14 INSTRUMENTATION IN MECHANICAL ENGINEERING LABORATORIES

During a recent meeting on Teaching Design at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, there was considerable discussion as to whether the universities trained embryo engineers or ‘thinking‐machines’. For students following a sandwich course leading to a Dip. Tech. or degree there is no point in this distinction. For half the course, the student is in industry doing real engineering and he regards himself as a potential engineer. A college must recognise this and plan its courses accordingly. Thus, whereas a university student may well graduate without any knowledge of instrumentation as used in modern industry, his counterpart on a sandwich course is well aware of what is used. If he is to take his college studies seriously and regard laboratory work as a challenge and not a chore, then the associated instrumentation must be as modern as he uses outside the college.