The student committee, the members of the 1950 Foreign Student Summer Project, and all past members of the Project wish to dedicate this Report to the memory of the late Everett Moore Baker, Dean of Students at MIT, and chairman of the International Student Service, from a meeting of which organization he was returning to MIT when he met his death in an air crash in Egypt in August, 1950. Faculty adviser to FSSP since its conception, he is vividly remembered by all FSSP participants and student committee members as a man interested in individuals, interested in their success and ideas as well as their problems, interested in making well-rounded human beings from engineers and scientists.

September 26, 1950

Dr. James Rhyne Killian, Jr., President
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge 39, Massachusetts

Dear Dr. Killian:

On behalf of the Student Committee, I hereby submit to you the
Report of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Foreign Student
Summer Project of 1950. In submitting this report, I would like to express
the sincere appreciation and gratitude of all those connected with the
Foreign Student Summer Project, whether students at MIT or foreign
participants. Without the continued cooperation of yourself, the Corporation
and members of the Faculty and Administration, this Project would not have
been possible.

It is with great satisfaction that the Student Committee has
compiled this report on the third Project. We believe that the development
of the "FSSP" into an enduring institution has confirmed the value of its
central idea and demonstrated the wisdom of an Institute where student
initiative and freedom of action are encouraged and highly rated.

Herbert W. Eisenberg
Chairman, Foreign Student
Summer Project

TABLE OF CONTENTS

<table><tbody><tr><td>PROJECT IN BRIEF</td><td>1</td></tr><tr><td>STUDENT COMMITTEE 1950</td><td>4</td></tr><tr><td>ADMINISTRATION</td><td>5</td></tr><tr><td>Fund Raising</td><td>6</td></tr><tr><td>Selection</td><td>7</td></tr><tr><td>LIST OF PARTICIPANTS</td><td>9</td></tr><tr><td>THE SUMMER AT MIT</td><td>11</td></tr><tr><td>Plant Trips</td><td>12</td></tr><tr><td>Special Events</td><td>12</td></tr><tr><td>NAM Tour</td><td>14</td></tr><tr><td>ACKNOWLEDGMENTS</td><td>17</td></tr><tr><td>RESULTS ACHIEVED BY FSSP 1950</td><td>19</td></tr><tr><td>Reports by Members of 1950 Project</td><td>21</td></tr><tr><td>THE FIRST YEAR - 1948</td><td>27</td></tr><tr><td>THE SECOND YEAR - 1949</td><td>29</td></tr><tr><td>FOREIGN STUDENT SUMMER PROJECT 1951</td><td>31</td></tr></tbody></table>

PROJECT IN BRIEF

The Foreign Student Summer Project was initiated by students at MIT in 1948, as an experiment to establish the part which students could play in the educational and technical reconstruction of Europe. The experiment has proved and established itself. The third Project, that of 1950, has just concluded, and plans are already being laid for the summer of 1951. FSSP is widely accepted: as a year round task for students at MIT; as a profitable and enjoyable summer to which foreign students in many different countries look back with appreciation or forward with hope and as an important contribution to the United States program of technical assistance.

During the three years in which students at MIT have organized these summer projects, both aims and procedures have become clarified. From its original inception as aid to reconstruction in war-devastated countries, the Project has expanded to become an international undertaking, with greater emphasis laid on technical aid to undeveloped areas. In 1948 there were 62 participants from 14 countries, all of them in Europe; in 1949 there were 78 from 23 countries; in 1950, 71 came from 25 countries. During the first two years, participants were invited to join the regular summer courses at MIT. Experience has shown that this restricts the range of study and experiment open to applicants, and therefore the choice of applicants themselves; and in 1950 emphasis was laid upon research projects to be conducted by the participants, rather than upon courses. Great care is taken to insure that the research suggested by the applicants will fit in with the MIT summer program, and some very successful work has been done this year.

Work at MIT is supplemented during the summer by plant trips to local industries as guests of both management and labor unions. Industry in New England offers a wide and representative choice, and it is possible for everyone to visit factories which are of particular interest to their work. An industrial tour of the Middle West has been sponsored and organized by the National Association of Manufacturers during the past two years, and this affords a further and more comprehensive view of industry in the United States.

The main emphasis of the project is laid upon the technical experience which participants may gain, but the other advantages of visiting and studying in another country are taken into account. An attempt is made to enable the foreign students to mix among themselves and learn from each other, as well as from American students on the campus, their varying

- 1 -

ideas and ways of living. The Project thus not only serves to bring together in the fields of engineering and science so that they can exchange their technical knowledge, but also provides these men and women from all over the world with an opportunity to discuss their different backgrounds and experiences. As a further encouragement to this, weekend trips are arranged to the Mount Holyoke Institute on the United Nations, where participants hear speakers and join in discussions on world affairs.

An effort is also made to acquaint the visitors with America and Americans. Hospitality is arranged through a committee in Boston, and opportunities are provided for everyone to

visit families for week ends and Sunday dinner. Excursions are also arranged to the Berkshire Music Festival at Tanglewood to hear the Boston Symphony Orchestra. At the conclusion of their stay at MIT, all the participants are taken to Washington for a week, where they are shown the Capitol city, and meet members of the staffs of their own embassies there.

During all three years the Project has been run entirely by a Student Committee, organized as a sub-committee of the MIT Student Government, through the MIT National Student Association Committee. Throughout the academic year this Committee handles contacts with foreign countries, fund raising, the final screening and selection of applicants, and makes arrangements for the summer. In the summer, the Project is administered by those members of the Student Committee who can arrange to stay at MIT for the vacation. Through the assistance of the MIT Corporation, the President and Dean of Students, the laboratories and research facilities of MIT are made available to the Project, as well as the libraries and other facilities of the Institute.

Ettore Dalla Volta - Italy

(u)

- 2 -

One of the greatest problems for the Student Committee is to obtain the necessary funds to provide a full scholarship, so that the best qualified applicants, not just the richest, will be able to benefit from this opportunity. The Student Committee undertakes to pay all expenses of the participants within the United States, and relies upon their governments, or foundations or industry in their own countries, to supply the necessary overseas transportation. The funds to finance the Project within the United States, which are all raised through the efforts of the Student Committee, come from three main sources: foundations interested in this type of technical exchange, industrial concerns with international interests, and government agencies working in the field of technical assistance. In 1950 the Project has for the first time completed the entire program without a deficit.

A thorough method of screening and selection has been devised to choose the participants of the Project. Application forms are sent by the Student Committee to screening committees set up in each country invited. These screening committees then select a number of candidates for the Project, and forward their applications to MIT, where each applicant is again screened by the Student Committee and faculty, and finally selected by the Student Committee according to his personal and technical qualifications. It is impossible to guarantee that the results of this procedure will always be satisfactory; but it has so far worked excellently, with few exceptions.

The success of the Project must always rest with the participants themselves, and apart from the high technical quality of the work done, one of the most encouraging results of the past years, which has been repeated in 1950, is the keen interest which has been shown by the participants in the continuation of the Project. There has also been considerable interest shown in the maintenance of contacts made at FSSP, both with other members of the Project and with students at MIT. This year several ideas were advanced for maintaining contact, and for increasing the exchange of ideas, persons, and technical skills among all countries in the world. There have been reunions among members of past Projects, and we are looking forward to the formation and growth of a strong alumni association for all members.

- 3 -

STUDENT COMMITTEE 1950

Summer Committee

Robert Arbuckle
Sidney Brenner
John Conley
Zenas Crocker, III
Donald Eberly
Herbert Eisenberg
Allan Elston
Donald Emmons
Martin Fink
Maurice Hedaya
Richard Lacey
Paul Lux
Nicholas Macedo
Alexander Maidanatz
Arthur Martin
Thomas Ostovich
Martin Sack
Asoke Sircar
David Sparling
Stephen Vladar
Morris Wasserstein
Harrison White

Secretaries

Miss Elizabeth Carr
Miss Marie Taverna

- 4 -

ADMINISTRATION

At the beginning of the 1949-50 academic year 10 members of the Student Committee which had organized the 1949 FSSP remained to form the nucleus of the Committee for 1950. New committee members were recruited from among the freshmen and sophomore classes. The Committee, which is a sub-committee of the NSA at MIT, held meetings at least twice a month, at which major decisions of policy were made. Special sub-committees were appointed to deal with particular problems; of these, the most important were the sub-committees handling questions of countries and quotas, fund raising, faculty cooperation, selection, and housing. The sub-committees planned the work to be done; the actual tasks -- fund raising, the preparation and mailing of application forms, correspondence with screening committees in other countries, and the study of the completed applications -- were undertaken by all members of the Committee. Certain specific tasks, such as that of publicity, were assigned to individual members of the Committee, who undertook complete responsibility for them.

