The American
Society of Engineering Education is a nonprofit organization founded in 1893
with the objective of promoting engineering in education and engineering
technology, during a time in American history when higher education was
experiencing a significant boom. The ASEE mission is to stimulate engineering
through:
Promoting research
Public service Leadership Public service
Since then
the ASEE has grown exponentially from a small humble organization into an
international force. Spread across the globe consisting of 12,000 members, 400
universities, and 50 corporations.
For more
information on becoming a member please refer to the links below.
Traveling in a straight line at a perpetual speed can be
quite challenging and limiting to the travel of human beings. Realizing this
was a problem Arthur N. Talbot, Professor of Municipal and Sanitary Engineering,
University of Illinois Champaign Urbana developed an improved version of the transitional spiral in 1899.The improved transition spiral was a theoretical mathematical
equation, reimagined by Talbot to assist the passage of locomotives from a
straight line to a circular curve to avoid sudden changes in acceleration.
If you would
like to know more refer to the link below:
A rigid-frame
bridge is a load resistant skeleton constructed with straight or curved
members. It is a simple structure with top and sides of one solid piece of
reinforced concrete. It is specially
designed to resist bending, shearing, and axis loads. This type of bridge was
cheaper to construct and easy to maintain and stronger than traditional bridges
for its day. Wilbur Wilson, a professor
of Civil Engineering and researcher of the fatigue of structures at the
University of Illinois was a tremendous advocate of this type of structure.
Kingery,
Alan, Rudy D. Berg, and E. H. Schillinger. Men and Ideas in
Engineering; Twelve Histories from Illinois. Urbana: Published for the
College of Engineering, U of Illinois, by the U of Illinois, 1967. Print.
Photo 1: Computer Science building where the ILLIAC housed.
ILLIAC II
The ILLAC II was built at the University of Illinois Urban
Champaign in 1962. It was designed to be
a hundred times faster than its predecessor ILLAC I. It was the one of the first super computers
to implore the use of transistors instead of vacuum tubes. This enabled the
designers to construct a compact super computer that generated less heat. Other
notable characteristics are that it had a larger memory and processor
storage.
Photo 2: ILLAC II
ILLIAC III
Fabricated in 1966 at the University of Illinois the ILLIAC
III’s chief job was to analysis bubble chamber experiments to detect nuclear
partials. It was latter used for biological image processing.
Photo 3: ILLAC III
ILLIAC IV
The ILLIAC IV was designed to be bigger and faster than its
forerunner. The main idea was design a computer that linked a single control
unit with several sub units, each utilizing its own arithmetic a data storage
capabilities. This would enable the machine to perform multiple complex
calculations simultaneously at 50 times the speed of the ILLIAC III.
Photo 4: Diagram of ILLIAC IV floor layout.
ILLIAC V CEDAR
Operational in 1988, it utilized advanced interconnected
networks and control unites that optimized parallelism.
Work cited:
Kingery, Alan, Rudy D. Berg, and E. H. Schillinger. Men and
Ideas in Engineering; Twelve Histories from Illinois. Urbana: Published for the
College of Engineering, U of Illinois, by the U of Illinois, 1967. Print.
Construction on the Holland Tunnel to connect New York and
New Jersey underneath the Hudson River began in 1920 and was finished in 1927.
The tunnel was designed by Clifford M. Holland and Milton Freeman. The tunnel consisted of two tubes, each carrying
two lanes of traffic in either direction, to the tunnel could handle
approximately 1,900 vehicles an hour in either direction and spanned a distance
of 9,250 feet making it the longest underground tunnel at that time. Since automobiles release toxic gases that
need to be properly expelled from the tunnel, the need to properly ventilate
the tunnel was a primary concern.
Prior tunnels had been constructed
over the years and were ventilated through natural air vents or large fan. Before the Holland Tunnel, none had spanned
as long a distance and, hence, ventilation had never been an issue. To combat the ventilation problem of the
Holland Tunnel the engineers asked for the help of University of Illinois
Urbana-Champaign, Yale, and the U.S. Bureau of Mines. The U.S Bureau of Mines determined content of
the exhaust gas that would be expelled on a daily basis and Yale determined the
maximum amount of carbon monoxide that would be tolerable by humans in the
tunnel
These results were passed on to the
University of Illinois where they began the design the ventilation system. With the use of multiple researchers and a
large scale model prototype of the tunnel Illinois came up with an innovative
design. The prototype ventilation system
consisted of 84 fans with a combined 6,000 horse power. 42 fans supplied fresh
air to the tunnel and 42 expelled the harmful carbon monoxide. The fans were to
be housed in two twelve story structures at either end of the tunnel. This
approach enabled the system to replenish the air supply every 1.6 minutes.
The tunnel experienced its greatest
test in 1949 when a tanker truck carrying two tons of carbon disulfide exploded
in the tunnel. This accident exposed the
structure to temperatures over 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit and harmful gases. Fortunately, the ventilation system
continued to function permitting the tunnel to reopen within fifty-six hours.
Work Cited:
Kingery,
Alan, Rudy D. Berg, and E. H. Schillinger. Men and Ideas in Engineering; Twelve
Histories from Illinois. Urbana: Published for the College of Engineering, U of
Illinois, by the U of Illinois, 1967. Print.
