WPI finds its place in national college rankings by Brian Parker Editor-In-Chief Although it technically hit the newsstands yesterday (September 18th), the latest edition of U.S. News and World Report was causing a stir last week. Once again, U.S. News has come out with its annual college rankings and there is good news and bad news for W PI. As was the case last year, when W PI moved from the Regional Uni versity category, where it dominated the Northern region, W PI is listed in the second tier of National Universi ties. These schools, classified by the Carnegie Foundation for the ad vancement of teaching, “ offer a full range of baccalaureate programs and are committed to graduate education through the doctorate.” As former President Strauss put it when we changed categories “ we are in good company.”
for 25% of the overall score and puts tion (determined by donations to the U.S. News ranks the first fifty Na us second from the bottom in the al school), SA T scores, freshmen in the tional Universities and then offers phabetical second tier. top 10 % of their high school class, the rest, there are 229, in three tiers. We should not be disappointed with acceptance rate, yield (percentage of The second tier consists of the this placement as it is similar to last those accepted who enroll), and re schools that rank 51-1 15 and includes year’s and speaks well for the Insti tention (percentage of students who such schools as: American Univer tute. The disappointing part sity, Boston U niversity, of the report is that for the UConn and W PI. The top first time ever, U.S. News school in the nation is F o r the fir s t time ever, U .S. New s also also sought to rank the top deemed to be Harvard, fol sought to ran k the top fifty eng in eering fifty engineering schools. lowed by Princeton. Yale, schools. S u re ly one w ould expect us to be in Surely one would expect us Stanford and M IT . this category, as one in three o f the schools to be in this category, as one Vanderbilt U niversity is in the top two tiers are not eng in eering spe in three of the schools in the listed as 2 2 nd. top two tiers are not engi Rankings are determined c ific. M e a re not. neering specific. We are by a number of factors, in not. cluding academic reputation This part of the report is based solely graduate in six years and percentage (determined by a survey of college on a survey of A B E T (Accreditation of freshmen who return for a second presidents, deans and admissions di Board for Engineering and Technol year). rectors), faculty resources (ratio of ogy) associated school’s deans and W P I does very well in most of these faculty to students, percentage of administrators. Two respondents at categories and indeed could be in the faculty with doctorates, percentage each school were asked to rank each top fifty except for one small problem. of faculty with part-time status and school based on reputation. There was National reputation, which puts us at average salary and benefits offered), a 46% response rate and here again. 129, this part of the rankings counts financial resources, alumni satisfac
W PI suffers (presumably) from a good national reputation. Many of the schools listed in this top fifty here are predominately re search oriented and not teaching ori ented schools, like M IT , which placed first. These schools would obviously have a better reputation among A B E T associated school ad ministrators. There are many methods of rank ing colleges and W P I traditionally does well on a good number of them, including U.S. News and W orld Rep ort's “ Best V alues,” which comes out after the college rankings issues. Last year we were a runner up as a National University, in terms of Discount Tuition (a measure of the financial aid offered to all stu dents). If anything, this shows W P I where it might wish to work to improve its national reputation and where we are currently doing a good job.
New major in Industrial Engineering available to WPI students by Kristen Greene Editor-In-Chief Last May, the faculty approved the addition of industrial engineering as a major degree program. Formerly, stu dents interested in this area could pur sue a Management Engineering de gree through the management depart ment, focusing some of their courses towards the industrial engineering area. Industrial engineering (IE ) is a pro fession that serves as a link between management and operations. It is an area of engineering that is oriented more towards people than any other area of engineering, with a goal of motivating people towards productiv ity improvement. Industrial engineers integrate human factors into finding good, efficient solutions to production problems. For example, an IE might be involved in designing the layout of a metal parts manufacturing plant, cre ating a more productive workflow in a hospital, or developing a computerbased information system. Although the main employers of industrial engi neers are in the manufacturing indus try, potential employment in this field could be in any type of business or institution. The new IE major is more techni cally focused than the existing Man agement Engineering (M G E) major. M G E requires students to develop a broad base in different areas of man agement, such as accounting and mar keting, whereas the industrial engi neering major focuses more on math and science and requires more techni cal engineering courses than were re quired for MGE. The department plans to seek A B E T accreditation for the Industrial Engi neering program. A B E T stands for the Accreditation Board for Engineer ing and Technology, Inc. According to A B E T literature, one purpose of accreditation is to identify institutions that offer professional engineering pro grams worthy of recognition as such. The A B E T standards are designed to assist institutions in planning and im proving their educational programs. Obtaining A B E T accreditation for the