The work and time of all members of the Student Committee is
contributed voluntarily. A full time secretary is employed who works all
the time, overtime, without complaint; her contribution to the success of
this year's Project was as much or more than that of anyone else. During
the summer a part-time assistant was hired. The Project has two
faculty advisers, the late Everett M. Baker, Dean of Students, and
Professor Paul M. Chalmers, Foreign Student Adviser, without whose
guidance throughout the year the work of the Student Committee would have
been far more difficult.

The task of the Student Committee in financing the Project was
once again considerably lightened by the generosity of the MIT Corporation,
who for the third year in succession agreed to waive tuition fees for all
participants in the Project. This meant that the Student Committee had
to raise funds to cover expenses for administration, transportation, board
and lodging and books for the participants while in this country, and
special events arranged for the members during the summer. An operating
budget was drawn up by the Student Committee, amounting to a total of
$43,660, and a target sum of $47,160 (which included a 50% reduction in
the outstanding deficit) was set for fund raising.

-5-

Fund Raising

The 1950 FSSP owes much of its success to the inspiration of the 1949 Project. At the conclusion of last year's Project a leading New York businessman, who had addressed the farewell luncheon arranged by the National Association of Manufacturers approached the President of MIT and expressed his interest in the Project. He suggested that he should bring the Project to the attention of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation in New York. This foundation agreed to match, dollar for dollar, any contributions which the Student Committee were able to raise for the 1950 Project. This offer both made the task of the Student Committee considerably easier, and at the same time spurred us to immediate efforts to obtain the remaining funds necessary to make up the budget of $47,160.

In 1949 an application had been made to the Economic Cooperation Administration that the Project be listed under the technical assistance projects sponsored by the United States Government. This application had been disapproved on the grounds of technical difficulties. In 1950, a further approach was made to ECA, and after a personal interview, the Administrator agreed to reconsider the application. Reconsideration resulted in approval, and the 1950 Project was assured of ECA funds to pay the expenses of any participants from ECA countries while they were in the United States, to provide an allowance for the purchase of books, and to cover a reasonable share of the administrative costs of the Project.

In addition to these two major sources of funds, some hard work was put in by the Committee in personal interviews with American foundations and business, and $8,000 was collected through the generosity of individuals in these two fields.

Eighty-eight per cent of the funds raised by the student committee were spent directly for participants:

<table><tr><td>Food and Incidental</td><td>$20,770</td></tr><tr><td>Books and Equipment</td><td>3,466</td></tr><tr><td>Medical Insurance</td><td>355</td></tr><tr><td>Rent</td><td>1,293</td></tr><tr><td>Inland Transportation and Arrival Expense</td><td>4,020</td></tr><tr><td>Terminal Allowance</td><td>1,775</td></tr><tr><td>Oceanic Transport (for occupied territories)</td><td>1,120</td></tr><tr><td>Industrial Plant Trips</td><td>1,440</td></tr><tr><td>Social & Cultural Trips</td><td>1,481</td></tr><tr><td>Miscellaneous</td><td>295</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>$36,015</td></tr></table>

An additional $5,000 was spent for mailing, printing, telephone, telegraph and secretarial expense.

- 6 -

## Selection

The first task of the Student Committee was to decide which countries should be invited to send members to the 1950 Project, and to draw up and send out application forms. It was decided that the Project should be open to applicants with the ability to speak English, not over the age of 35, in the fields of engineering, science and architecture, who had had at least two years' practical experience in industry, research, or teaching since taking their degree. The application forms were designed to obtain information as to the technical qualifications of the applicant, the research which he would be interested in doing at MIT, and his personality and interests.

Early in November, application forms were mailed to the American Cultural Attaches in thirty-three countries, and the embassies of these countries in Washington were informed. About 3,000 applications were returned to the screening committees in 25 of the 33 countries. These screening committees had been organized by the American Cultural Attaches in each country, their task being to forward to the Student Committee a selected number of applications together with a personal evaluation of each applicant based on an interview. The screening committees usually consisted of representatives from the Ministries of Education, and from the university faculties, together with the American Cultural Attache or a member of his staff. In many cases members of the past Projects were added to the screening committees; this has been found to be of great advantage both to the screening committees and to the Student Committee, and it is hoped that this practice will be continued and expanded. The 1950 Project undoubtedly benefited from the fact that two past members of the Student Committee had the opportunity to pay personal visits to nearly all the screening committees, explaining to them the ideas and aims of the Projects, and assisting them in the organization and understanding of their jobs.

The screening committees received the completed applications during the first months of the year, and each country sent on about ten or fifteen applications; two hundred had been received at MIT by March 15, and the Student Committee spent the spring vacation studying them. Each application was reviewed and evaluated by at least two members of the Committee.

At the beginning of the year the President of MIT had appointed a faculty committee representing the various departments at the Institute, to cooperate with the Student Committee on the selection and placement of members of the Project. The applications were sorted according to the categories of research requested by the applicants, and forwarded for comment to the members of the faculty committee. The representatives of the departments studied the applications to determine which applicants

- 7 -

were most suitable from the technical point of view, and which of them expressed an interest in the type of research either planned, or possible, at MIT during the forthcoming summer. The Student Committee then selected seventy-three candidates, from twenty-five countries, to be offered places on the 1950 Project. This selection was based on the reports forwarded by the screening committees on the individual candidates, the comments on technical qualifications and placement possibilities made by the faculty committee, and the Student Committee's own idea of what would be most useful to each country. After making their selection, the Student Committee approached the professors in the various laboratories and inquired whether it would be possible for the selected candidates to be accepted for work during the summer. In some cases, it was impossible to make suitable arrangements and another candidate had to be selected.

When arrangements had been completed to place all the students in research laboratories or courses during the summer terms, the names of the accepted candidates were cabled to the screening committees on April 1, allowing nearly two months for all candidates to reach the United States. The cables were followed immediately by letters to all the accepted candidates, explaining the aims and plans of the Project and informing them of the work which had been arranged for them, with the name of the professor to whom they could write for further information. Full explanations of the choice, and reasons for the rejections, were also sent to the screening committees.

Because FSSP is intended as a technical assistance program for young engineers and scientists who could not arrange to study in the United States for any longer period of time, and in order that not only themselves, but also their countries of origin, may get the most benefit from the Project, the Student Committee requests all accepted candidates to sign a statement agreeing to leave the United States by November 30 of the same year. The reasons for this request are:

1. The purpose of the Project is to reach those people whose responsibilities do not enable them to get away for a long period of study, not those who are planning to take advanced degrees at an American university.

2. The expense and effort of organizing FSSP would not be justified if it were merely a summer term as preparation for or finishing of a full year of study.

3. Because the aim is to aid the country as well as the individual, those who benefit from the Project should return to their country and put what they have learned to use. The Project is not designed to drain these countries of their best technical personnel for extended study or to provide a channel for immigration to the United States.

- 8 -

Course VI. Electrical Engineering (Contd.)

<table><tr><td>Robberecht, Oscar</td><td>Belgium</td></tr><tr><td>Shamir, Jedidiah</td><td>Israel</td></tr><tr><td>Tomovic, Rajko</td><td>Yugoslavia</td></tr><tr><td>Torstensson, Lennart</td><td>Sweden</td></tr><tr><td>Venkitaraman, Krishnaswamy</td><td>India</td></tr><tr><td>Walker, Herbert</td><td>England</td></tr></table>

Course VIII. Physics

<table><tr><td>Beard, Dennis</td><td>England</td></tr><tr><td>Endt, Pieter</td><td>Netherlands</td></tr><tr><td>Enge, Harald</td><td>Norway</td></tr><tr><td>Hayakawa, Satio</td><td>Japan</td></tr><tr><td>Risberg, Vidar</td><td>Norway</td></tr><tr><td>Sinha, Mriganka</td><td>India</td></tr><tr><td>Zermizoglou, Alexander</td><td>France</td></tr></table>

Course X. Chemical Engineering

<table><tr><td>Barbour, David</td><td>England</td></tr><tr><td>Breen, Johan</td><td>Netherlands</td></tr><tr><td>Cooper, Wilfrid</td><td>England</td></tr><tr><td>Cottin, Joseph</td><td>France</td></tr><tr><td>Hultin, Sven-Olof</td><td>Finland</td></tr><tr><td>Schutzner, Walter</td><td>Austria</td></tr><tr><td>Sjenitzer, Frenk</td><td>Netherlands</td></tr><tr><td>Spiegler, Kurt</td><td>Israel</td></tr></table>

Course XII. Geology

<table><tr><td>Lahiri, Adinath</td><td>India</td></tr></table>

Course XV. Business and Engineering Administration

<table><tr><td>Lorthioir, Michel</td><td>Belgium</td></tr></table>

Course XVI. Aeronautical Engineering

<table><tr><td>Gullstrand, Tore</td><td>Sweden</td></tr><tr><td>Janaki Ram, Garladinne</td><td>India</td></tr></table>

Course XVII. Building Engineering and Construction

<table><tr><td>Dawwaf, Yousif</td><td>Iraq</td></tr><tr><td>El-Erian, Ahmed Ali</td><td>Egypt</td></tr><tr><td>Naess, Asbjorn</td><td>Norway</td></tr><tr><td>Zalmanoff, Nissan</td><td>Israel</td></tr></table>

Course XVIII. Mathematics

<table><tr><td>Obi, Chike</td><td>Nigeria</td></tr><tr><td>Papy, George</td><td>Belgium</td></tr></table>

Course XX. Food Technology

<table><tr><td>Beyali, Kamal</td><td>Egypt</td></tr><tr><td>Kentridge, Arnold</td><td>Union of South Africa</td></tr><tr><td>Markakis, Pericles</td><td>Greece</td></tr></table>

- 10 -

THE SUMMER AT M.I.T.

