UA-R-GC-1914-01-01-1985-10_Page-032

MINUTES ENGINEERING COMMITTEE BOARD OF TRUSTEES THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY IN CAIRO October 30, 1985 The River Club Wednesday 2:00 PM Attending: Mr. Hedlund (acting chairman), Dr. Pedersen, Mr. Harbert, Dr. Bartlett, Mrs. Yost. 1. The agenda was approved. 2. The minutes of the last meeting (March 1985) were approved. (Committee did not meet in May.) 3. The committee discussed the mD/CAM system: AUC has developed the courses and AID has given the money for the equipment needed. At present there are about 50 students who want to go into engineering, 22 of them want to go into design. Dr. Pedersen had some reservations about that many going into design. He was not sure that there was that much demand in Egypt for design engineers. He said the engineering faculty likes design because it is modern and gets AUC into the computer world. The faculty led the initiative on going into design. AUC has the money to buy the equipment and expects the system to be installed by next spring. Dr. Pedersen said that he had seen the system operate when he visited Brigham Young and was extremely impressed with it. He said it was amazing what could be done on a mini computer. 4. Dr. Pedersen reported on the new Computer Science Programt AUC has three new faculty members with Ph.D. 's all of whom apparently are very good. He said that he has the impression that Computer Science will become as attractive a major as engineering. Of the incoming freshmen, most are going into ~echanical engineering. Fewer are going into Computer Science but that is because it is so new. Dr. Pedersen felt in time it will rival mechanical engineering in popularity. Dr. Pedersen felt that there was going to be a big demand for general computer science courses which will put a big load on the computer centers. Dr. Bartlett asked what the effect would be of having computer science as a requirement. Dr. Pedersen responded that there is not enough faculty to handle the numbers. Equipment is not the problem, faculty is. rl