Fifty years ago, the cutting-edge world of advanced engineering design took one of the most radical turns in history, shifting from hand-held slide rules to digital computers. In today’s digitally dominated world, therefore, it is hard to imagine how engineers ever built anything without computers, let alone sent astronauts to the Moon. And yet, for nearly four-hundred years, engineers achieved extraordinary success using literally stick-built slide rule calculators.
This lecture will consequently explore and highlight this forgotten history. All attendees will receive free paper slide-rules plus hands-on training.
Professor Jim Alleman moved to Notre Dame in 2019 at the end of his five-plus decade career in order to help the CEEES department kickstart the creation of a new Master of Engineering degree program. He’s a triple ND graduate (BS, MS, and Ph.D.), specializing in civil, construction, and environmental engineering.
He’s taught at three US universities (Maryland, Purdue, and Iowa State) plus one in Greece (as a Fulbright Scholar) and one in England (as a visiting professor at Leeds University). In addition, he’s a military veteran (Okinawa, Japan) and former US State Department Jefferson Science Fellow, who monitored Ukraine’s new safe confinement project at Chernobyl.
Lastly, he’s used slide rules extensively and has collected approximately 400 donations from other avid retired users (including astronaut Neil Armstrong!).