Engineering adds new technology

The School of Engineering and Applied Science is creating reality out of what was once only science fiction. New technology being used by the school is revolutionizing the way students learn and communicate. Paul Shaffer, curator of the ENIAC Museum, said the Engineering School is in the midst of transferring a Material Science textbook onto a compact disc using Apple's CD-ROM technology. Shaffer said the technology will allow for detailed, movable graphics and will make it easier to reference text. The original text for the book was written by University professors Charles McMahon and Charles Graham. The computerized textbook, entitled Introduction to Engineering Materials: The Bicycle and the Walkman, is the collaborative effort of project leader Shaffer and several Engineering students. Shaffer said the endeavor, though expensive and time consuming, is a part of the new movement at the University to modernize. The new text allows to students "to jump around in a very non-linear way," Shaffer added. Using this system, students can interact with the text, solve problems on-screen and move more quickly through the text, said Electrical Engineering senior Gui Karyo, who is working on the new project. "Engineers are visual learners," he said. "The [greatest benefits] of this new animation is its 3-D capability." And Shaffer said he hopes the computerized book can be used by students of all ages around the country. "If our textbook is successful, people can be Penn students without actually being at Penn," Shaffer said. "They can be older or younger." In addition to the video textbook, Engineering students will soon have the opportunity to use NCSA Mosaic, an "information browser for the world wide web." Mosaic allows students to access information anywhere in the world, from weather maps to photographs from the Hubble Telescope, according to Shaffer. "Up to now, computer networks? have served up text," he said. "Mosaic is not just text. It is pictures and sound and movies and text." Mosaic should be in place by fall in the Engineering School's micro-computer labs, Shaffer added. "The arrival of NCSA Mosaic will add a lot of traffic to the internet highway," he said. "Hopefully, the highway will grow to accommodate it." On top of these applications, more and more classes, both in and out of the Engineering School, are utilizing the computer labs. Classes in Bioengineering, Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, Systems and Mathematics use computers as an integrated part of their curriculum, Shaffer said. "Even when classes aren't held in the lab, major assignments are always on computer," said Karyo. This imperative need for electronic communication is illustrated by the 91 percent of Engineering students who have active ENIAC electronic mail accounts, Shaffer said. "There's a whole new slew of information out there," he added. "The possibilities are endless."