My posting on this blog is sparser than it used to be, and especially these last few months. But that doesn’t mean I’ve been inactive online; I’ve been doing a lot of posting, but not here. So perhaps it’s a good idea to bring everyone up to date.
It’s worth reminding everyone that this blog wasn’t the first site I put out on the internet. That honour goes to vulcanhammer.net; this one came the following month in 1997. My objective with that site and its progeny has been to disseminate technical information for the geotechinical (soil mechanics and foundations) industry. Ultimately the idea was that a) that information would be useful for people in developing countries (and students here) to raise their standard of living without a paywall and b) to be a Christian outreach in the process, with this site as an auxiliary to aid in that. Eventually I just put the relevant Christian material there along with everything else.
Six years later I started the site Chet Aero Marine, which initially documented my family history in the sky and later on the water. This site has experienced quite a lot of “mission creep” (like some of our weapon systems) and one of these expansions was as a home for the sites for my Fluid Mechanics Laboratory course at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. But now it is the platform for my latest adventure: teaching engineering at Lee University, and specifically Statics.
I’ve discussed the need for an institution like Lee to have an engineering program. But at a time in life when most academics are looking to “hang it up” I plunged into a course which, although I took it a long time ago and used it in my family business, have never taught it. So there’s a lot of course prep, and if you look at the course site I’ve developed you’ll see what I’m talking about.
I feel very strongly that engineering in particular is a good thing for Christian colleges to do. In an day when the liberal arts are as politicised as they are, we need a balance, and an engineering program is one way to accomplish that. Engineering programs also produce graduates which can have an income to pay back their student loans and give the practitioners a decent living, and that’s more than many majors can say. And, of course, by putting at least some of my course material online, others can benefit, as they have done with my other courses for many years.
In the process of all of this engineering education has its peculiarities. I’ve been at this since 2001, and was in practice before that. I’ve been an advisor both to curriculum development and further accreditation of the program. As one of my colleagues at UTC noted, it’s not very often you get to do that in the early stages of a program, and for the opportunity I am grateful.
Finally I, like the great Saint-Venant, believe that engineering is a kind of ministry whose benefits will make people’s lives better. Too much Christian benevolence is focused on relief, and while relief is important (as those just to the east of me in North Carolina will tell you) prevention of the effects of disaster can have a greater impact at lower cost. Traditionally that job has been the state’s, but that isn’t always the case, and with governments becoming more erratic in their regard for their people we can expect other people and organisations stepping up to the plate with civil and other projects.
Lee also requires a devotion at the start of class; I’ve drawn from the many stories that I communicated to my students at UTC online and also from my last devotional book Month of Sundays.
So perhaps stop by and check this out; I’m also teaching Dynamics at Lee this Spring. As they say in late night, there’s more to come.
Positive Infinity 