{"title":"The Use of an Automatic Computer System in Teachin","authors":"P. Braunfeld, L. Fosdick","doi":"10.1109/TE.1962.4322279","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TE.1962.4322279","url":null,"abstract":"PLATO II is an automatic teaching device designed to teach a number of students concurrently, but independently, by means of a single, central, high-speed computer. Only two student sites have been constructed thus far, but, in principal, the number of students that can be taught by PLATO II is limited only by the capacity and speed of the central computer. The power of such a computer-based teaching system stems from its ability to ask complex questions, judge the students' answers to these questions, and take an appropriate course of action on the basis of student responses. The computer also keeps detailed and accurate records of student performance, which are extremely useful guides to improving course content. The paper reports in some detail a study using PLATO II to teach nine undergraduate students a portion of a course on computer programming. By way of example of what can be done, the paper presents some analysis and interpretation of data gathered by the computer in the course of the study. The apparent effectiveness of PLATO II as a teacher, as well as the kinds of problems encountered in preparing lesson material for an automatic system, are discussed.","PeriodicalId":175003,"journal":{"name":"Ire Transactions on Education","volume":"13 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1962-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116811172","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Geometrical and Highly Generalized Interpretation of Two-Element-Kinl One-Port Driving Functions","authors":"A. Reed, D. Brown","doi":"10.1109/TE.1962.4322283","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TE.1962.4322283","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents in terms of a three-dimensional surface a technique for a visual as well as mathematical treatment of broad generality of the RL, RC and LC one-ports. An examination of the partial fraction terms of all the two-element series and parallel components which make up the canonic one-ports indicates that seven different types of terms are all that occur. The real and imaginary parts of all such functions for s = ? + j? may be represented geometrically by a surface in three-space. It is found that all the real and imaginary part functions are geometrically 1) a plane parallel or inclined to Aar the a, o plane; 2) the basic surface, given by 2 + 2' A > O, located in various positions with respect to the axes; or 3) a combination of the plane and basic surface. The driving function of any two-element-kind one-port is the sum of some combination of the real and imaginary part functions and so is represented by a sum of some combination of the canonic surfaces.","PeriodicalId":175003,"journal":{"name":"Ire Transactions on Education","volume":"11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1962-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129005546","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Engineering Staff Utilization","authors":"J. R. Eaton","doi":"10.1109/TE.1962.4322278","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TE.1962.4322278","url":null,"abstract":"The staff members of an engineering school, perhaps more than those in any other group, are subject to continually changing technical responsibilities. The rate of change in the decades preceding 1950 was relatively slow, and new material was easily assimilated by competent individuals. In recent years, the increasing flow of new knowledge has presented a situation in which the effective instructor must be at the same time an ardent student. The danger of becoming obsolete is ever present. This paper attempts to analyze some of the problems which are presented to the senior staff members, to the middle-aged staff members, to the young men, and to the administrators. Some possible solutions to these problems are also presented.","PeriodicalId":175003,"journal":{"name":"Ire Transactions on Education","volume":"6 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1962-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121064708","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Rational Basis for Engineering College Education","authors":"M. B. Reed","doi":"10.1109/TE.1962.4322276","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TE.1962.4322276","url":null,"abstract":"The paradox of engineering education is that it must prepare the student to undertake work in areas unknown at the time he is attending college. An attempt is made to formulate criteria for establishing engineering curricula which will meet this apparently self-contradictory requirement. Rather than basing education on apparatus and techniques possessing high rates of obsolescence, it is suggested that the following be emphasized: the disciplining of the mind; communication techniques, both linguistic and mathematical; the cultural heritage of mankind; the macroscopic properties of the three states of matter; invariant principles of laboratory apparatus; fundamental network theory; and the field concept and radiation.","PeriodicalId":175003,"journal":{"name":"Ire Transactions on Education","volume":"24 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1962-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127451021","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Modern Objectives and Methods for Laboratory Instruction","authors":"E. Ernst, J. O. Kopplin","doi":"10.1109/TE.1962.4322280","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TE.1962.4322280","url":null,"abstract":"In considering the role of the undergraduate laboratory in an engineering curriculum, it is important that the objectives of the laboratory program be well understood and clearly set forth. It is proposed that the objectives of a modern laboratory program should be: 1) to supplement and strengthen the teaching of subject matter by laboratory methods and 2) to teach the theory and practice of experimentation. A complete laboratory program designed to meet the above objectives should include classroom demonstrations, self-demonstrations, a course on the theory and practice of experimentation, a measurements course, and a senior projects laboratory. The unique features of, such a laboratory program are 1) the self-demonstrations which are designed and programmed much like a teaching machine but which are made up of normal laboratory equipment with which the student carries out an actual physical experiment, and 2) the handling of the theory and practice of experimentation as a body of information which can be taught and which exists as a subject in its own right to be included in an