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The new Physics building, located next to Main Engineering, is slated to open soon. Constructed to meet the needs of the growing department, which has tripled in staff and student enrollment during the last 25 years, the building will house laboratories, classrooms, lecture halls, and offices. It was built and equipped for $450,000. The structure was designed to provide facilities to accommodate current research, but also with the possibility of expansion in mind. When the north and south side wings are eventually extended to Church Street, the size of Physics will match that of the Chemistry building.
The three lecture halls were planned specifically for undergraduate physics courses. At the front of each hall is a door opening to the common large apparatus room. Equipment for demonstrations is thus easily accessible to professors. The lecture halls (capacity 500, 200, and 160) are located on the ground floor near main entrances to avoid stairwell crowding and noise. Acoustics were carefully considered; fans and washers are placed in the sub-basement, and sabinite plaster was used for the finish. The rooms will be used for approximately 1,800 demonstration lectures per year.
To the right of the main lobby are three mechanics laboratories. The heat division occupies the south wing of the second floor, while the north side houses the electricity division. Optics is located on the third floor, and 35 advanced and research laboratories are situated in the basement.
(Taken from a letter written by IT dean Samuel C. Lind)
The Minnesota Legislature recently appropriated $1,175,000 for the construction of a building to house the mechanical and aeronautical engineering departments. However, the building will not be constructed until the war ends because materials are unavailable. In 1940, IT enrollment reached a high of 2,439, but it has since dwindled to a low not seen since the early 1900s. Still, postwar enrollment is expected to far exceed that of 1940. Although an influx of graduates will satisfy the shortage of labor caused by military service, record enrollment will cause classroom and laboratory overcrowding and burden staff. Universities will face stiff competition for professors and have difficulty meeting the need for additional facilities. Returning veterans will pose challenges, too. Some will require refresher courses; others will wish to hurry through college while lacking a sense of purpose. These problems must be met with courage. Technology education will be of primary importance following the war. Engineers and scientists will assume a larger role in public matters, helping to correct past mistakes and prevent present conditions from reoccurring.
Sonotone Corporation, a major manufacturer of nickel-cadmium batteries, and American Motors Corporation have teamed to research the possibility of creating a modern electric car. As visualized, the electric car would be cheaper to operate and have fewer service problems than its gasoline-powered counterpart. The brief life and long charging time of conventional batteries, previously the only option available, rendered the electric car little more than a pipe dream. However, the development of the nickel-cadmium battery, already used in military and domestic goods, has made the idea of a battery-powered automobile plausible.
An electric car built using the latest design would have some disadvantages not encountered by drivers of todayÕs automobiles. For example, the battery powering the car would need recharging every 100 miles. American Motors and Sonotone are studying the use of a generator, run by a small gasoline engine, to constantly recharge the battery. The auxiliary engine would require little gas to perform this operation.
Driving the electric car would be simple. In the current model, a foot accelerator controls the speed of the electric motor. The auxiliary engine operates without driver action. Like gasoline-driven automobiles, the electric car has a steering wheel, brake, and reverse gear lever. Minnesotans would be pleased by its weather-handling capability; because the battery maintains its charge and can be charged and discharged under extreme climatic conditions, the electric car would start immediately in even the worst weather.
To help current undergraduates prepare for life after school, the Minnesota Technolog decided to conduct an anonymous survey of the attitudes and experiences of the 1962 graduating class. One hundred sixty-eight of the 295 questionnaires mailed were returned, a 56 percent response rate.
Eighty-six percent of survey respondents are married. They are, on average, 28 years old and have 1.76 children. Forty-two percent live in the Twin Cities, while another 14 percent reside elsewhere in Minnesota. Fifteen percent of surveys arrived from California, and 29 percent are scattered around the rest of the United States. Eighteen percent of respondents now hold an advanced degree.
Salaries are high and increase regularly for 1962 IT graduates. Most of these alumni are paid between $800 and $1100 per month. They received a $55 monthly salary increase one year after graduation. After two years, their salaries increased another $60 per month, followed by an additional $66 and $80 after their third and fourth years, respectively. Graduates of pure sciences earn about $200 less per month than engineering graduates.
Fifty-nine percent of the 1962 alumni still work for the same company they began with after graduation, but 13 percent have worked for three or more employers. Ninety-eight percent are employed, and 2.4 percent are in the military. One respondent considered himself unemployed.
Although 38 percent of graduatesÕ present jobs are in design, up from the 32 percent whose first jobs were in that field, management has seen the largest increase in graduates. Just 3.5 percent began their careers in management; now 21.3 percent of 1962 alumni have moved into supervisory positions.
Respondents indicated some dissatisfaction with the relevance of their college curriculum. Over 50 percent considered their undergraduate studies either "much too theoretical" or "somewhat too theoretical." Seventy-six percent said that they presently study "slightly less" or "much less" technical material on the job than they did as students. On the other hand, 43 percent study "much more" or "slightly more" non-technical information at their jobs than they did in college.
