Thayer's Two Track Program
THE Thayer School of Engineering approach to graduate engineering features a "two track system" which distinguishes sharply between education for the practice of engineering and education for research. Recent recommendations by such groups as the Advisory Committee to the President of George Washington University and the Advisory Committee for Engineering Planning at the University of California have come out strongly in favor of the "two track" system, first introduced at Dartmouth in 1963.
The "professional track" is concerned with the doing of engineering and the "research track" is concerned with basic and applied research.
Students in the professional program are required to demonstrate their ability to design new systems, procedures and devices which can be justified in economic terms. They are expected to make a contribution to the "state of the art." Students in this program study in twelve areas of science and engineering. In addition, they must demonstrate the ability to take an assignment in an unfamiliar field and produce a contribution in a limited amount of time. For example, Andrew Porteous, whose story is told in an accompanying article, was asked to develop a method for making profitable use of refuse collection. His proposal for producing ethyl alcohol from the waste paper products in refuse is now under study by the government and at least one oil company.
The professional track, which builds on Dartmouth's liberal arts education, leads to the degrees of Bachelor of Engineering, Master of Engineering, and Doctor of Engineering. In 1964 Thayer School abandoned the specialized degrees in Civil, Mechanical, and Electrical Engineering and substituted one degree, Bachelor of Engineering. This does not mean, however, that students at Thayer no longer prepare for careers in the construction industry or other specialized service. The professional program is built around demonstrated capabilities rather than course requirements. Students qualifying for the Bachelor of Engineering degree must demonstrate the ability to recognize human needs, to propose solutions, to do experimentation, to do design, to make economic analyses, and to handle the logistics of an engineering operation. The field in which the student chooses to demonstrate these abilities is up to him and his adviser. At the present time Thayer School students are demonstrating these abilities in every field, ranging from bio-engineering through civil construction and chemical processing.
As a spur line of its professional track, Thayer School cooperates with the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration in offering two graduate programs leading to the degree of Bachelor of Industrial Management and to the joint degree of Master of Business Administration and Bachelor of Engineering. The former is an integrated sequence of courses in business management, production, economics, and methods engineering. The latter program includes the regular M.B.A. curriculum, plus six technical courses in engineering and a project demonstrating creative design.
The "research track" (in contrast to the "professional track") is concerned with the development of knowledge with a de-emphasis on practical end use. Students in this program must demonstrate through their thesis that they are able to contribute to man's knowledge of physical phenomena. Research programs encompassing such diverse fields as the ionosphere, plasma torches, basic fluid mechanics, the super-cooling of metals, the flow of mixtures of steam and water, and the properties of frozen soil are active at Thayer School. The research track leads to the Master of Science degree, after two years of graduate study, and ultimately to the Ph.D. degree.
The administrative problems of maintaining two tracks of equal intellectual attainment are many. But the experiences of the Thayer School in developing these dual approaches and maintaining equilibrium between them will be very useful to other schools as they move to adopt the same philosophy of instruction.
MYRON TRIBUS, Dean of the Thayer School of Engineering, came to Dartmouth from the University of California at Los AngeLes in 1961. Since then, he and his colleagues have instituted many curriculum changes and a new graduate program leading to the doctoral degree in engineering. Dean Tribus, a 1942 graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, received his doctorate from UCLA and taught there before coming to Dartmouth. His research and writings have dealt primarily with heat transfer, thermodynamics, and fluid mechanics. He received the Wright Brothers Medal in 1945 for his work in developing thermal ice protection equipment for aircraft in World War II.
