Interview with IITProfessor
Interview with IITProfessor
Interview with IITProfessor Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), Chicago, Illinois
Interview with IITProfessor
Interviewer: Let s start off with something simple. What was Mies philosophy? Professor: Mies van der Rohe was really obsessed with details. And he often talked about God being in the details. What that translated into, was a belief that less is more . That he tried do everything in the most efficient and least expensive way, and he believed in the long run that produced the highest quality result. Interviewer: So what were those three little words? Professor: Less is more. Interviewer: Is that an accurate representation of what this school is? Professor: I think in many ways, Mies really recaptured the spirit of IIT. Because this institution has always had to struggle to find the resources to do what it does. And we ve had, in a way, to always do more with less and so less is more can really be the IIT motto.
Interview with IITProfessor
Interviewer: Has any university learned a lesson from that philosophy? Professor: Has any university, (yea) somewhere else? Interviewer: I guess I m looking for you to say, We have . Professor: Okay. Interviewer: Has any university learned a lesson from it? Professor: I think certainly this university has learned a great lesson from it. Because we have, as I indicated before, we have really had to think about the best way to allocate resources, in a situation in which there is always far greater demands Interviewer: I m going to interrupt you sir, because we re going to get that EL Professor: Every 4.2 minutes. Interviewer: Has any university learned a lesson from that philosophy? Professor: IIT has certainly learned a lesson from that philosophy. Interviewer: One more time without mentioning IIT. Before you said this university certainly has Professor: You like that answer better. OK. Interviewer: Any university learned anything from that philosophy? Professor: This University certainly has. We ve tried very hard to stretch resources, to think in ways that Mies thought, which is to find the most efficient and effective way to allocate all of our resources, physical resources, financial resources, human resources. Interviewer: In broad terms, what is that lesson? Professor: That lesson is, that you have to think very carefully about the results that you want to achieve. You have to think very carefully about the way to get there. And when you do that, what you get is a quality product. And so Mies really foreshadowed modern day focus on quality. And he was very, very much into quality. Interviewer: Who designed the present IIT campus and what s its significance? Professor: Mies van der Rohe designed the present day IIT campus. He developed a master plan. This is one of two planned university campuses in the United States. It has been designated architectural landmark by the American Institute of Architects. It s truly a special campus in the architectural world. Interviewer: You almost wouldn t know it by the way things look. Professor: No, you wouldn t. One of the reasons, and frankly I had that experience initially, when I saw the campus. It kind of has a light industrial flavor to it, but at the time Mies did this, it was considered revolutionary. And we still have architects coming from around the word to see Mies great work.
Interview with IITProfessor
Interview: Is IIT actually an institution of not just of higher learning - is it an institution of highest learning? Professor: I think that IIT has always aspired to the best. And we are an institution of highest learning in the sense that we have education going on not only at the elementary and secondary preparation level, we do a lot of that, but at the highest levels of PHD research. That we scan the full range of education programs and I think we do it with great effectiveness. Interviewer: Is this a fat unresponsive, uncreative, University? Professor: How you put your finger on it Rick. This is a university that was founded by a great industrialist, Philip Armour, and we have a long tradition of being very closely tied to the industrial world, and that has made us very responsive, I think, to the needs of industry and the needs of society. And you can see in the evolution of our programs. We re continuously looking for new ways to educate students so that they are better prepared to function well in society. Interviewer: Almost any university can say that. Professor: I think any university could, but if you look at the results here, the IIT student body really goes The IIT student body when they receive their degrees and go on into the world, do exceptionally well. We take students who come from very poor backgrounds, I mean from terms of financial resources, their record in industry is exceptional and in fact we were rated by a study done by a university out East, as one of the most effective universities in terms of career success of our graduates. Interviewer: Again though, this highest university concept? Is IIT somehow more elevated than a lot of other universities? And what would you say to people to convince them that that s true? Professor: I would say to them that what makes IIT special, is it has a very clear understanding of its mission. It s focus on engineering and science and there are relativity few universities in the country that do that. And it has had undergraduate and graduate programs that really have stayed focused on the immediate needs of industry. And I think the proof is in the success of the graduates.
Interview with IITProfessor
Interviewer: A lot of the schools pull a lot of their resources and the trappings, and they put it into football teams and expensive things that have nothing to do with education. Where does IIT put its resources? Professor: IIT puts its resources into people. We put our resources into faculty and we put our resources into students. We ve always tried very hard to hire the very best faculty. We have tried very hard to provide maximum financial aid to our students. And those two things are by far are the most important. Of course we have all of the other things the university has to spend money on, but those are the two things that really are on the top of our priority list. Interviewer: Why? Professor: Ah, because we think in the final analysis its people that matter. It s a fine faculty that really inspire the students and it s the students who go out and make things happen. A football team is not going to do much to enhance the student s education. It s not going to do much to enhance their career success. Its not going to do much to enhance their contributions to society, so we don t spend millions of dollars on a big-time college sports, that a lot of other universities do. Interviewer: trappings of any consequence to the quality of education here? Professor: I do not think that they re of any consequences to the quality of education. I do think that they have some impact on the visibility of the institution. There certainly is some benefit of having a number one ranked national football team. But I don t think that it s beneficial, in fact, I think quite to the contrary.
