The Purdue University has as their mascot, the boilermaker.
It always seems such a weird mascot for an engineering school.
However, when they were founded, steam boilers were at the cutting edge of engineering. They were what powered railroads and steamships. And the high pressures and temperatures pushed the limits on metallurgy and reliability. There were many people killed because a boiler exploded.
So at that time, "Boilermaker" suggested attention to detail, and broad technical knowledge.
Now not so much.
Every generation builds on the foundation laid before, and tries to achieve new things.
Building and maintaining boilers is a highly regulated industry still; with the fairly reasonable justification that they can blow up big if you screw it up. Wonder if they still teach anything specific to that.
The Purdue University has as their mascot, the boilermaker.
It always seems such a weird mascot for an engineering school.
However, when they were founded, steam boilers were at the cutting edge of engineering. They were what powered railroads and steamships. And the high pressures and temperatures pushed the limits on metallurgy and reliability. There were many people killed because a boiler exploded.
So at that time, "Boilermaker" suggested attention to detail, and broad technical knowledge.
Now not so much.
Every generation builds on the foundation laid before, and tries to achieve new things.