Bruce E. Seely

A Historical Survey of the Structural Changes in the American System of Engineering Education

This chapter provides a historical overview of the U.S. system of engineering education from its origins in the nineteenth Century until the present. It is organized chronologically, describing the early institutional formation of the U.S. system of engineering education; the post World War II ascent of engineering science ideology; late- and post Cold War changes in engineering education. As a broad brush stroke history, this text does not attempt to be comprehensive, nor does it touch on every major historical development. Instead, the chapter adopts a more analytic view of the structural features of the U.S. system of engineering education and it transformation over time. The primary intent of the chapter is to provide background historical knowledge for the other chapters in his volume, but it also closes with several observations of broader interest.

Societal implications of nanotechnology: occupational perspectives

Nanotechnology-infused products have begun to enter the market in spite of the fact that many sectors of society are still debating whether or not exposure to such products will result in detrimental side effects. Due to a lack of regulation of nanoproducts, it is difficult to track these products to assess how they interact with humans and the environment. Acknowledging this limitation, several studies are starting to investigate situations where individuals are exposed to nanoparticles in the workplace; it is to be noted that manufacturing of materials is the first stage in the product life cycle where exposure may occur. This paper reviews and discusses the potential societal implications associated with the manufacturing of nanoparticles: health concerns, workers’ perceptions, rights, ethics, and the role of policy and regulation. Scenarios are presented, possible implications are discussed, and recommendations are given for appropriate action. Finding the right solution to the identified implications represents a critical challenge. In summary, it is imperative that all stakeholders including industry, academia, government entities, and the public adopt a proactive attitude to ensure that nanotechnology matures in a sustainable manner.

Commentary on James E. Tomayko, "software as engineering"

James Tomayko has contributed a thoughtful paper that raises a number of interesting issues about software development considered as an engineering activity. He brings to this task the perspective of a scholar who has examined the topic for a period of years, observed it from the inside, and worked to develop educational aspects of the enterprise.1 As a matter of truth in advertising, it should be understood that I am not as familiar with software development; my areas of historical research have been engineering education and the activities of engineers in transportation fields. My remarks will focus on comparing software as engineering with older, more traditional branches of engineering.

Wind Wizard: Alan G. Davenport and the Art of Wind Engineering. by Siobhan Roberts (review)

Seely reviews Wind Wizard: Alan G. Davenport and the Art of Wind Engineering by Siobhan Roberts

The state of SHOT: : Organizational capacity in a volunteer-based organization

Presidential addresses for scholarly organizations are a curious form of presentation. If there is a tradition within the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) about these events, most presidents use the occasion to suggest underdeveloped or missing dimensions in scholarship on the history of technology or to propose ways that research might be made more congruent with the wider intellectual currents of our time. Here, Seely examines the state of SHOT from the specific perspective of the societys organizational capability as a professional organization that depends on the efforts of volunteers. He discusses three points about SHOTs ability to undertake a program of interest and value to its members

Economic History as Technological History: George Rogers Taylor's The Transportation Revolution, 1815-1860

This essay reviews 1951 classic study by George Rogers Taylor, The Transportation Revolution, 1815–1860. From the perspective of more than fifty years, the book has held up very well and it continues to provide the best introduction to the development and consequences of transportation changes in the nineteenth-century United States. But Taylors work also surveyed other and larger general patterns of economic and technological development in the years before the Civil War, demonstrating the influence of currents within field of economic history during the formative years of the emerging discipline of the history of technology.

Big Promises: David Berube's Nano-Hype

In the spring of 2001, David Berube and a colleague from the University of South Carolina visited the National Science Foundation to talk to the program director for Science and Technology Studies (this reviewer) about support for projects examining the societal and ethical implications of nanotechnology. The National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI), an interagency federal program focused on nano-scale science and technology, was just getting started and nanotechnology was being identified as the “next big thing” by many in the domestic and international science, engineering, and science-policy communities. Since then, funding in the United States has exceeded

Critical Assembly: A Technical History of Los Alamos during the Oppenheimer Years, 1943-1945

1 billion annually, with similar amounts devoted to research in Europe, in Japan, and in south Asia. Berube’s NSF visit was the first step in creating a program of nanotechnology research at South Carolina that led, among other things, to Nano-Hype.1 Berube’s is an important study about a significant subject. Since the human genome project in the 1980s, large-scale science and technology research initiatives by the federal government have required attention to the ethical, legal, and social implications (ELSI) of emergent fields. NNI borrowed explicitly from the genome project in establishing such a requirement as a very visible element of its research program, in part to limit the type of resistance that surrounded recombinant DNA research and the commercialization of genetically modified organisms. Berube discusses all

Building the American Highway System: Engineers as Policy Makers

1. Introduction 2. Early research on fission, and overview: 1933-43 3. The early materials program: 1933-43 4. Setting up project Y: June 1942 to March 1943 5. Research in the first months of project Y: April to September 1943 6. Creating a wartime community: September 1943 to August 1944 7. The gun weapon: September 1943 to August 1944 8. The implosion program accelerates: September 1943 to July 1944 9. New hopes for the implosion weapon: September 1943 to July 1944 10. The nuclear properties of a fission weapon: September 1943 to July 1944 11. Uranium and plutonium: early 1943 to August 1944 12. The discovery of spontaneous fission in plutonium and the reorganisation of Los Alamos 13. Building the uranium bomb: August 1944 to July 1945 14. Exploring the plutonium implosion weapon: August 1944 to February 1945 15. Finding the implosion design: August 1944 to February 1945 16. Building the implosion gadget: March 1945 to July 1945 17. Critical assemblies and nuclear physics: August 1944 to July 1945 18. The test at Trinity: January 1944 to July 1945 19. Delivery: June 1943 to August 1945 20. The legacy of Los Alamos.

The Other Re‐engineering of Engineering Education, 1900–1965

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