i
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1958
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
PAGE THREE
Planning Bridges
MECHANICAL BRAINS:
Engineers Learn Computer Techniques
PLASTER, NO SHORTENING:
Giant Birthday Cake To Tour Centennial
-Daily-Betsy Smith
CIVIL ENGINEERING-As part of its curriculum, the civil en-
gineering department offers instruction in bridge building and
sewage control, as well as the more conventional road-building
and planning.
Dean Emmons Emphasizes
Interaction of Departments
By ARLENE LISS
Emphasizing the flexibility in
the structural composition of the
college degree program, Assistant
Dean Walter J. Emmons of the
College of Engineering'has de-
scribed the means in which the
various engineering fields are in-
terrelated.
In the college, he explained, de-
partments do not sponsor a stud-
ent for a degree but rather twelve
degree programs have been initiat-
ed which outline graduation re-
quirements and provide for a
counseling service at the same
time.
.* * *
THE SUCCESSFUL operation of
a single program is placed in the
hands of a department head whose
main responsibility is to set up
required courses and correlate
them with the degree programs.
Although there are only 7
departments these twelve degree
programs provide an element of
flexibility, Dean Emmons stated.
New programs can be added
when the necessity arises, he
went on.
Dean Emmons also pointed to
the fact of prospective engineers
enrolled in the school' of gaining
knowledge in other fields beside
their own speciality.
* s *
"IT IS NOT at all unusual for
a boy who graduates in one field
to later go into another," the Dean
said. This is possible because of
a wide scope of background ma-
terial he has mastered, Dean Em-
mons added.
Incoming engineering students
are required to take the same
subjects but after the first
year the student comes under
the guidance of the degree pro-
gram and thus begins to vary
his course.
However, a new program begun
in the fall makes it possible for
exceptional students to proceed
at their own pace since there are
now no fixed amount of points re-
quired for graduation.
Degree programs offered are:
aeronautical, chemical, metalurgi-
cal, materials, civil, electrical,
mechanical, industrial, navaland
marine engineering ,,and mathe-
matics and physics, Dean Emmons
concluded.
Research Costs
The Engineering Research In-
stitut spent $8,370,780 for re-
search activities during the fiscal
year 1952.
This represents an increase of
almost 30 per cent over the total
outlays on sponsored research done
by the Institute in 1951.
Much of the increased expendi-
tures can be accounted for by the
growing governmental and in-
dustrial outlays for engineering
research.
By JO DECKER
Engineering achievements re-
lying heavily cvi mathematics have
often been curdiled in the past
because of the time consumed in.
mathematical computation.
With the invention of so-called
"mechanical brains," analog and
digital computers, this time ele-
ment has been solved. The field
now requires trained operators for
the machines.
* * .
IN ORDER to meet the de-
mands of the new field of compu-
tation, several courses in mathe-
matics and engineering on the
graduate and undergraduate lev-
els are being offered by the en-
gineering college for the second
year. They contain lab work in
setting up problems for the ma-
chines, instruction in the theory
and principles of operation and
courses in design.
All computers used at the Uni-
versity have been designed by
men connected with the staff.
Two general types of computers
have been developed. The digital
computer will solve any mathe-
matical problem with no inherent
accuracy limitations, performing
one arithmetic operation at a
time. It is able to retain an an-
swer in its "memory," pick it up
and use it in a later operation.
OPERATIONS in digital com-
putation center around the huge
MIDAC (Michigan Digital Auto-
matic Computer) located at Wil-
low Run Research Center. It will
solve problems some 20,000 times
as fast as a professional, mathe-
matician using a desk calculator.
Designed andbuilt at the Center,
MIDAC is used generally by the
University, though some govern-
ment problems are solved with it.
A second digital computer
developed at Willow Run is
highly classified but reportedly
considerable faster than MIDAC.
It was designed to solve a spec-
ific air defense problem.
Analog computation works in an
essentially different way. The en-
tire problem is solved simultan-
eously in different parts of the
computer. For this reason, it is a
much faster device, less expensive
to design and easier to set up
problems.
COMPUTERS will solve all
mathematical. problems. If what
one plans to do can be put into
equations and set up on the ma-
chine, the problem will be solved.
Anything from the riding quality
of an automobile under certain
road or weather conditions to an
atomic pile reaction can be de-
termined.
Government research uses
them in studying the behavior
of guided missiles and aircraft
structures, since it has been
found more practical to place
craft under fire on a computer
than to sink a million dollar
ship .in experimentation.
Operation of a single machine
requires from 20 to 50 mathema-
ticians. This means that nearly.
10,000 persons are needed to at-
tend the computers already in
use. The demand for trained
operators is constantly growing.
The training of people for these
jobs is therefore becoming an in-
tegral part of the University cur-
riculum.
COMPUTER RESE
MALE-DOMINATED:
Engineering
Enrollment oy
Set-off from the rest of the
campus in three buildings along
E. University St, 16 coeds each
day attend the male-dominated
engineering classes.