engineering curriculum.","PeriodicalId":175003,"journal":{"name":"Ire Transactions on Education","volume":"514 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1962-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132622056","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Simple Treatment of the Superregenerative Oscillator Used to Detect Conductance Changes","authors":"A. Holt","doi":"10.1109/TE.1962.4322284","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TE.1962.4322284","url":null,"abstract":"This article presents a treatment of the problem of the superregenerative oscillator used to detect changes in the equivalent conductance of the coil of its resonant circuit. It is shown that if the conductance changes occur at a rate much less than the quenching frequency of the oscillator, and a rectangular quench waveform is employed, it is possible to obtain an expression relating the factors upon which the oscillator sensitivity depends without resorting to difficult mathematics. This method, using physical reasoning, should give the student a simple introduction to the subject.","PeriodicalId":175003,"journal":{"name":"Ire Transactions on Education","volume":"73 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1962-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122565533","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Magnetics in the Modern Curriculum","authors":"T. Healy","doi":"10.1109/TE.1962.4322281","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TE.1962.4322281","url":null,"abstract":"Today's electrical engineering curriculum has not in general kept pace with the increasing use of magnetic devices to solve engineering problems. Increasing emphasis on the analysis of problems peculiar to magnetic engineering serves to better prepare the student to find solutions in magnetics to his engineering problems. Such emphasis also broadens the student's analytical background through the posing of types of problems not found in other parts of the curriculum.","PeriodicalId":175003,"journal":{"name":"Ire Transactions on Education","volume":"4 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1962-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123820550","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Digital Computer Calculation of the Operation of Nonlinear Devices with Energy Storage Elements","authors":"T. Puckett, P. Hinrichs","doi":"10.1109/TE.1962.4322285","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TE.1962.4322285","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents results on digital computer calculation of the operation of some tube and transistor circuits which combine nonlinear operation with energy storage elements. The Class C amplifier, the frequency multiplier and the blocking oscillator are all circuits of this type. This approach allows many of the conventional restrictions on analysis procedures to be removed. For instance, in the case of the Class C amplifier, it is not necessary to assume that the plate and grid voltages are sinusoidal and the circuit at steady state. Additional features of computer use are the automatic calculation of efficiencies, plotting of waveforms and calculation of harmonic content; the facility of studying the effects of transients and modulation; the possibility of allowing the circuit parameters to take on any values or vary with time or with the voltages and currents; and the possibility of allowing the circuit associated with the device to be more complicated than usually allowed by other methods. Limitations to this approach lie in the cost of programming the problem, and the cost of running the program on an available computer. Questions of numerical accuracy sometimes arise, but can usually be handled with additional programming or running time. If a translator is available which can accept programs in the form of algebraic equations, the programming cost is often negligible. However, running time costs may be appreciable, particularly in the case of a complicated circuit with many storage elements.","PeriodicalId":175003,"journal":{"name":"Ire Transactions on Education","volume":"328 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1962-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122257415","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Operational Calculus without Transforms","authors":"C. P. Gadsden","doi":"10.1109/TE.1962.4322282","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TE.1962.4322282","url":null,"abstract":"An operational calculus is outlined that enables the determination of the response of any lumped circuit to a general waveform. It is based on elementary notions of operator algebra (sum, product, and inversion of operators) and is rigorously deducible. All processes are carried out in the time domain, no transform or complex-variable theory being needed. The operators turn out to correspond to superposition integrals of impulse responses. Steady-state theory is derived easily as a special case. In particular, the response to any periodic waveform can be calculated by integrations over a single period and is a distinct improvement over the use of Fourier series or Laplace transforms for this problem. The analog of the calculus in the frequency domain is shown to correspond to the use of the bilateral Laplace transformation.","PeriodicalId":175003,"journal":{"name":"Ire Transactions on Education","volume":"79 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1962-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117216838","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Training System Design Engineers","authors":"J. D. Noe","doi":"10.1109/TE.1962.4322277","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TE.1962.4322277","url":null,"abstract":"System design engineers are in short supply and difficult to train. On-the-job training is the principal method used today, and the universities that seek to train system engineers make use of cooperative arrangements with industry to provide such experience. This paper suggests that training emphasis incorrectly has been placed on skills that are useful in system design work, rather than on the development of certain valuable qualities (talents or personality traits). On-the-job training is often pursued without due recognition of the importance of these qualities, and academic training today seems more attuned to the teaching of skills. It is hoped that discussion of these factors will help stimulate educators and engineering managers to search for ways to shorten the long training cycle.","PeriodicalId":175003,"journal":{"name":"Ire Transactions on Education","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1962-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125867908","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}