During the last week in May and the first two weeks in June, FSSP participants were arriving in ports and airfields all over the United States and Canada. Members of the Student Committee finished their final exam papers and took the next train to New York, where an informal reception office had been arranged. Friends of the Project in San Francisco, Quebec, Seattle, Montreal, met planes and ships and speeded grateful FSSP'ers on their way to Boston. Not all the organization worked perfectly, and in a few cases the participants missed the watchful reception committees and made their way to Boston by themselves. But eventually they all arrived, even the physicist who was subject to special check and delayed by visa difficulties until August.

With the first of the participants arriving in May, while examinations were still under way, special plans had to be made to accommodate them until the student and fraternity houses could be used at the end of the term. It was arranged that all members of the Project should come directly to Cambridge, and housing was temporarily arranged for them in one of the dormitories, commonly known as "the barracks." As soon as the summer term began, changes were made in the housing. As in previous years, the fraternities and Student House generously offered to house the members of the Project for little or no cost. One of the objectives aimed at in the housing arrangements was to provide an opportunity for the participants to meet colleagues from other countries, and American students, so that no two members from one country were placed in the same house.

The members of the Committee endeavored to insure that the participants were given as much information and instruction about the Project as possible during the first week, in order that after the term began, they would be able to concentrate on the technical aspects of the program, and take the administrative hurdles as they came. It was not possible to arrange this entirely successfully, but a good deal of progress was made during that week towards "clearing the decks."

On the Sunday before classes started, June 11, the FSSP Committee arranged a reception, for which President and Mrs. Killian very kindly loaned their garden. This provided an opportunity for the participants to meet socially with the President, the faculty, the administration, friends and Committee members who had planned and cooperated on the Project, before settling down to the summer's work. The ice was

- 11 -

further broken when later in the same month an international picnic was held at Round Hill, and the members and local friends gathered for an even more informal party. Throughout the summer the management of the Brattle Theatre extended the courtesy of the house to members of the Project on Saturday afternoons. Courtesy tickets to tennis matches at the Longwood Cricket Club were also made available to members. Besides these, more organized entertainments, week ends and dinner parties arranged by the hospitality committee, and spur-of-the-moment get-togethers among themselves became more and more frequent as the summer progressed, until at the time of the final banquet a real group of friends had been forged out of the seventy-one participants, the Committee members and other volunteer helpers. The arrangements for the final banquet were all made by one of the FSSP'ers who volunteered for the job. Dinner was served in Morss Hall to all members of the Project, President and Mrs. Killian, Professor and Mrs. Chalmers, the Committee members, the staff and the indefatigable volunteers. Speeches were made by the Committee chairman, the President and by representatives of the members, and all paid tribute to the memory of Dean Baker, whose tragic death the day before had deprived the Project of one of its best and most helpful friends, and cast a shadow over everyone connected with FSSP.

## Plant Trips

At the beginning of the summer, several general plant trips were arranged for the whole group under the sponsorship of the CIO. Throughout the following months more specialized trips were organized at the request of individuals or groups. In addition to the arrangements which the Student Committee was able to make, many of the professors with whom the participants were working provided introductions or arranged special trips for the participants in their courses. In almost all plants the managers were very cooperative and helpful both in making the arrangements and organizing the guided tours. In addition to visits to industrial plants, several of the members of the Project were able to visit other universities and research laboratories and meet professors and graduates working in their fields in other parts of the country.

## Special Events

Early in the summer all the members of the Project spent an evening as the guests of the Boston Chapter of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. This provided an opportunity for the FSSP'ers to meet the leading scientific and cultural figures in the Boston area. After several formal speeches, the group broke up into informal discussions, and cheese and beer were served.

- 12 -

In 1948 and 1949 the Mount Holyoke Institute on the United Nations had invited the members of FSSP to attend the Institute for the final week end in July; in 1950 the idea was further expanded. On three week ends during the month of July groups of FSSP members drove over to Mount Holyoke on Friday evenings, attended the Friday evening lectures and Saturday morning discussions, and mixed with and met the members of the United Nations Institute during the weekend. In this way, members of FSSP were able to hear lectures by Mr. Ernest Gross, of the United States delegation to the United Nations, Mr. Owen Lattimore and Dr. Ales Bebler, leader of the Yugoslav delegation, and to meet members of the United Nations Secretariat and a representative group of Americans interested in international affairs.

On week ends in August, trips were arranged for FSSP groups to Tanglewood to hear the concerts given by the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the Berkshire Music Festival. The groups were able to hear concerts on Friday and Saturday evenings, Sunday afternoons, and to attend the concert rehearsals on Saturday mornings. In addition, the grounds and recreation facilities of the Berkshire Music Center were made available to the group.

At the conclusion of work at MIT, arrangements were made for the entire group to travel to Washington where they were shown the sights of the Capitol city, introduced to officials in the various government departments who had cooperated in the organization of the Project, and met and were entertained by the staffs of their own embassies. An entire week was spent in Washington, and everyone felt that it was a valuable conclusion to the summer's work, and a good introduction to the wider tour of America organized by the National Association of Manufacturers. The tour was preceded by a luncheon given by the NAM in Washington, at which the participants were addressed by Mr. Earl Bunting, Director of the NAM, and had a further opportunity to meet socially with the friends and supporters of the Project in the Capitol.

International Picnic at Round Hill

- 13 -

(w)

On the NAM Tour

NAM Tour

For the second year in succession the National Association of Manufacturers arranged a conducted tour of industry in the East and Middle West. All the arrangements for housing, board, transportation and plant trips were made by the Educational Department of the NAM. Over fifty participants were able to avail themselves of this opportunity to obtain a wider view of American life and industry. The tour lasted thirteen days, included visits to ten industrial concerns, and covered over 2,300 miles.

- 14 -

On September 10, two chartered buses left Washington, D.C. for Syracuse, and on the next day a visit was paid to the Carrier Corporation plant there. On that afternoon the group toured Kodak Park, at Rochester, and were addressed at dinner by Mr. Claude Putnam, President of the NAM. On the way to Cleveland a visit was paid to the National Biscuit Company's plant at Niagara Falls, and, in response to many special requests, an opportunity was arranged for the FSSP'ers to see Niagara Falls. In Cleveland the group saw the Cleveland Graphite Bronze Company, and then went on to Chicago. During the stay in Chicago, visits were made to the Manufacturing Research Center of International Harvester Corporation, to the Inland Steel Company at Indiana Harbor, to Swift and Company, and to the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. From Chicago the tour continued to St. Louis, where a visit was paid to the Monsanto Chemical Company. The next morning the group spent at the National Cash Register Company in Dayton, Ohio, and that afternoon went on to Pittsburgh, where they visited Westinghouse Electric Corporation and were entertained at dinner by the Cosmopolitan Club.

On the NAM Tour

- 15 -

The NAM tour, and the 1950 Project, concluded on the morning of September 22 at a farewell breakfast in New York. Many, but not all of the members of the Project attended the breakfast on September 22. Some had already left the United States to return to their own countries, others were still working at MIT on research projects which they had started during the summer and planned to complete before November 30; others yet were taking the opportunity of the remaining few weeks to see more of the United States, before returning home.