Assistant Dean of the engineer-
ing college Walter J. Emmons
noted that few women are in-
terested in engineering because
"they aren't brough up with the
field. Boys grow up building
erector set projects while girls
play with their dolls."
A practicing engineer must
work out in the field, too, he ex-
plained, "and we wouldn't expect'
to see a woman working in the
Detroit River tunnel."
Dean Emmons pointed out
that consequently women en-
Engineer's Income
During 1952 more than 90 per
cent of the practicing engineers
in the United States were earn-
ing more than $5,600 a year.
Since the outbreak of the Kor-
ean War the average beginning
salaries for engineers have soared
to approximately $330 per month.
A breakdown of the engineers'
income reveals that:
1. 90 per cent earned more
Following the visitors on their
Centennial round of activities will
be a giant-sized birthday cake.
Composed of wire net, clothes-
line, plaster and pipe, the cake has
been under construction since Au-
gust.
WITH a permanent home in the
automotive laboratory of the me-
chanical engineering department,
the cake will be transported via
trailor to the various meeting
places of the celebration. It will
be moved from place to place on
a flat-topped trailor.
Constructed of a wood and
wire mesh net base, the cake it-
self is composed of plaster of
Paris. "We had to hire a plaster-
er to do it," one of its custodians
in the lab said. "Apparently the -
University doesn't have one on
its staff."
The eight foot in diameter con-
struction will be topped with lead
pipe candles two "feet high. Re-
sembling large firecrackers in ap-
pearance, the "candles" have for
wicks lengths of clothesline.
BIRTHDAY CAKE
ARCH IN ACTION
DESIGNED to foster the birth-
day idea, the cake will make
scheduled appearances at Hill Au-
ditorium, the Union, the Rackham
College Cites Building, League, Union and pos-
sibly the new N'orth Campus.
According to Centennial 6chair-
f 16 Coeds man Prof. Stephen S. Attwood
-_ _ _ _ _ of the engineering college, the
purpose of the Centennial cele-
gineers usually g into drafting, bration is to "evaluate and draw
design or chemical research, on experience from the past."
where they are -.ot hindered b Out of that, he said, the college
physical make-up. hoped to "form plans' for the
"And women work well in lab- future as far-seeing and as ef-
oratories since they are usually fective as possible."
neat by inherent traits," he noted. Also, Prof. Attwood pointed out,
"Women are accustomed to pay- the celebration was designed to
ing attention to detail, stimulate alumni interest in' the
T r n p n-work of the college past, present
there are plenty of opportuni- and future.
ties in all phases of engineering,
according to Dean Emmons,
"although freedom of choice of
the nature of work is restricted.'
Concerning classes in the best wishes
engineering college, one coed
said "I have never had any
trouble getting along with
either professors or men in my -
classes."
"Fellows are just like big heartiest bi
brothers, always willing to help
you out with any manual work in MICHIGA
the labs," she explained, and Iia e' f
have never come across a profes- a g 46at L40
sor who resents girls in his classes.
Since the classroom is more in-
formal in engineering school, the A NT1 T A -D1
coed noted, "a girl m ust build upa c m - h t ay a ti u e
a 'come-what-may' attitude.
"Of course, I like to hear a joke
just as well as the next one, but
you learn to take them with a
look of unconcern," she said.
II
;.....
:;,
.::
,.
t
V 1 .
'"
ti
V.
a
:'iti
v . 1
J.
Xl,
t ~
,{L
:? "
iE ,
; :
i
1'
:iti=
: i.
v,.'".
1Z .
iii:
}i.':
y ,.
{
~ti
;
'YY
COGRATULATlONS'
to the
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
ENGINEERING SCHOOL
on its
CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION
COOK FLOORS
3434 PONTIAC ROAD
ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN
. - *1 *
.l
etsy Smith~
f'tt
II
II
Ii
(ii
)n your birthday...
genuine sincerity that iwe extend our
est wishes to the UNIVERSITY OF
N SCHOOL of ENGINEERING -
neer in the engineering field.
)R FOUNDRY COMPANI
1 327 JONES DRIVE
ANN ARBOR
i
than $5,600.
2. ,75 per cent
than $6,640.
3. 50 per cent
than $8,350.
4. 25 per cent
than $11,500.
5. 10 per cent
than $17,500.
earned more
earned more
earned more
earned more
Shocking
These figures have been releas-
ed recently by the National So-
ciety of Professional Engineers
who questioned 13,000 men in the
profession concerning their earn-
ing capacities.
7853
0 . "
r
-
CONGRESS
STEEL PRODUCTS
COMPANY
Wishes the Engineering School
of the University of Michigan
another 100 years of prosperity
JOISTS * TRUSSES . BEAMS
CRANEWAYS
FACTORY SERVICE
One hundred years is a long time for any
institution to endure. The University of
Michigan School of Engineering has not
only endured for
succeeded in att
a century,
but it has
aining and holding
a
high position of leadership in
academic
and research
engineering.
I
I
CONGRATULATIONS
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
ENGINEERING SCHOOL
I.
...1953
0
I1
I
GENERAL ELECTRICAL SHOP
!I
11
I
I
11
fl
it
II