Bill Sommerfeld's Weblog

Tuesday July 13, 2004

Fixing Fish Bryan's recent post regarding industry connections to USENIX mentioned the MechE department at MIT getting out of Marine Engineering in 1913.

If you look at the departmental history of MIT's Ocean Engineering department, you'll see that it got started (as the Pratt School of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering) in 1912. This looks like yet another case of a particular area of study getting shuffled from one department to another. (it probably doesn't help that MIT tends to use non-standard terminology.. What other schools refer to as "Departments" are also referred to as "Courses" at MIT, while the individual class is referred to as a Subject.

Oh, yes, and to top it off, Courses, Subjects, Buildings, and rooms are generally referred to by number rather than by name -- you'll occasionally hear the Car Talk Guys refer to "2.01" and "2.02" (but it looks like the MechE department has renumbered their courses, including the world famous "2.70" design competition, which is now "2.007").

Particularly unusual given traditional levels of superstition and triskaidekaphobia among sailors, Ocean Engineering is Course 13; one of its undergrads lived down the hall from me during my days there and said she was studying how to "Fix Fish"..

And along the same lines, I don't think I've crossed paths with Ted Leung since the mid-80's... (2004-07-13 16:49:32.0) Permalink