Sukh Dev Lala - India

Pieter Endt - Netherlands

- 16 -

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The Student Committee and all members of the 1950 Foreign Student Summer Project wish to acknowledge the help and encouragement given to this year's Project by:

All those who contributed funds to make the Project possible

All those on the staff at MIT who contributed their time and services

The many people in other countries who assisted in the preliminary arrangements

Mr. Alfred P. Sloan and Mr. Curtis Calder for their continued interest in our work

Mr. Donald Cook, Mr. Gilbert Anderson, and other members of the State Department and Foreign Service

Mr. Paul Hoffman, Mr. William C. Foster, Mr. Clinton Golden and Mr. John E. Fobes of the Economic Cooperation Administration

Mr. Earl Bunting, Mr. F. Kenneth Brasted, Mr. William Mumpower and Mr. Walter Cooper of the National Association of Manufacturers

Mr. Earl W. Eames, Jr., and Mr. Lloyd A. Haynes, co-founders of the Project who consulted with foreign screening committees

Mr. C. D. Jackson and Mr. Bernard Barnes of Time, Inc., who rendered useful assistance and advice

Mr. Theodore Cook and Mr. Donald Messenger of the Christian Science Monitor

Mr. Wyman Holmes of the World Radio University (Station WRUL)

The members of MIT Student House, the MIT Women's Dormitory, the Harvard Cooperative House and the following MIT fraternities:
* Alpha Club
* Delta Psi
* Kappa Sigma
* Lambda Chi Alpha
* Lenox Club
* Pegis Club
* Phi Beta Epsilon
* Phi Kappa
* Phi Kappa Sigma
* Pi Lambda Phi
* Sigma Nu
* Theta Zi

Mrs. Beatrice Synnott, Mrs. Edith Palmer, Mrs. E. Boyd Doyle of the Hospitality Committee

Mrs. Allyn B. Forbes, Miss Jane Lawton, Miss Sara Hammer, Miss Pauline Perry for their help in transportation

Miss Ruth Haines and Miss Rachel Miller of the Committee on Friendly Relations among Foreign Students

Mr. Everett D. Hawkins and Miss Majorie Fisher of the Mount Holyoke Institute on the United Nations

Mr. Thomas D. Perry and Mr. Frank Sanders of the Berkshire Music Center

Mr. Reginald Zalles, Mr. B. Aronson and Mr. John Horan of the CIO

The Reverend E. Powell Davies and Mr. Laurence Staples of the All Souls Unitarian Church, Washington, D. C.

- 17 -

RESULTS ACHIEVED BY FSSP 1950

Those of us who were members of the Student Committee which organized the 1950 FSSP have had a strong sense of responsibility not only towards the Project which we ourselves were planning, but also to the traditions and standards set by past Projects, and the hopes for future ones. FSSP, we realize, has become an institution, not only at MIT but with connections and impacts throughout the United States, and in many foreign countries. Also, the members of the Student Committee, and those of the faculty and administration directly involved, as well as the students who shared their fraternity houses or dormitories with members of the Project during the summer, certainly feel that they have gained much from their contacts with the Project.

The most important aspect of the program is, of course, the technical training and research which the participants are enabled to do. In this connection, we feel happy and confident to report that the 1950 Project has been extremely successful, as will be revealed in the following pages. Both the participants themselves and the faculty appear very satisfied with the standard of work done this summer. Most of this year's participants were very highly qualified technically, and the results of their work show the extent to which their technical ability was put to use. The Student Committee feel that our decision to include more experienced men on the Project was entirely justified. The quality of the work done, and the ability of the participants to fit into existing research, in most cases of a very advanced nature, have been generally described as better than at either of the preceding Projects. A number of useful inter-university contacts, here and abroad, were established during the summer, as were many personal friendships between members of the MIT staff and participants in the Project.

In addition to the technical and academic aspects of the Project, it has always been the aim of the Student Committee to make a contribution to the broad field of international understanding. To this end, as has been mentioned, efforts are made to house the members of the Projects in mixed national groups and to arrange gatherings at which members of all nationalities are present. It is our feeling that in 1950 the Student Committee was not as successful in this aim as had been the case, previously. Unfortunately, very few members of the 1950 Committee were able to stay at MIT during the summer, and this meant that it was not possible for those of us who stayed to give much time to other than the administrative problems of the Project. Financial arrangements,

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transportation and accommodation on the special trips, contact with plant managers, professors, and all the other people who helped us, took up so much time that we had too little left for informal contact with the participants. The reception in the President's garden, and the International picnic at Round Hill, were organized by members of the Student Committee and on these occasions, and during the special trips, we found that we had more opportunity to become acquainted with the participants than we did while at MIT. It was with relief all the same that we turned over the final organization of the farewell banquet to one of the FSSP'ers, and we are most grateful for the way in which he handled it. The Student Committee feel very strongly that more members of the Committee should be found who can stay in Boston during the Project, so as to help mold the disparate membership into a single unit.

One of the most encouraging things which the members of the Student Committee will have to remember about the 1950 Project is the growing enthusiasm and aid of people in all parts of the world, the United States, and particularly at MIT and in Cambridge. We feel that their enthusiastic reception of the Project indicates that not only the members of the Committee, the members of the Project and the technical work at MIT is benefiting from FSSP, but that ordinary men and women in many different places are gaining from their knowledge of and contact with it. We hope that this will mean that a real and practical interest in such forms of student and technical exchange has been built up by contacts made through FSSP, and we feel that some of the different ideas and values, both technical and national, introduced to us by members of the Project, will result in a broader view of world affairs generally. People in many different fields, education, business and government, have met members of the Project and many fruitful associations have been born. In particular, the interest of such groups as the NAM and the CIO has brought great numbers of people into touch with the Project. We hope that even more people will learn of and by it in the future.

No matter how much encouragement the Student Committee may have from other sources, none of it can ever be as important to us as the appreciation expressed by the participants in the Project themselves. This year, as before, the members of the Project were enthusiastic, not only about the 1950 Project and its results and benefits to them, but also about FSSP, its past and its future. Some of us will be going on to help organize future Projects; others are already among the alumni of the Student Committee. In either case, we have a sure sense that we are in company with a group of men and women scattered widely over the globe to whom, as to us, the initials FSSP mean a great deal.

In the next section of this report, we have taken the comments given us by the members of the 1950 Project, and attempted to show the results of the Project as they appeared to those who participated in it.

- 20 -

John Barry - Ireland

## Reports of Members of 1950 Project

As has happened each year, the members of the Project were asked to submit their comments on the summer's activities and these reports have been carefully studied, both by those who organized the 1950 Project and, with especial interest, by the members of the 1951 Student Committee.

It is impossible to expect that all participants in a Project should be equally satisfied with everything, but the reports reveal that in 1950 everyone gained from at least one of the various aims of the Project. Emphasis this year was laid upon research work, and some most successful results have been obtained. No less than eight papers, dealing with research in the fields of nuclear chemistry, multiple production of mesons, the synthesis of B-Carotene, synthesis of Vitamin A2, the polymerization of Styrene, Colloid chemistry of Elastromers, and colloidal structure of coal and mechanism of coal formation, have been or are likely to be published as a result of this summer's work. Members of the Project who participated in group researches already being undertaken at MIT report that they have gained valuable knowledge and experience from their work.

A disadvantage reported by many of the research workers was that the period of only three months was too short for them to complete satisfactory research. However, it was recognized that the Project was planned

- 21 -

as a short summer course, and in view of the strict return policy adopted
by the Committee and agreed to by all participants, it was suggested that
special care should be taken to insure that research projects be worked out
before arrival, and be designed so that they can be completed within the
time available. In this connection it should also be mentioned that a notable
exception was made by this year's Committee to the return policy adopted
at the beginning of the year. At the earnest request of the MIT faculty and
administration, arrangements have been made for one student, who has
been studying the nuclear energy levels of aluminum and has found evidence
for fine structure in the excited levels, to remain at MIT during the next
year and continue his experiments. The Physics Department at MIT report
that these experiments are of great importance, and the student himself
reports that this is an experiment which he would not have been able to
carry out in his own country without considerable difficulty and delay.

In addition to the facilities for individual or group research, the
members of the Project were able to enroll as observers in any of the
summer courses being given at MIT. In general, there seems to have been
satisfaction with these courses. Members of the Project were selected
from an age and experience group which would find the undergraduate
courses given during the summer term of interest mainly as an introduction
to American methods of teaching, and many of them reported that they found
the courses most valuable and instructive in this respect. Others enrolled
in courses dealing with subjects allied to, but not directly within, their
particular specialization, and reported that they had gained a good deal
from adopting this course of study. Special enthusiasm was shown by the
group studying servomechanisms, who reported that the facilities and
training in this subject at MIT were far in advance of anything they could
find in the various countries from which they came, and were agreed that
the work they had done this summer would open up new fields when they
returned home.

Most of the members appear to have valued highly the opportunity
afforded this summer to meet and discuss their work with the faculty and
students at MIT. The help and guidance volunteered by the professors and
students in the various departments to which members of the Project were
attached was deeply appreciated and praised by the reports. With some
minor exceptions, it was clear that the foreign students found them-
selves welcomed and accepted by both professors and American students,
and in many cases strong ties were forged, either with a faculty adviser
who gave generously of his time and interest to help a particular student,
or with other students working on the same project or taking the same
courses.

Participants seemed to feel that the plant trips arranged during
the time that they were at MIT were not as useful as they might have
been; and some expressed the view that these were often a waste of

- 22 -

valuable time. It was suggested that plant trips might be arranged on a
more personal basis (and in the cases of a few members who, with the
cooperation of Committee members, made such arrangements this summer,
considerable satisfaction was expressed); and that more detailed informa-
tion about the possible plant trips he made available to members early in
the summer so that more selection might be possible. Appreciation was
expressed for the opportunity provided by the NAM tour to gain a general
impression of the processes of American industry, and many of the
participants reported that they had found this tour particularly valuable
and interesting and had gained an entirely new perspective of the size of
America and American industry.

