impress the student with the importance of economics in connection with machine design. 4. He should be able to inspire and lead the students. 5. He must be interested in the advancement of the engineering profession and its code of ethics. 6. He must be congenial and get along well with his colleagues. Respectfully submitted, D. S. KIMBALL, F. E. FRENCH, G. F. GEBHARDT, REPORT OF COMMITTEE NO. 17-ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING. Your Committee on Electrical Engineering Education has continued during the past year its study of the effects of the war upon electrical engineering education. The concensus of opinion in the various institutions investigated throughout the country seems to indicate that the S. A. T. C. administration, although producing many temporary changes, has effected very little permanent readjustment of the curricula, or teaching methods. The large S. A. T. C. freshmen enrollment in electrical engineering has been pretty generally sustained and most institutions have a much larger freshmen class than ever before. The upper classes are in most cases below normal, but are being rapidly recruited by former students returning from military service, who seem to be more eager than before to complete their technical training. The war has given a great impetus to research work particularly in the field of electro-communication, and many more students are entering this branch of the profession than in past years. The establishment of signal corps and field artillery units of the R. O. T. C. in many of the institutions which formally had only infantry detachments, will very greatly assist in maintaining interest in the study of electro-communication. Extensive vocational training carried on by most institutions during the war has tended to emphasize the importance of practical laboratory and demonstration work in connection with electrical engineering instruction, and has tended toward further correlation of laboratory, classroom and lecture instruction. In some instances, the adoption of more technical training, involving concentric methods of instruction in the freshmen and sophomore years of electrical engineering courses, has resulted. In short, it is believed that instructional work during the war has in many instances, opened our eyes to possibilities of improvement in our regular technical courses, but has not materially altered fundamental pedagogical principles, nor the subject matter of the curricula. REPORT OF COMMITTEE NO. 18-MINING Thus far the Mining Engineering Committee has confined its investigation and study to the subject of laboratories for undergraduate students. The committee first attempted to ascertain the prevailing practices in American mining schools in the use of laboratories for the instruction and training of undergraduate students. The results of this investigation were reported to the society in 1917. The following conclusions and recommendations are now respectfully submitted for consideration: 1. Mining Laboratories.-The nature of the equipment must vary with different localities, but as far as possible should be standardized and designed to instruct students in the principles of drilling, breaking ground and supporting excavations. Experimental work with explosives should in general be of a demonstrative character conducted by an instructor of practical experience with small sections of the class at a time, say three or four students in a section. 2. Assay laboratories should be designed to teach principles of assaying and sampling rather than endeavor to reproduce commercial assay laboratories. Speed and routine analysis work should be discussed rather than practiced. 3. Ore dressing laboratories should be laid out with standard small size machinery. Emphasis should be placed on the individual machine rather than an attempt made to connect up a series of machines to imitate the flow sheet of some particular commercial mill. Commercial methods and flow sheets should be discussed in connection with the study of principles on the individual machines. It is the opinion of this committee that: 1. The above-mentioned laboratories, equipped substantially 1 as suggested, are essential for the efficient instruction of mining engineering students. 2. The study of metallurgy does not appear to lend itself readily to laboratory practice above that which is afforded in the assay and general chemical laboratories. 3. In nearly every laboratory practice the normal physical, chemical and mechanical actions of small scale operations and small size machinery are consistent with the actions of commercial scale machines and operations. Notable exceptions to this rule are rock drills in mining laboratories and drop stamps in ore dressing. The investigation of questions of curricula and pedagogic methods seems desirable as the immediate future activity of the committee. F. W. SPERR, Chairman. |