bill@videovax.UUCP (02/20/87)
In article <2143@pur-phy.UUCP> piner@pur-phy.UUCP (Richard Piner) writes:
->Well, I'll toss in my two cents worth two. My cousin's husband is
->getting ready to retire from his post as a plant engineer. He is a
->Purdue grad. He has, of course, interviewed a number of recent Purdue
->grads as replacements. He is not happy with the results. He needs
->a person that understands motors, three phase juice, and high power systems.
->Twenty years ago he would have found lots of graduates to fill the bill,
->but now it is almost impossible. Finding someone with basic electrical
->engineering skills is almost impossible. In our rush to "high tech"
->we are forgetting the fundamentals. While things might be written down
->in some text book somewhere, that is not the same as practical
->experience. Text books don't make factories run. Our system is on
->very shaky ground. When the post-world war two engineers all retire,
->the US will have a very hard time replacing them. Our schools no
->longer have the people to teach "bread & butter" engineering to young
->people. While the knowledge is not lost in the academic sense, it
->is not in the hands of enough people to meet practical economic needs.
->So we are in a pinch. If all our engineering grads are schooled in new
->sexy technologies, we will come to a time when we can build great
->computers, but there won't be any power plants to provide the
->electricity. On the other hand, if we change course, and start
->teaching basic engineering skills needed by more mundane applications,
->we will have a short fall in people needed to advance technology.
->Clearly, we just plain need both. Which means more engineering grads.
->Which means a bigger University system. Which means more support.
->Which means higher taxes. Which means we are in deep trouble.
There is still some hope left in the world.
When I was an EE student at Oregon State University (1980-1985),
all EE students were required to take a class called "Electromechanical
Energy Conversion (EE331)," which taught us all about motors and
transformers and things (with an emphasis on 3-phase systems). And it wasn't
just book learning, this class had a lab in which we hooked up huge AC and DC
motors and generators using cables that could jumpstart a diesel locomotive.
I learned a lot in that class, and it is still required by OSU's EE department,
as far as I know. As a matter of interest, my first EE job (during my
last year of school [when I was 21]) was at a paper mill designing
process control systems using 480 VAC 3-PHASE MOTORS. Now, I don't want to
sound like I'm preaching from a soapbox, but the point I am making is that
there are still a lot of EE students learning basic engineering skills.
It is unfortunate that this is not the case everywhere, and we may indeed have
a shortage of qualified people. But if you're willing to look, they're out
there.
BTW, the definition of "basic engineering skills" seems to vary considerably
from person to person. A couple of years ago I ran into an old-timer who
was appalled that I didn't know how to bend conduit and didn't know the
properties of reinforced concrete, which were both required of all engineering
students when he went to school in the 1930's!
And, yes, I have designed and built circuits using vacuum tubes!
--
Bill McFadden Tektronix, Inc. P.O. Box 500 MS 58-639 Beaverton, OR 97077
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