Particular appreciation was expressed by several of the
participants for the book allowance of $50 which was provided by the
Student Committee, and which enabled them to take back to their own
countries books which would not have been available to them there, and
which owing to the dollar shortage, they could not have obtained by other
means.

Aside from the technical aspects of the Project, the participants
this year showed that they had widely differing approaches to the other,
and almost equally important, aims of the program. Owing to the fact
that only a very few members of the Student Committee were able to
remain at MIT during the summer, it was not possible for them to devote
much time to insuring that the participants obtained sufficient contact
among themselves, with other American students, and with local people,

Union of South Africa, U.S., Norway, and Yugoslavia
On Steps of Walker Memorial

- 23 -

Roger Goublin - France

for them to benefit fully from their stay here. The participants expressed sincere appreciation for the hard work and effort put into the Project by the Committee members who were here during the summer, but pointed out the necessity for more people to run the summer program, and urged that this be taken into account in the future. There were also several volunteers among the FSSP'ers who either undertook specific tasks during this summer, or proposed that such jobs be delegated to members in the future. There is constant mention in the report submitted by the members of the Project of the broadening effect of the Program. In particular, successful group contacts were made when they all piled into buses or cars and drove over to the Mount Holyoke Institute on the United Nations, or slept in a barn at the Berkshire Music Festival.

It is, of course, inevitable that some of the members should miss some of the aims of the Project. It is sad to have to relate that one report even went on record as objecting to the inclusion of ex-enemy countries in the Project. Several of the members appear to regard the entire Project as having value simply as technical training, and to have failed to get anything from the group or from the visit to America. But as these were

- 24 -

usually the students who were getting the most benefit from the technical side, it is perhaps to be expected that their absorption in their work should exclude other and, to them certainly, secondary benefits.

There was general enthusiasm for the hospitality extended to members of the Project by the people of Boston, Cambridge and the surrounding districts, and much gratitude and admiration for the generous reception given to them. On week-end parties and at entertainments in private homes, members of the Project got to know each other as well as their American hosts. Some of the members, however, expressed the doubt that the hospitality arranged had enabled them to meet a representative selection of Americans, and several also felt that they had not had adequate opportunities for meeting American students of the graduate and post graduate level, with whom it would have been most valuable for them to discuss their work and its application in their different countries. A criticism of housing which recurred throughout the reports from the participants concerned organized mealtimes, which forced them to abandon either an experiment, or their dinner. In general the housing arrangements, which are one of the most difficult problems faced by the Student Committee, were praised by the participants, and many of them expressed their appreciation of the good fellowship shown by the American students in the fraternities and Student House.

Gordon Vogan - Australia

- 25 -

It is valid to say that the 1950 Project, while perhaps not as well integrated as the previous groups, achieved more in the technical field than has previously been possible, and that most of the participants recognized the broadening effect of the program and received considerable benefits from it. In particular, the members of this Project clearly visualized FSSP as a continuing and sustaining influence, and expressed great interest and concern for its future. Interest was especially expressed in maintaining among themselves and with previous and future groups, the contacts which had been made at MIT. Several of the members' reports refer to the importance of a well-organized Alumni Association, most of them contain references to "next year's Project," and nearly all expressed their appreciation of benefits which FSSP had for them, not just for this summer, but for the future. The feeling of the members of the 1950 Project is best summed up in one of the group reports submitted to the Committee, in which this national group, "notes with satisfaction that FSSP is becoming a regular institution and building up a tradition of its own. We think that the basic idea of FSSP is eminently sound. The gathering of young scientists and engineers from many countries is undoubtedly of great benefit to the participants and their countries of origin, promotes understanding between nations and results in lasting friendships which may well play an important part in the building of a peaceful future for the world."

- 26 -

THE FIRST YEAR - 1948

The initial FSSP was a unique experiment in cooperation between the members of the Student Committee and the visiting engineers and scientists. There was not enough money, not enough time, and little advice based upon previous experience to be had. In this manner the Project took on its present basic form of providing unusual opportunities for study and research at MIT, while adding visits to industrial plants, home hospitality and housing in fraternities. It was the expansion of an original idea with honest criticism and correction supplied by those invited, those cooperating, and those who "ran" the Project.

A reunion planned by the alumni of 1948 has been postponed until 1951 or 1952, due to the difficulties of travel in Europe today with its currency restrictions. However, contact is still maintained by correspondence, circulating books, and visits between FSSP's of neighboring countries. The pressure is strong for a permanent useful alumni association to bind the participants of all years together and for the regular exchange of technical information. Again, however, financing and currency restrictions are great obstacles.

While most of the FSSP's of 1948 were only graduate students and young engineers with little or no practical experience, the results at the end of only two years are gratifying as regards their careers. The type of work they are doing is different in a few cases from that expected two years ago, but the majority are carrying on in their chosen fields. The class can at present be broken down as follows:

<table><tr><td>Engineering work</td><td>52%</td></tr><tr><td>Teaching</td><td>16%</td></tr><tr><td>Research</td><td>16%</td></tr><tr><td>Further studies</td><td>8%</td></tr><tr><td>Other (Sales, eng., etc.)</td><td>8%</td></tr></table>

Those in engineering include a Finn who is now the chief chemist of a large paper and pulp mill, one man who is the chief of maintenance for the only aircraft factory in his country, and one engineer who has his own consulting business in structural engineering.

In the education field are a number of assistant and associate professors and one full professor. There is also one FSSP, '48, who is rapidly becoming a leader in his national engineering association and is

- 27 -

making real progress in re-orienting the engineering education of the
country to give greater balance between the technical and humanity
subjects.

Prominent in the research field are a chief engineer of a new
electrical research laboratory and the scientific director of a new
chemical firm.

This group has a bright future -- after all it has only now crept to
the average of 29.

- 28 -

THE SECOND YEAR - 1949

Friendships of the year before were renewed and strengthened, and new ones established at the Reunion of FSSP, 1949, in Germany this August. Plans for the get-together were laid last winter when Bill Dauner, together with several friends from the Stuttgart Institute of Technology, raised $3,000 to finance the international student meeting after receiving a favorable response from FSSP participants and committee members.

All areas of the globe that were represented in the 1949 FSSP were again present at the Reunion as the young scientists and engineers arrived from the Far East, Near East, Europe, and the United States. Several brought their wives, who were duly initiated into the FSSP fellowship.

After a welcoming dinner by the president of the Institute and several plant visits in and around Stuttgart, we headed south for a swim and boat cruise on Lake Constance; climbed the highest mountain in Germany (beginning only 900 feet below the summit), visited Rococo, Baroque, and Gothic style churches; toured the historic city of Munich where we were guests of the president of the Technical Institute (whose son is a '48 alumnus of FSSP); observed a colorful Bavarian folk dance festival near Starnbergen See; and dined in a 900-year old underground restaurant in Nuremberg.

From there, we traveled westward to Bingen, where we climbed aboard a boat which took us up the Rhine past Lorelei to Coblenz. Here began our most illuminating four days in the tour of Western Germany. We saw the genius of a former I. G. Farben chemical works in Leverkusen, were guests at a sumptuous dinner given by the German Industrial Association in Dusseldorf, and subsequently descended half a mile to view a coal mine, as well as touring the Ruhr valley by boat and visiting several iron and steel factories.

We returned to Stuttgart via Cologne and Bonn, where Dr. Heuss, president of the West German Republic, welcomed us.

The climax of the tour began the first day of September as we landed at Templehof and prepared for a most eventful five days in Berlin. A reception by Mayor Reuter, a dance at the Technical Institute, a visit to the Western underground, a tour of the Eastern section of Berlin including the House of Culture of the Soviet Union and long talks with

- 29 -

1951 FOREIGN STUDENT SUMMER PROJECT

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge 39, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

Greetings from the students of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. We hope that you will be able to attend our summer seminar in 1951, planned for eighty young scientists and engineers from many countries in four continents. Organized by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Project continues to be arranged and actively managed by the National Student Association committee of our Student Government. Tuition is waived by the M.I.T. Corporation. The Economic Cooperation Administration contributes funds for Western Europe, Fulbright grants pay transportation costs in some countries, while AmericanESS assis and Legations serve as an information center in each country. While these and other organizations and individuals cooperate in making F.S.S.P. possible, final control of all phases of the program, including selection, reires in the hands of the student committee.

NATURE OF THE SEMINAR

It is designed for participants who have a specific purpose: (1) A research project or (2) a definite investigation in their field of activity. Most of the participant's time will be spent along these lines, and it is important that we get a clear understanding of your research interests and experience. Participants will be able to work on problems which are already under study here, or some may conduct original research of their own. In addition, those who wish may find time for a few courses from M.I.T.'s regular summer schedule. Trips through industrial plants in the Boston area and the midwest will be arranged. There will be opportunities to see the city of Boston and enjoy its many cultural advantages.