Interview with IITProfessor
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Interview with IITProfessor
Interviewer: Theoretical research does this, practical research does what? Professor: This University has had a particular focus on practical research, applied research, which is a term that is normally used. And we have done a good part of that through the IIT Research Institute. Trying to solve real problems in industry and government and that is consistent with the character of IIT. We re always looking to solve real world problems. We do not do a lot of theoretical or speculative research. What we do is very applied research. Interviewer: What is the difference between the two? Professor: The theoretical, you think about it is speculating the nature of matter and the origins of the universe, and a full range of issues like that. And that s important. That kind of work needs to be done. Our research tends to be focused on figuring out how to get oil out of shale rock that s in Colorado by and using special radio frequency techniques and things like that. It s got a very, very specific application in mind. Interviewer: What is it that makes that so significant? Professor: What makes that significant is that there are not a lot of universities that do that and do that very well. We are one of the small number of universities that do it. Our IIT research institute is one of the largest in the United States.
Interview with IITProfessor
Interviewer: The world seems to be becoming increasingly high tech. Why are you teaching for the professions in a high tech world? It seems so basic. Professor: Well you said, why are we teaching for the professions in a high tech world. One way about thinking about that is that technology is a profession. What we do is train engineers, train scientists. Those are professionals. And so we are teaching people to function in a high tech world and to be able to advance the state of technology. If you think about what we do here, we really have two fundamental missions. We are here to teach people on how to advance the technology and teach them on how to understand the importance of technology in our society. And that really is a characteristic of our university and it distinguishes our graduates. Interviewer: What makes teaching for the professions so important? Professor: Teaching for the professions, as we do it here, means that we are able to create a culture within the university, in which students are very focused on professional careers. And they are better able to relate to the kinds of issues that we want them to think about. Not only technical training, that part is easy and has a very disciplined vocational focus, but we re concerned about other things that distinguish the really first rate professional, like quality and creativity and ethics and understanding of key issues of environmental and economic policies. And those are things that we think are important to help someone develop as a professional.
Interview with IITProfessor
Interviewer: What are, give me a definition, what are practical practicing engineers any way? Hold on for a second What are the practicing engineers? Professor: Practicing engineers are people who solve problems that industry has. In terms of How to build a better mouse trap so to speak. It s how to build, design and market products that will help make life better. Interviewer: Why are they needed? Why especially today, what is it about them? Professor: Engineers and people who are technically trained are badly needed in a high tech world. It is technology that very much determines economic competiveness in the standard of living of any country. And there is a shortage of engineers in the United States today and as we project ahead, there s potentially a very serious shortage, and that can have a significant consequences for the international competiveness in the United States and significant consequences for our standard of living. Interviewer: What are those consequences? I heard a quote from you and I would like to get back to that quote. What are the consequences of us falling behind? Professor: The consequence of us falling behind is that we would see a declining standard of living in the United States. We would not be competitive in the world. We would find that things cost more and more, relatively speaking and that we d have less and less resources to buy. Interviewer: What would the United States be in danger of becoming? Professor: Allan Bromley has said that; we are in danger of becoming the first fully industrialized third world nation. Interviewer: Is that true? Professor: It may be slightly dramatic, but I think it makes the point. That as a society we have to take seriously the importance of educating students. And not just the university level, but educating students beginning at elementary school in math and science, so we can have a scientifically and technically literate and useful workforce.
Interview with IITProfessor
Interviewer: Now, IIT has a lot of government and business sponsored programs happen here, besides the Pritzker institute, the National Food and Technology Center, do you know of any other programs that exist here? Just give me a list? Professor: We have quite a few quite of few interesting research programs here. I think I mentioned earlier that we have a project in shale oil, trying to extract oil from shale. And we have a major research capability in electronic communications. And we have major research project in a simulated education. Interviewer: What are these things called? Professor: The simulated education is called Rails , in which we educate railroad engineers. We developed a very sophisticate computerized cab. It s now being used around the world to educate and train railroad engineers so that we ll get safer trains to ride.
Interview with IITProfessor
Interviewer: Now lets talk about Pedagogical Education. What are you doing here? What does that mean? How is that expressed? Professor: I don t know. I understand what Pedagogical Education means Interviewer: I got it from your outline Professor: My outline? No. Interviewer: Yeah. From your outline, originally on points you want to cover, but it s kind of like a tutorial Professor: I m not sure on what outline you re referring to. I couldn t understand your reference. The education here is focused very much on the practical and the applied. At the same time, we have to make sure of the theoretical base for all of our students and I don t want to give you the impression that this is a trade school. We do train professionals. We do educate professionals. We re not simply here to teaching them how to use a machine. The educational methodology tends to be built around problem solving. And we have a number of classes that do that, and are seeking to expand that and I think that s an important part of what we do. Interviewer: Is it fair to say, I spoke to a couple of professors that they said that their role is almost like being a mentor rather than teacher. Professor: I think that every good faculty member tries very hard to be a mentor,