An experience in teaching “cobol?” to graduate engineers

Abstract

Texas A&M University was involved for ten years in a program to train civilian engineers for the US Army. The engineer, the program's product, was to be capable of moving into positions of management and middle management within the civilian employment force of the Army. Most of the participants held various undergraduate degrees in engineering, science, or mathematics, and a few held degrees in technology or business. The structure and tenure of the program made it feasible for the participants to earn a Master's degree in Industrial Engineering. Once on the job, many of the engineers found they were faced with large data file manipulation and information retrieval tasks. To many, this meant time consuming efforts and often additional training or help from other departments. The authors believe that some of the engineer's job frustrations were inherent in the manner in which the computer's growth and application has influenced the pedagogy of computer courses related to engineering curricula. The authors also believe they have found one solution to the problem within the confines of the above mentioned Army civilian engineer training program.