DURATION OF THE SEMINAR

The seminar is organized for the purpose of giving a SHORT-TERM study opportunity for those who cannot leave their business or university for a longer time. The seminar begins June 4 and ends September 14. You are free to stay in the United States until November 30, 1951. BUT YOU MUST LEAVE FOR YOUR COUNTRY BY THAT DATE. This will be enforced by the United States Immigration Service.

Each applicant must sign the declaration of intent to return on or before November 30, 1951, which is printed on the application form. NO application will be considered unless this statement is signed.

SELECTION

A screening committee in your country will review all applications and send the ten or fifteen best to the student committee with its recommendations.

The M.I.T. faculty will consider each application and make recommendations. The student committee will make the final selection, considering the applicant's abilities, including evidences of leadership, the recommendations which have been made concerning him, and M.I.T.'s ability to provide the research requested by the applicant.

All applicants who pass the screening committee's review will be notified of results in April.

EXPENSES

The student committee will provide for all necessary expenses during the 15-week period, but not after September 14. This includes tuition, room, books, necessary travel within the U.S.A., as well as a minimum allowance for food, materials. Information on oceanic transportation is available from:

REQUIREMENTS FOR APPLICANTS

1. Minimum of four years' of university study in science, engineering, architecture, or regional planning.

2. A minimum of two years' experience after graduation in those same fields, in industry, teaching, or research.

3. A good command of the English language.

Must not be over THIRTY-TWO (32) years of age.

INSTRUCTIONS TO APPLICANTS:

Return to the place indicated on the application form, the signed application together with:

1. A concise statement of your objectives (e.g., research, courses, cultural, personal) in attending the seminar. Be detailed about your research plans.

2. The two attached endorsement forms filled out, one by a professor under whom you have studied, the other by the head of the department in which you are employed. They must be sealed by the endorser and returned to you.

3. Transcripts of your university grades and an explanation of the grading system unless it is impossible to do so.

- 31 -

REPORT ON THE

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

FOREIGN STUDENT SUMMER PROJECT, 1948

The National Student Association Committee at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has prepared this report especially for the six hundred delegates who are meeting together at the First Annual National Student Congress. We believe we have found a very worthwhile and practical idea, and we want to let other students know more about our MIT Foreign Student Summer Project.

Students who were here at the Constitutional Convention last year will remember that this Project was discussed and approved by the Congress then. We ask all of you to read through this Report during your five days here at Madison. We ask you to give real consideration to such a Project for your own school. We urge you to approach your administrations and let them see how the students at one school, through their NSA Committee, have made it possible to aid in educational rehabilitation and reconstruction.

We envision this type of project, always adapted to varying conditions, introduced on several campuses during the next year. Although it is a Project of considerable undertaking, a more concrete way of building good international relations has not yet occurred to our group. Please give this Report your most urgent consideration.

Our Committee wishes to acknowledge the advice and assistance given to us at all stages of our program by Robert S. Smith, Vice President for International Student Affairs, United States National Student Association.

1 August, 1948

Dr. Karl Taylor Compton, President
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, 39, Massachusetts

Dear Dr. Compton,

On behalf of our student committee, we hereby submit to you
our *Report on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Foreign Student Summer Project, 1948*. With this report go our deep appreciation
and sincere thanks to you for your cooperation and readiness to aid us
in every possible way. Without your support and the splendid cooperation of the MIT Corporation, other members of the Administration, and
many members of the Faculty, our Project could not have succeeded.

It is a very real pleasure for us to be in attendance at a school
which always stands ready to aid students in their extra-curricular activities, and which allows students a real measure of freedom in carrying out those activities.

The *Report* contains a brief description of the Foreign Student Summer Project followed by an Evaluation. We then continue with sub-topics, each dealing with a specific phase of our work.

We hope that this *Report* meets with your approval.

Lloyd A. Haynes
Chairman, National Student
Association Committee

TABLE OF CONTENTS

<table><tr><td>The Project in Brief</td><td>1</td></tr><tr><td>Evaluation</td><td>7</td></tr><tr><td>The Foreign Students' Comments</td><td>8</td></tr><tr><td>What Other People Think of the Project</td><td>10</td></tr><tr><td>Administration</td><td>13</td></tr><tr><td>Selection</td><td>15</td></tr><tr><td>Publicity</td><td>21</td></tr><tr><td>Fund-Raising</td><td>23</td></tr><tr><td>The Students' Arrival</td><td>29</td></tr><tr><td>The Students at MIT</td><td>35</td></tr><tr><td>Acknowledgements</td><td>43</td></tr><tr><td>The Foreign Students</td><td>45</td></tr><tr><td>The FSSP Committee</td><td>49</td></tr></table>

THE PROJECT IN BRIEF

Beginning as an idea that students should be able to play their part in the educational reconstruction and rehabilitation of Europe, the MIT Foreign Student Summer Project has developed into a program which has gone far beyond the rehabilitation aspects to a stage where it may truly be called "a new experiment in international relations.

In May, 1947, toward the end of the school year, we students active in the National Student Association Committee at MIT, most of whom had seen and participated in the destruction of Europe in World War II, and all of whom were aware of their obligation to students in the war-torn countries, decided that we would attempt to invite science and engineering students for a course during the summer of 1948.

After giving careful consideration to the plan, we presented our idea to the Constitutional Convention of the National Student Association, a federation of student governments representing hundreds of universities and colleges throughout our country, and obtained unanimous approval. When we returned to school in September, 1947, we went to Dr. Karl T. Compton, President of MIT, and presented our plan to him, asking for his help in bringing a maximum of eighty students to Tech for the summer. He was immediately enthusiastic and offered his complete cooperation, at the same time telling us that since this was a student project he felt it should be organized and run by students. We are very pleased to say that the

1

Project has always remained a student program, with the utmost co-operation and assistance from administration and faculty whenever such help was requested. Dr. Compton told us he would place the matter before the Executive Committee of the Corporation with a request for it to waive the tuition payment for eighty students. This request was soon granted and our expenses were greatly reduced.

We then discussed the Project with members of our student governing body, the Institute Committee, and were given authority to form a Project Committee under our NSA Committee together with funds for the initiation of such a plan.

By November 1, a Committee of twenty began consideration of the real problems involved in the Project, and they were many. We had first to decide the details of selection; fund raising needed careful consideration; plans for publicizing the Project had to be worked out.

Our Committee structure was very flexible at all times. At weekly meetings we would decide, after full discussion, what things had to be done during the following week, and various people would be assigned to do them. The number of students working on the Committee varied slightly, but remained around twenty most of the year.

The first problem we settled was what criteria we should use in selection and how students were to be chosen. We decided to invite between sixty and eighty graduate students in science and engineering from all war-devastated countries, whether former enemy or ally, and with no regard for politics, religion, or race. They would have to have a good knowledge of English, and would be chosen both on their academic record and their extra-curricular activities.

The actual selection of the students overseas was a large problem which was solved to our complete satisfaction. Through the cooperation of the International Student Service and the Division of the International Exchange of Persons of the United States Department of State (IEP), screening committees were set up in most of the countries concerned to distribute information and applications, to interview and screen all of the applicants, and to send the completed applications together with recommendations to our final selection committee at MIT. An excellent selection procedure as carried out in France appears later in this Report.

Sixty-two students were finally selected and are now in attendance -- six from Finland, two from Sweden, five from Norway,

3

four from Denmark, four from Belgium, five from The Netherlands, four from Great Britain, eight from France, one from Germany, one from Austria, eight from Italy, one from Bulgaria, three from Czechoslovakia, six from Poland, and four from Greece.

About December first, after considerable support had developed and when it became evident that the Project could become a success, we decided that it was vitally necessary for someone to visit Washington, D.C., to talk with the U.S. Department of State, other interested government officials, and to the ambassadors and ministers of the countries concerned. Lloyd Haynes and Earl W. Eames, Jr. were sent as representatives of the Committee. Letters were sent several weeks in advance, and during the week of 30 January to 6 February, twenty-seven appointments were completed. In most cases, we discussed our Project with the ambassador or minister, and in every case we were very well received. Their initial reaction was nearly always the same -- surprise that a student group could be undertaking such a program. We explained our Project in detail to diplomatic representatives of the following countries: Belgium, Russia, Norway, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Yugoslavia, Poland, Great Britain, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Rumania, Denmark, Bulgaria, Hungary, France, and Greece. The Civil Affairs Division of the Department of the Army was consulted on the German and Austrian students.

We feel that a very great deal was accomplished by our Washington trip. Besides meeting the diplomatic officials and being able to go into detail with regard to selection, transportation, etc., we also were able to meet the various officials in our own government -- people in the IEP and Visa Divisions of the State Department, in the United States Office of Education, and in the Maritime Commission. This established in their minds the worthiness of the Project and enlisted their support.

