Theme 4.1. The history of engineering education and the technical sciences

The appearance of educational institutions of professional orientation refers to the 3d Millennium B.C, when the first states emerged in Mesopotamia, Egypt, India and China. In the 6–5^th centuries B.C, education issues were deeply studied by ancient Greek philosophers Pythagoras, Democritus and others. In the Plato's Academy fundamental importance was given to mathematics.

Aristotle is the founder of another famous philosophical school – Lykei (Lyceum), based around 334 B.C.The aim of Lykei was not only teaching but also scientific research. The great attention was given to education in the Byzantine Empire. So, in 425 a supreme Imperial School Auditorium was established in Constantinople.Since the 11^th century it became known as the Magnaura or Golden Chamber.Itsteachers were the Government employees.It is here that the chair appeared as an Association of scientists, headed by the consuls of philosophy.

The first European Medieval University was the Bologna (1088), which specialized in legal matters.TheUniversity of Paris arose in 1160. Over time, it became known as the Sorbonne.For scientific and educational purposes there were established departments.Gradually a system of 4 faculties developed, which later spread throughout Europe.The first University in the UK – Oxford – was founded around 1117.By 1500, there were about 80 universities in Europe.The «core» of education content in the medieval University was the «trivium» – grammar, rhetoric, dialectic and «quadrivium» – arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy.

In the 17^th century the scientific societies and academies of sciences: the Prussian Royal Academy, the Royal Society of London, and the Paris Academy of Science undertook training of scientists.In the 18^th century, the principle of freedom of scientific research penetrates into the universities, which entails the freedom of teaching.Within the University structure the formation of colleges takes place, which leads to even more specialized education.TheUniversity professors are starting to engage in research themselves and to attract the students in the process.

The formation and development of engineering science took place in parallel with the evolution of the types of equipment and technologicalprocesses. The process of the engineering science formation of can be divided into several stages: the stage of the development of the pre-scientific technical knowledge (until the second half of the 17^th century); the stage of the formation and development of technical sciences of the «classic» type (the 18^th – the beginning of the 20^th century); the stage in the formation of the complex scientific and technical disciplines (from the first third of the 20^th century).

The forming of professional education begins in Germany in the 18^th century, where a system of secondary professional technical education emerged.In 1794, the Polytechnic School was founded in Paris.In the first half of the 19^th centurythe Technical institutes originated in England. In the United States the technical colleges began training mainly agricultural engineers and mechanical engineers.In 1861, the Massachusetts Institute of technology arose.In 1868, the Polytechnic School was established in Bavaria, later becoming the Munich University of technology.In the Russian Empire in 1898, the Polytechnic institutes were opened in Saint Petersburg, Kiev and Warsaw. Their appearance greatly deepened and expanded the training of engineers.