Thayer School

As this is written, Thayer School is beginning to reassemble after a summer of varied activity and by the time this appears in print the new school year will be well under way. One of the changes involved in the transition into our new engineering program is the placing of the summer session before fifth year instead of before senior year where it has been for several years. To accomplish this change, the summer session was omitted this year.

One of the activities which have been carried on within our own walls this summer has been intensive work in reshaping the basic curriculum offerings. Specifically, Professor of Civil Engineering Russ Stearns '38 and Professor of Mechanical Engineering Ed Sherrard have been working on the sophomore courses, Engineering Science 3 and 4, Introduction to Engineering Analysis and Fundamental Concepts and Relations; Professor of Electrical Engineering Al Wood and Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering Al Heckbert have been working on the two semester junior and senior year sequence, Engineering Science 12 and 51, Introduction to Circuits and Elements of Electrical Control; and Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Charlie Reynolds has been developing the senior course, Engineering Science 41, Science of Materials, which will replace the Properties of Metals course for all students.

Professor of Civil Engineering Ed Brown '35 and Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering Carl Long have made Hanover their headquarters for a survey of the sewage and waste disposal conditions in the Dover-Portsmouth area in southeastern New Hampshire.

At this writing, Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering Hunt Curtis is at Frobisher Bay, Baffinland, re-establishing the observation station there for the "whistler" research program which Thayer School is conducting with National Science Foundation funds as one of the International Geophysical Year activities. When in Hanover, Curt devotes part of his time to tracking Russian satellites under a contract with Air Force Cambridge Research Center. During the summer, Coleman "Butch" Colla EE'59 has been working both on this project and on the whistler research work here.

Professor of Electrical Engineering MillettMorgan has continued his research activities here throughout the summer with time out for a trip, accompanied by wife Eleanor, to Moscow to attend a meeting of CSAGX, the special committee for the IGY, concerned with radio physics, the ionosphere and related topics. This was one of a series of meetings on various scientific disciplines which were held in Moscow under IGY sanction during the summer. On the return trip, the Morgans visited scientific centers in Sweden, Norway and Denmark.

Professor of Engineering and Management George Taylor conducted his third annual two-week summer Conference for the Analysis of Spending Decisions at the School in late June and early July. Tuck School's Professor of Finance Jack Griswold worked with Professor Taylor in this highly successful project. One manufacturing vice-president expressed the enthusiasm of the group by writing in part, "I feel that Mr. Taylor's method of presenting a subject was more than just teaching The business men of today have had very few opportunities to have a man who is so very well versed instruct them."

Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering Jim Browning DC'44 took his homework for next year on a seven-week Navy ROTC cruise on the aircraft carrier USS Intrepid. Ports of call were Lisbon, Oslo and Rotterdam and the ship participated in NATO maneuvers off Ireland. Jim has returned to full-time teaching this vear, though continuing as President of the Thermal Dynamics Corporation which he founded in Hanover a few years ago. He will also represent the associated schools on the Great Issues Steering Committee.

Merle Thorpe ME'53 has been promoted to Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering and has been actively engaged throughout the summer in the affairs of the Thermal Dynamics Corporation of which he is vice president. Merle, working with Jim Browning, has developed the first continuous operating plasma jet producing temperatures up to 30,000 degrees Fahrenheit, over five times as hot as an oxy-acetylene flame. An article in Business Week for June 28, 1958, entitled "Hottest Torch for Industry described the process and pictured the inventor.

Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Chi-Neng Shen has resigned to accept a position on the faculty of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering Ken LeClair has resigned to enter private practice in Hanover. Teaching Fellow Larry Scammon ME'57 completed his one-year appointment last June and has accepted a position with Bell Laboratories.

Additions to the Thayer School staff are Associate Professor of Civil Engineering T. Y. Chen, Visiting Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering Bertram Wellman, Teaching Fellow Bob Portland EE'59, and Graduate Assistant in Research Fred Hart EE'59.

Your present correspondent attended meetings of the American Society for Engineering Education and a working committee of the Engineers' Council for Professional Development at the University of California in Berkeley in June and spent the remainder of the summer, except for a three-week vacation, behind or close to his desk.

The annual meeting and dinner of the Dartmouth Society of Engineers will be held at the Dartmouth Club in New York City Tuesday evening, October 14. The distinguished speaker will be Dr. Gordon S. Brown, Head of the Electrical Engineering Department at MIT and a member of Thayer School's Board of Overseers. Dr. Brown is a dynamic speaker and is recognized throughout the world as an outstanding leader in the field of electrical engineering education. This should be a record-breaking meeting. See you there.