While our selection procedure and our contact with the governments was going on, we were also busy on our fund raising. Our initial budget was set at $90,000. Tuition had been granted by the MIT Corporation; we next approached the MIT fraternities to see if they would house the students. All of those fraternities remaining open during the summer agreed to do so, and another hurdle was successfully passed. Our actual cash outlay was first set at $25,000; later it was revised upwards to $30,000. This covered food, books, laundry, equipment, insurance, haircuts, dry-cleaning and incidentals, plus some of the transportation costs not already paid by the governments.

4

We first thought that the various educational foundations would be able to give us grants to aid in our Project. We found, however, that they allocated their funds during the summer and we were too late to obtain grants. A faculty and student drive gave us operating funds, but we had to rely on individual contacts to raise most of our money. It was a nearly impossible job. Committee members worked long and late for months, getting out over two thousand letters, checking lists and making personal visits, and flunking quizzes. As this report goes to press, some money is still lacking; throughout the summer, the small group running the Project at MIT had to continue its job of raising funds. Now that the Project has proved such a successful experiment in international relations, it is to be hoped that our Committee can find help from some of the foundations set up to aid worthy causes in the international field. Without this help such a plan cannot be undertaken another year, for the extra work involved in fund raising is too much for students to undertake.

We announced our Project to the press and radio on March 1, and we have since been very fortunate in having excellent coverage in papers throughout the country. The Christian Science Monitor has followed our program very closely, and other Boston papers, the Herald, the Post, and the Traveller, as well as the New York Times and the New York Herald Tribune gave us fine articles. Radio station WRUL furnished time for us to broadcast short wave to Europe on March 21, inviting the students to participate. Other local stations gave us time to request financial support from the community, and planned other programs. The New York Times and a national magazine are both scheduled to come out with picture stories in the near future.

Time went on; applications poured into our office, final arrangements for transportation were completed, and the date of arrival of the students grew closer. Since first impressions are always important, great pains were taken to organize and coordinate the students' activities upon their arrival. Members of the Committee met the students and had living quarters arranged for them in New York, usually with the help of the consuls or other diplomatic officials. Organized group activities were planned -- tours of New York, trips to United Nations Headquarters, etc. -- and the students, most of whom arrived between 8 June and 14 June, all remained in New York until the reception at the Waldorf-Astoria on June 16. There they met many of the ambassadors and ministers, and other officials, after which they immediately came to Cambridge to begin their courses.

5

A special registration procedure was planned, and the Project Chairman interviewed each student during the first three days of classes to make financial arrangements and to explain our Project organization.

In addition to providing an opportunity for technical work and advanced study, we planned other important aspects of the Project. We felt that students would derive much benefit from first-hand knowledge of American industry, American people and institutions. Consequently, two plant visits were planned each week for about twenty students, while seminars and discussions were held at least once a week. An information program was organized to give the students an opportunity to ask their most embarrassing questions to a board of experts composed of prominent professors, scientists, newsmen, and artists. The students visited the United Nations, where they were greeted by Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt. The Institute of the United Nations invited the students to spend a week end at Mt. Holyoke College to participate in panel discussions and recreational activities. WRUL offered radio time for each student to give a short-wave broadcast to his home country. Since home hospitality and picnics would require support of a Boston organization, we approached the United Nations Association of New England to assist us. Through their cooperation two international picnics were planned to give the students a chance to meet Americans and to get to know each other better. Whenever students desired, they would be invited to spend the week end with families in Boston and the surrounding area. From the many comments received, the hospitality and lectures played an extremely important part in the program.

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EVALUATION

It seems clear to us that the Foreign Student Summer Project is one answer -- and, we feel, a very good one -- to the problem of increasing student exchange in the face of such overwhelming odds as the dollar shortage and the high cost of ocean transportation. It is an answer that can be given by students -- one concrete way that students may aid in reconstruction and rehabilitation, and one direct method of building understanding between peoples.

It is a Project that has not only made it possible for European students to study in the United States and learn to understand better our attitudes and our people; it has brought together for the first time these students from fifteen countries so that they can learn to know each other.

There is no question in our minds that the students have gained a tremendous amount of knowledge during their stay here. A few of them did really remarkable work at MIT; some of them have done actual research work that was not possible for them to do in their own universities; most of them have followed laboratory courses and studied subjects which they could not easily have done at home; they have all spent their time wisely and well in the libraries, laboratories, and lecture halls at MIT.

Besides the technical aspect of the Project there stands the social and extra-curricular opportunities. The lectures and discussions, the information programs, the week-end hospitality, the

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picnics, and the general over-all view of America was equal in importance to the academic work the students accomplished.

We hope that the MIT Foreign Student Summer Project of 1948 will be the beginning of similar plans in other American colleges, where others, while they are still students, may share in the stimulating task of increasing understanding among the youth of the World.

## THE FOREIGN STUDENTS' COMMENTS

"When our wonderful sojourn in your country is over and we go back to Greece, we shall most certainly be the best good-will ambassadors America ever sent abroad."

Greek students

"I would like to applaud the summer scheme with its possibilities for Europeans to become acquainted with American scientific methods, research and teaching techniques... and also with American life."

Austrian student

"... (the Project is) a unique event in the history of engineering relations among nations."

Belgian students

"We hope that in the way shown by FSSP it will be possible to establish permanent relations on an organized basis among scientific institutions throughout the world for the purpose of exchanging students, lecturers, and scientific knowledge."

Czechoslovakian students

"FSSP represents the first step in the realization of a splendid idea, namely to promote, by exchange of students, the spirit of cooperation and understanding among intellectuals all over the world. I believe that this idea can help a great deal to introduce into this troubled world, split by seemingly incompatible political trends and traditions, an element of tolerance and benevolence."

German student

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WHAT OTHER PEOPLE THINK OF THE PROJECT

"It is like a breath of fresh air to turn from the hard dogmas and smug platitudes of the current political scene to such a live quest for better understanding between men of ability in all nations."

--Editorial -- Christian Science Monitor.

"I feel great admiration for your enterprise in planning such ex-
changes this year, despite the many formidable problems involved,
and wish you the greatest success in carrying your plans to a
successful conclusion."

--Lord Inverchapel
Retiring British Ambassador.

"We are confident that the exchange plan will pay dividends in the form of better relations between this country and the rest of the world."

--Editorial -- New York Times.

"...this offer of the MIT students has been exceedingly well received, both officially and unofficially. From the standpoint of international relations, its importance is very great indeed."

--Leslie S. Brady, Cultural Attache
U. S. Embassy, Paris.

"I believe that your Project is the most ambitious and commendable one initiated by any American undergraduates...."

--Kendric N. Marshall
U. S Office of Education.

"...(the students' plan) is the best one that has come to my attention. They should be highly congratulated."

--Arthur H. Compton, Chancellor
Washington University.

"I am sure that these students will derive much benefit from the hospitality afforded them...and from the scientific and technical instruction received at the Institute...(The Department) will

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welcome the opportunity, I am sure, to offer similar cooperation in
the future."

--George V. Allen, Assistant Secretary of State.

"MIT students should be congratulated for their breadth of vision in
fashioning their own kind of Marshall Plan."

--Editorial -- Boston Herald.

"I have heard about your project, and think it altogether
admirable -- a practical lesson, indeed, to our paper-bound
officials. . . who do not seem to be able to slash through their forms
and protocols to the human beings for whom the forms and protocols
exist. More power to your elbow! I wish you and yours were in
positions of authority."

--Howard Mumford Jones, President of
American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

"This is strictly a student project, but I've never seen one so
perfectly organized, so beautifully and painstakingly run. . . ."

--Bill Cunningham in Boston Herald.

"The generous gesture of MIT of making it possible for Austrian
students to study in the U.S. accomplishes something of inestimable
value. . . and is a great stimulus to the morale of the Austrian
people. . ."

--Samuel H. Williams, Chief
Education Division, U.S. Forces in Austria.

"I hope that. . . your project will have the success that you and other
high-minded young men who conceived and executed it deserve."

--Sava N. Kosanovic, Ambassador of Yugoslavia.

"Having seen these students in action both in classroom and at week-
end conferences I can testify that it was thoroughly worthwhile. It is
to be most enthusiastically endorsed, and the MIT students are to be
congratulated for showing the way by which real international
understanding may be created."

--Raymond Dennett, Director
World Peace Foundation.

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ADMINISTRATION

One word could adequately describe our administrative set
up -- it is flexible. At no time from the very beginning of the Project
has there been set down a rigid organization chart and chain of com-
mand. In November, upon approval by our student government, a
committee of twenty volunteers began meeting together. After this
nucleus had been formed and preliminary studies had been completed
on housing, tuition, and food problems, we felt it was time to make
reports in our school newspaper, mentioning present activities but
always emphasizing the goal to which the group was looking forward.

At weekly meetings the chairman would ask for reports and
assign new work as it came up. Some of the Committee members
concentrated on particular aspects of the Project, while others con-
cerned themselves with general over-all planning.

