Research in Engineering Colleges 55 



in their extra year may be of such a quaHty in the sciences pertaining 

 to those industries, that, without being of a confidential nature, it may 

 conduce to the progress of the kno-vCHedge underlying them. 



Tihe type of researches carried on in any department of a technical 

 college depends upo^i the directions of scientific interest in that depart- 

 ment. It is likely to ha.ppen that the interest is determined by the 

 nature of some works, industry or public service in the vicinity. It is not 

 of great importance wjhat the particular interest is, so long as it is a 

 definite speciality or group of specialties. Each college may advantager 

 ously develop such a group. It is by developing its w;ork along certain 

 special lines, that a laboratory comes to be recognized for its research 

 wiork. It is futile to attempt researches upon too many lines at once. 

 Ordinarily, each member of a teaching staff interested in research, busies 

 himself in one line, and when several individual members happen to 

 adopt the same line, they may jointly accomplish much more than th-e 

 sum of what would be their unaided individual achievements. It is 

 advantageous to an industry, situated near to a college, to have a group 

 of teachers there engaged in correlative applied science research. 



Very recently, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has entered 

 into a co-operative plan with a number of infiustrial corporations, where- 

 by, in return for an annual retain-er, the Institute undertakes to provide 

 certain facilities, information, and assistance to the corporations. A 

 copy Qif the form of agreement is a;ppended. A few other technjical, 

 cplleges are said to have adopted simila^r plans. If thiis plan works out 

 in practice;, as successfully as is hoped, it will be desirable for mapy of 

 the colleges to avail themselves of its advantages along similar lines. 



Another plan which has less recently been put into action by technical 

 colleges, but which is less specifically directed towards research, is the 

 plan of co-operative education. It seeks to train technical men for 

 positions in the industries, by familiariizing them with th^ nature and 

 problems of those industries in periods of industrial employment alter- 

 nating with periods of study in the college. This plan is carried on at 

 Cincinnati, Pittsbiirg, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and 

 perhaps also elsewhere. At the University of Cincinnati, where the plan 

 has been iVi force since 1906, the engineeriVi,g-school students spend five 

 years towards their ba<:helor's degree in monthly cycles throughout the 

 year, two weeks being in college, and two w;eeks in an industry, alter- 

 nately (5). At the University of Pittsburg (14), wliere the plan has been 

 carried on since 19 11 ,the engineering-school students spend their first year, 

 and also their fourth year exclusively in college. Their second and third 

 years are spent in six-monthly cycles, three months in college, and three 

 months in an industry, by turns. At the Massachusetts Institute of 



