Since last September, I spent seven hours a day, five days a week in searching happily on the history of women in Electrical engineering. The names of more than 200 women have been discovered so far that contributed to electrical engineering, which is the first step in a final book project. No respect for Ada Lovelaceand Grace HopperOr Catherine JohnsonBut there are many others Women in engineering You should know about it.
I do my research procedure in Linda Hall Library for Science, Engineering and TechnologyIn Kansas City, Mo, and I am currently working through unpublished papers from The American Institute of Electric Engineers (IEEE predecessor today). These papers consist of conference shows and headlines that have not been included in society magazines. They take about 14 shelves in closed chimneys in Linda Hall. Most content is not available online or anywhere else. You will not reveal any Googling or Chatgpt on this date. The only way to discover it is to go to the library personally and paper through the leaves. This is what history’s research looks like. It is time for intensity and cannot be easily replaced by artificial intelligence (at least not yet).
Until April 2, my research was funded by fellowship with National Endowment for Humanities. My fellowship was supposed to continue until mid -June, but the grant was Ended early. You may not care about my research, but I am not alone. Almost all NEH grants, as well as thousands of research grants, were reduced from the National Science Corporation, National Health Institutes, the Museum and Libraries Services Institute, and the National Arts Power of Arts. Radical or expected research discounts were also made in the defense, energy, trade and education departments. I can continue.
This is what history’s research looks like.
There was a lot of anger everywhere, but as an engineer turned into a historian who is now studying the past engineers, I have a special appeal: Engineers and computer scientists, please defend humanities research aloud as much as you may defend research in STEM. Why? Because if you take a moment to think about your training, behavior and your career, you may realize that you owe a lot of this.
Historians can explain how the past formed your profession; Philosophers can help you think through the social effects of your technical options; Artists can inspire you to design beautiful products; Literature can offer ideas on how to communicate. As I discovered while combing these unpublished papers, it turned out that internal engineers in the twentieth century confessed to this strong bond of human science.
Historical relations of engineering with man
It was granted, that humanity has a few thousand years in engineering when it comes to official study. Plato and Aristotle were mainly in philosophy, even when they were talking about science things. Official technical education in the United States did not start until the foundation American Military Academyin West PointNew York, in 1802. It came two decades after what is now RNSSELAER Polytechnic Institute. I have dedicated to “Application of Science on Common Bowers for Life”, Rensselaer was the first school in the English-speaking world that was established to teach engineering-in this case, civil engineering.
Electrical Engineering, my university studies field, has not actually spent an academic specialization until the late nineteenth century. Even so, most of the electrical training took the form of artistic industrial disciple.
One of the trends that are consistent throughout the twentieth century is the high level of anxiety about what it means to be an engineer.
In addition to looking at the unpublished papers, I nominated throughout the range of magazines from Aieeand Radio Engineers InstituteAnd IEEE. So I have a good feeling of the development of the profession. One of the closed trends, amazing, throughout the twentieth century is the high level of anxiety about what it means to be an engineer. Who are we exactly?
Early, electrical engineers looked at the medical and legal fields to know how to organize and form professional societies and create ethics. Discuss the difference between training for a technician for an engineer. They are concerned that they are very high thinking, but they also look at him as mocking their hands in the machine store. During the great recession and other times of economic recession, there were long discussions about the organization in the unions.
To support their status as legal professionals, the engineers decided to prove that they, the engineers, are the cornerstone of the civilization. A bold demand, and I do not necessarily differ, but the interesting thing is that they have linked engineering firmly to human sciences. They argued that they are engineers, aiming to accept responsibility for the full weight of human values that lie behind every engineering problem. In order to be a responsible member of the community, the engineer needs official training in the humanities, so that he can discover himself (and he was always) discovering his place within society, and he behaves accordingly.
I supported Thomas l. Martin Junior, Dean of Engineering at the University of Arizona, this engineering curriculum, where the humanities have formed 24 of 89 credit hours. Aiee
What should be engineering education
Here is what this means in practice. In 1909, nothing but Charles Bruce Steinmetz Invite Classic in engineering education. The education that also focused on experimental sciences and engineering was “vulnerable to making a man unilaterally.” In fact, he claimed that “this neglect of classics is one of the errors of modern education.”
In the thirties of the twentieth century, William WikindenHead of the Faculty of Applied Sciences at the University of Kis Western Reserve, Books An influential report on engineering educationIn which he said that at least five engineering curricula should be allocated to the study of humanities and social sciences.
After the Second World War and the deployment of the atomic bomb, the beginning of the Cold War, and the American entry into the Vietnam War, the study of humanities inside engineering seemed more urgent.
In 1961, CR Vail, a professor at Duke University, made the “semi -cultural engineering graduates who … they could be immediately beneficial in routine engineering activity, but they were unable to creatively apply basic physical concepts to solve problems imposed by new emerging technologies.” In his opinion, the inclusion of a full year of international human science courses would stimulate aesthetic, moral, intellectual and spiritual growth for the engineer. Thus, future engineers are able to “realize the social consequences of their technological achievements and a sense of real anxiety towards the great dilemmas facing humanity.”
In a similar context, Thomas suggested to. Martin Junior, Dean of Engineering at the University of Arizona, an engineering approach in which humanities and social sciences formed 24 of the 89 credit hours.
Many engineers in that era believed that it was their duty to defend their beliefs.
Industry engineers also had opinions on humanities. James Young, an engineer with General Electric, argued that engineers need “awareness of social forces, humanities, and their relationship to his professional field, if he is sure of the areas of influence or potential conflict.” He urged the engineers to participate in society, whether in the affairs of the neighborhood or the nation. As an educated man, “the engineer bears” more than informal or average responsibility to protect the heritage of this nation for integrity and morals, “Young believes.
In fact, many engineers of that era thought it was their duty to defend their beliefs. “Can the engineering student ignore the existence of an ethical issue?” He asked Ucla D. Rosenthal, Ab Rosenstein and M. Tribus in the 1962 paper.
Of course, here in the United States, we are still living in a democratic society, which constitutionally protects the freedoms of speech, gathering and seams government to compensate for grievances. However, I noticed that today’s engineers are more conservative than others to engage in public discourse or protest.
Will this change? Since Eisenhower, American universities have relied on federal funding for research, but in the past few weeks and months, this relationship has been raised. I wonder if today’s engineers will take a braid from their ancestors and decide to take a position. Or may the industry choose to re -invest in basic and long research and development in the way they are used to the twentieth century. Or maybe private institutions and warriors will go up.
No one can say what will happen next, but I would like to think this will be one of those times when the past is an introduction. So I will repeat my call to my engineering colleagues: Please do not turn your back on the humanities. Eat the moral center that your professional ancestors believe that all engineers should be promoted throughout their career. Defending both engineering and human science. They are not separate and separate institutions. They are beautifully intertwined and depend on each other. Both are necessary for civilization to flourish. Both are required for a better tomorrow.
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