Engineering India, Engineering America, Engineering the World: International Technical Exchanges and the Indian Institutes of Technology, 1946-2000

工程印度、工程美国、工程世界：国际技术交流和印度理工学院，1946-2000 年

• 批准号: 0450808
• 负责人: Ross Bassett
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: North Carolina State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-04-01 至 2009-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0450808&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Engineering; India; America; World; International

Project Summary The Indian Institutes of Technology have become famous in India, the United States and many other parts of the world for the high quality engineers they produce, and are at least partially responsible for making high technology one of the dominant images of India today. The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) were a paradoxical combination of the newly independent India's desire to achieve self-sufficiency in the areas of science and technology, and assistance from the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and West Germany. This study, focusing primarily, but not exclusively on the cases of American involvement, will examine how Indians and foreigners worked together to establish these institutions which were conceptualized by many as Indian MITs. It will then examine how these institutions functioned within the Indian economy and technological system, as well as in a global technological system. It will do so first by looking at the development of computer engineering, aeronautical engineering, and sanitary engineering as disciplines at IIT and then examine developments in these areas within the wider Indian economy, looking closely at the role played by IIT faculty and alumni. It will then look at IIT graduates in the United States, examining their career paths and their entrepreneurial activities in the United States. It will then look at the flows of technical information and people back to India. This grant will provide for one year's leave and travel funding, which together will allow for the completion of the bulk of the research in American and British archives. The intellectual merit of this study is that it will be the first sustained consideration of the Indian Institutes of Technology by an academically trained historian. It will go beyond being merely a narrow history of an institution and link the Indian Institutes of Technology to broader developments in technology in both the United States and India. This study will increase our understanding of technical relations between the United States and India, drawing attention to the reciprocal nature of those relations. It will contribute towards the growing trends towards the internationalization of American history and the broadening of our definition of international relations. It answers the call of scholars such as Thomas P. Hughes and David Hounshell to consider the development of technology across national boundaries, a call that has not been fully answered. It will also provide an important case study of how systems of technological education operate in a global environment. In terms of broader impacts the book that will come out of this research will be written to be accessible to a wide audience of historians, engineers, educators, and the general public. It will broaden the base of the discipline of the history of technology in America and the Society for the History of Technology to more fully include the history of technology in post-independence India. It has the potential to lead to collaboration between American and Indian scholars. It will provide resources for scholars who wish to write or teach on global topics in the history of technology. Given the great amount of attention the American press has given in the last few years to India's role in the American economy, this study will make an important contribution by broadening our knowledge of technological relations between the United States and India, and providing a deeper understanding of the role of an important and influential ethnic minority group within the American technological community.

印度理工学院因其培养的高质量工程师而在印度、美国和世界许多其他地方闻名，并且至少在一定程度上使高科技成为印度今天的主导形象之一。印度理工学院（IITs）是新独立的印度在科学和技术领域实现自给自足的愿望与美国、苏联、英国和西德的援助的矛盾结合。本研究主要关注但不限于美国参与的案例，将研究印度人和外国人如何共同努力建立这些被许多人概念化为印度MITs的机构。然后，它将研究这些机构如何在印度经济和技术体系以及全球技术体系中发挥作用。它将首先着眼于印度理工学院计算机工程、航空工程和卫生工程学科的发展，然后研究这些领域在更广泛的印度经济中的发展，密切关注印度理工学院教职员工和校友所发挥的作用。然后，它将考察在美国的印度理工学院毕业生，考察他们在美国的职业道路和创业活动。然后，它将关注技术信息和人员回流印度的情况。这笔补助金将提供一年的休假和旅行资金，这些资金将用于完成美国和英国档案中的大部分研究。这项研究的学术价值在于，它将是一位受过学术训练的历史学家第一次对印度理工学院进行持续的研究。它将超越仅仅是一个机构的狭隘历史，并将印度理工学院与美国和印度更广泛的技术发展联系起来。这项研究将增加我们对美国和印度之间技术关系的理解，提请注意这些关系的互惠性质。它将有助于美国历史走向国际化的日益增长的趋势和扩大我们对国际关系的定义。它回应了托马斯·p·休斯（Thomas P. Hughes）和大卫·洪谢尔（David Hounshell）等学者的呼吁，即考虑跨越国界的技术发展，这一呼吁尚未得到充分回应。它还将提供技术教育系统如何在全球环境中运作的重要案例研究。就更广泛的影响而言，这本由这项研究得出的书将为历史学家、工程师、教育工作者和普通公众等广大读者所接受。它将扩大美国技术史学科和技术史学会的基础，以更全面地包括印度独立后的技术史。它有可能促成美国和印度学者之间的合作。它将为希望撰写或教授全球技术史主题的学者提供资源。鉴于美国媒体在过去几年中对印度在美国经济中的作用给予了大量关注，本研究将通过拓宽我们对美国和印度之间技术关系的认识，并提供对美国科技界中一个重要且有影响力的少数民族群体的作用的更深层次的理解，做出重要贡献。