Windfall for Engineers

U.S. engineering schools are often criticized for being behind the scientific times; their enrollments have stagnated. This week the Ford Foundation, which overlooked the field up to now, marched in with a massive $19.05 million gift to four institutes of technology (Caltech, Carnegie, Case, M.I.T.) and six universities (U.C.L.A., Michigan, Illinois, Purdue, Stanford, Wisconsin). The goal: a sharp boost for pace setters, and so for all U.S. engineering schools.

More than half the money ($11.2 million) is earmarked for improving faculties at eight of the schools; it will pay for raising key professors to senior rank, financing faculty loans and summer fellowships, will set up 15 new professorships and help lure top engineers into teaching. The rest of the money goes into improving curriculums, notably for new programs (at Case, U.C.L.A.) that concentrate on design as a basic engineering discipline. Biggest beneficiary: M.I.T. ($9,275,000), now developing a curriculum focused on science-core courses that cut across traditional departmental lines. Ford thus hopes, explained Foundation President Henry T. Heald, to encourage engineering schools to impart "a thorough understanding of science and mathematics, their frontiers, and how they may be applied to the needs of mankind."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.