Engineering Education and the Social Sciences: A Criticism
D URING the last war the people of this country asked the engineer to bring about a miracle. Production of the vast quantity of war materials to specification was this miracle. The engineer was adequate for this specific task. But can society rely upon him for intelligent and similar useful service in the future? The training that the engineering student receives in our technical colleges provides a partial answer to this question. From the point of view of a friendly critic it is doubtful if his studies in engineering curriculums give him the basic training essential for the performance of necessary social services. In certain respects his present training would seem to a social scientist to be at fault. In the average engineering college the amount of money that has to be spent and the amount of time consumed on the teaching of applied sciences make it almost impossible for the student to study the most fundamental ideas and problems of the humanities or the social sciences. The emphasis put upon professional attainments in the engineering curriculum is both necessary and exclusive in character. The engineer is taught to use the forces of nature in the service of society. His present academic training teaches him a great deal about the services and very little about the society. Preparation of the young engineer is professionally excellent. Very few engineering graduates install or manage bad light plants or leaky sewers. Thousands of them carry on research in such fields as industrial development, quality control, and the design of new and useful machinery. The engineer differs in his collegiate training from the student of physical sciences in the amount of time he is asked to give to applied mechanical studies and design. His curriculum includes such basic sciences as chemistry, physics, and mathematics. Here his course parallels that of the scientist. It differs most in the study of the applied sciences such as stress, design of materials, and applied mechanics. Recently he has added to these, studies of cost accounting and management processes. Throughout his college career he is held to high standards of professional attainment. The professional engineering societies and the engineering faculties in co-operation are able to produce engineers who compare favorably in the quality of their professional training with graduates of medical or law schools. The ethical standards of