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TODOR [Named for the famous Aerodynamicist Theodore von Karman;
"Todor" is "Theodore" in Karman's native language, Hungarian.]
Athena, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA

Directed by Earll Murman

Eleven other faculty who contributed were: Judson Baron, Mark Drela, Michael B. Giles, Isaac Greber, Joseph Haritonidis, Marten Landahl, Jean L. Lois, James E. McCune, Leon Trilling, Harold Y. Wachman, Sheila E. Widnall

Content: Engineering, Aeronautic and Astronautics
22 Modules including Dimensional Analysis and Dynamic Similarity, Kinematics of Convective Systems, Kinetic Theory of Gasses and Thermodynamics, Airfoils, Wings and Bodies, Nozzles and Channel Flow and Propulsion and Orbits.

Purpose: Four areas of existing material were enhanced through the use of interactive graphics, because these were topics that it seemed students found difficult to grasp. Some topics were chosen because the faculty felt that the workstation technology could provide more realistic "hands-approaches" to the material through problem sets on the computer Other topics were selected in which the computer curriculum would be used to replace existing materials because modern developments in the discipline had caused traditional methods to largely be replaced by computational methods.

Participants: Greg Jackson, Naomi Schmidt, Janet Daly, Anne Lavin

Evaluation Information: (Trilling, 1988).

Technology
 
Software: Written in FORTRAN and C, and uses a commercially available user interface toolkit called BLOX which provides a graphics subroutine library and tools for creating and managing menus, graphical icons, dynamic screens and on-line help. Currently runs on top of the X-11 windowing software using a UNIX operating system.
 
Hardware: DEC VS-2, VS-2000 and VS-3200 running ULTRIX or 4.3 BSC UNIX with X-Windows System Version 11 and IBM RT/PC or IBM 6152 with ACIS UNIX operating system and X-Windows System Version 11. Sun 3 and Apollo with Domain -OS and X11 Windows.

© Mary E. Hopper [MEHopper] | MEHopper@TheWorld.com [posted 01/01/01 | revised 01/01/01]