new IE program could take as little as two years to accomplish, but may be longer. The sooner students start graduating from the IE program, the sooner this accreditation will come. The curriculum requirements of the program include 10 units of study in the areas of mathematics, basic sci ences and engineering topics, which includes the MQP. Four units of mathematics and ba-
sic science courses are required. The math requirement includes differen tial and integral calculus, as well as differential equations and probability and statistics. The science require ment includes courses in both chemis try and physics, with at least a two course sequence in one of those areas. The other five required units of study consist of courses in various engineer ing topics: 8/3 units of the industrial
engineering core, 1/3 unit in engineer ing topics outside of the industrial engineering area, 1 unit of industrial engineering electives and I unit of technical electives. Three new courses will be added to the curriculum in order to meet the needs of this new industrial engineer ing program. These courses cover areas which are required in most ac credited industrial engineering pro
grams. The first, M G 3405, will be titled Work Systems and Facilities Planning. Topics such as facility layout, meth ods analysis, work measurement, ma terial handling and material flow analy sis will be covered in this course. These topics, in the past, have been briefly covered in MG 3400 (Industrial EngiSee IE major, continued on page 3
Not enough to juggle in their lives? A g rou p o f stu d e n ts to s s their free time around by Amy L Plack Features Editor There are many things to stare at in the Wedge, from quirky vendors to hackey-sackers, but this year, students have something knew to stare at: a small group of students who pass their free time juggling. “ We just juggle every Saturday and Sunday at around noon in the Wedge, right after [lunch],” says Karl Kuehn (M EA ‘99), who’s more or less the vet eran of the group. He’s beenjuggl ing for two years, but long before that he was given a set of “juggling puffins” by a neighbor as a joke. “ I never got any where with them, so I sort of gave up on them until about two years ago, when I bought my first set of balls. Since then, Karl has taught himself to juggle “just about anything you can hold in your hand,” from balls and clubs to “two beanbags and a stick of deodorant.” Michael Michaud (Biochemistry, ‘99) is also self-taught, and has been juggling for just over a year. “ I just started juggling baseballs in my bed room,” he says. All of the things he juggles are “ makeshift” -not really meant for juggling, including his official Little League baseballs, $.60 rubber balls from the toy store, and... bowling trophies. “ Yeah, that’s how I taught myself to juggle clubs.” He’s also juggled rings and uses real clubs now. The weirdest thing he’s ever juggled? “ Kitchen knives,” he says with a grin. “They weren’t really sharp, and I didn’t juggle them in front of my parents. I wanted to
Diary of a Closet Computer Geek See page 7
do it just because I could, you know?” Somehow, kitchen knives just don’t top this next feat: a baseball, a pool ring, and a twelve-pound bowling ball. “ I kept it up for nine throws, ‘cause catch ing that bowling ball was just really difficult," he recalls. ‘The bowling ball I have here is fifteen pounds, so I wouldn't even attempt it,” he says, laughing. “ Most people who juggle bowling balls are doing seven pounders, which are hard to find,” explains Karl. “ You can buy them from bowling alleys, though,” Mike points out. The two just began passing, or jug gling the same items together, last week, and they are starting to get the hang of it, despite the fact that Karl is right-handed and Mike is left-handed. ‘That makes it difficult when we pass,” explains Mike, “ because one of us always has to pass with our bad hand.” “The ultimate art to juggling is being able to juggle with both your right hand and your left,” says Karl. So, they just keep on practicing. Mike feels his right hand is improving with time. Another juggler, Atticus Gifford, ar rives with his clubs and balls. He’s only been juggling for seven or eight weeks he says and “ he’s already in clubs!” exclaims Karl. “ Yeah," Atticus says sheepishly, “ I had a lot of free time this summer.” What other items would these guys like to juggle? “ Rubber chickens are the ultimate clubs,” says Karl. Atticus has some rubber chickens, but he has to prep them first by putting wooden dowels See Jugglers, continued on page 2
Ta ble
K a rl Kuehn shows his prowess with the devil sticks over this past weekend. He hangs out with his friends every weekend and they invite anyone interested to come over to the wedge.
of
World News.................................................................... 2 Arts & Entertainm ent..................................................2, 4 Sports..............................................................................3 New s...............................................................................3 letter to the Editor.......................................................... 6 Commentary................................................................6, 7
C
ontents Student Government Association.....................................7 Feature.......................................................................... 7 Club C orn er.................................................................. 8 Greek C orner................................................................ 9 Classifieds................................................................... I I Police I M g ................................................................... 12 J