To keep all members informed of day-to-day activities, we
made an effort to have all incoming and outgoing mail available in
boxes in the office. In addition to this method, several members of
the Committee would often eat together in the evening to talk over the
day's events and discuss the policy that should be followed.

Since there was a considerable amount of office work to be
done, one of our students, Morris L. Wasserstein, dropped school to
become executive secretary, and spent full time in our office from
March through the summer. All other Committee members worked
while enrolled in school.

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It is estimated that approximately 2800 letters were sent out during the year; two thousand were primarily concerned with fund raising, and eight hundred dealt directly with the arrangements for student participation, publicity, etc. It was sometimes necessary to get additional secretarial help from the MIT secretaries, friends of committee members, and interested individuals outside of the school. In this regard, Marie Taverna gave very generously of her time in helping us get out fund-raising letters, and helped a great deal during the summer in general office routine.

The personnel problem is a serious one in a program of this sort. It is essential that the person be interested in the Project for the benefits the foreign students may receive from it rather than from those which the individual will undoubtedly derive. Experience has shown us the damage that can be wrought by the person who works on the Project solely as a business enterprise that will enhance his own prestige. For this reason, we feel we were correct in forming a committee under our NSA Committee. Generally, members of this Committee were willing to actively participate in such a service program.

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## SELECTION

In the early days of our Project planning no question seemed more difficult than that of selection. How were we to make sure we were getting "the seventy best young engineers and scientists" of Europe? How could we be sure that they would satisfy our qualifications, particularly the strict English requirement?

As it turned out, all of our doubts and worries were unjustified. With a tremendous effort on the part of many individuals and groups in Europe and with the active cooperation of International Student Service and the International Exchange of Persons Division of the U. S. Department of State, we solved the problem of selection to our complete satisfaction.

We first decided the criteria we would use in selecting the students:

1. The Project would invite a maximum of eighty students.

2. Only graduate students would be accepted, for only they would have the necessary background of studies to get the maximum benefit from such a course.

3. The upper age limit would be set at 35.

4. Because of the emergency educational reconstruction emphasis, only students from the war devastated countries would be asked to participate.

5. Quotas of students for the various countries would be set.

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be assigned with regard to the number of students
in their universities and also to the amount of war
damage done to their educational institutions.

6. Due to transportation difficulties, only European students would be asked to participate this first year.

7. In no case would there be discrimination of any sort. Candidates would be chosen only on a basis of their academic record, their character references, and their extra-curricular activities.

8. A good reading and speaking knowledge of English would be required.

In December, 1947, several Committee members visited the Institute of International Education in New York City to find out in what way that group could be of help to us. IIE has a great deal to do with bringing foreign students to the United States for regular academic terms and we hoped we could obtain aid from them. We found the IIE administers an English examination in various centers throughout Europe. The charge for each exam is ten dollars, however, which in our case was entirely out of the question. At that time we were hoping to have at least three hundred applications, and three thousand dollars seemed a very great deal indeed to find out whether or not the students were proficient in English. As it turned out, we had over seven thousand applications, and such an expense was far beyond our means. The Institute had no other help to offer us.

Another organization whose help we sought was the World Student Service Fund. WSSF is attempting to enter into an expanded program which besides including the regular relief and rehabilitation work will also help to sponsor student exchange and travel. They are directly tied to International Student Service, which has international headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. Mr. Wilmer J. Kitchen in the New York Office told us that ISS would be able to help us select students through their national committees in each country of Europe. We immediately began correspondence with Mr. Jack Peter, Executive Secretary, and Dr. Malcolm Adiseshiah, Assistant General Secretary, both in Geneva, hoping that they would give us their full cooperation.

In February when we visited Washington we went over the problem of selection very carefully with the International Exchange of Persons Division of the State Department. Our first conference was with Mr. Donald B. Cook, Mr. Douglas Heilbrun, and Miss Marjory Martus of IEP. Mr. Cook pointed out that the Foreign Service has a policy of never "selecting" students; they would, however, "screen"

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a large group and submit a smaller number to us for our final consideration. IEP is attempting to set up permanent screening committees abroad, and has, in fact, already established several committees in conjunction with IIE in the other American Republics and the Eastern Hemisphere.

In a later conference with Mr. Cook and Dr. Francis J. Colligan, Chief of IEP, we made complete arrangements to work closely with the Division on our Project. IEP requested the active aid of each cultural attache or cultural relations officer at the U.S. Embassies and Legations located in the countries concerned. They were requested to set up screening committees, to ascertain the students' English proficiency, and to work with the interested schools and governments in publicizing the Project. Our relations with IEP have always been the very best. They handled many hundreds of messages for us -- letters, cables, and calls -- always with efficiency and dispatch.

Our Committee now had two separate and independent sources of selection -- the cultural attaches through the State Department and the National ISS committees through WSSF.

While these negotiations were going on, we were planning our actual application form. As we were handicapped throughout our entire selection-planning by a serious lack of time, our application blank was made up and sent out in a great hurry. Consequently, it was not in the best form. While it asked most of the essentials: name, age, sex, school attended, degrees held, extra-curricular activities, etc., some points were either not mentioned or were given little emphasis: marks earned, details as to work done in the field, and the statement of what the student hoped to accomplish at MIT.

The application forms, together with a letter to the student and course description brochures, were sent to the State Department and to WSSF on 23 February for them to forward overseas. Being optimistic young men, we originally hoped to have all applications returned to us by 10 April, but this proved impossible in most cases. The Finnish and Dutch applications arrived on time, but most of the others were from two to seven weeks late. We realize that we did not allow enough time for adequate publicity and screening overseas. The screening committees overseas did a tremendous job in an extremely short time, and our Committee wishes to express its gratitude for the good work done.

As a particularly fine example of a screening procedure we

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will briefly describe the work done in France by the U. S. Cultural
Attache, Leslie S. Brady, and Mrs. Marsh, of the Cultural Relations
section of the U. S. Embassy in Paris. We here quote from the letter
Mr. Brady sent to us enclosing the French applications.

"The directors of all of the top-rank engineering schools and laboratories in France were asked by the French official bureau selecting scholarship candidates to publicize the MIT offer and to recommend a maximum of three of their best qualified recent graduates. The directors of the research or engineering divisions of several large industrial establishments and public utilities, as well as the heads of the various engineering associations, were similarly notified.

The candidates were then interviewed for 30 minutes each by
Mrs. Marsh. During the interview she tried to determine whether
their ability to understand English and their ability to express them-
selves in the technical terms of their specialty seemed sufficient to
permit them to profit from the courses immediately. Those that
were satisfactory and seemed likely candidates were asked to
complete their application form.

The applications of the best candidates were then screened by
a group composed as follows:

M. Jean Baillou, Director of International Educational Exchanges,
Cultural Relations, French Foreign Ministry

M. Audra, Director of Office National des Ecoles et Universites
françaises

Melle J. Boucoiran, Assistant for the selection of French
government scholars for Anglo-Saxon countries, Cultural Relations,
French Foreign Ministry

M. St. Giulhem, Vice President, Union des Grandes Ecoles
(engineering students undergraduate organization)

Mrs. C. Marsh, Cultural Relations, U. S. Embassy.

The final listing is the result of this group's evaluation of the
applications, plus the recommendations of a leading French engineer
with an over-all view of French technical development, who gave
helpful advice on the fields of engineering vital to French industrial
development at the present time."

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We feel that this procedure was both well thought out and
skillfully executed. That a great deal of work went into such a care-
ful plan is self-evident; we are pleased that they could do such a fine
job for us.

Each ISS Committee and cultural attache sent the screened
applications back to our office, and final selection was made here by
a committee of students together with several faculty advisors who
know the European schools very well. We had several meetings at
which we looked over the applications and letters of recommendation
and made our final selection, which followed, in most cases, the
suggestions of the screening committees.

Recommendations

1. Future projects should make use of screening committees set up by either the ISS Committee or the American cultural attache.

2. Selection committees should include a representative of the National Union of Students in the particular country.

3. Efforts should be made to reduce the cost of the English examination administered by the Institute of International Education.

4. Plans should be made enough in advance so that the application forms will be in the students' hands at least six months before the beginning of the Project.

5. Every effort should be made to obtain an accurate evaluation of the equivalent training and academic honors of the foreign student as compared with American standards. These may be obtained from the cultural attache.

6. Application forms should be well thought out and should explain clearly what is wanted. For example, our question on extra-curricular activities was misinterpreted in a great many cases because the term was unknown in some European countries. The form should include the student's scholastic record, details as to work he has done in his particular field, and a statement of what he hopes to accomplish at the school if he is accepted.

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PUBLICITY

We have been most fortunate in our newspaper and radio coverage. The papers in our area were particularly interested in the Project when they found that it was student planned and student run; this fact was played up a great deal in the press. From 1 March, when we first announced the Project, until 16 June, the MIT clipping service has sent us 106 articles from 17 states ranging all the way from two front page picture articles in the Christian Science Monitor, and editorials in the Monitor, the Boston Herald, and the New York Times, through full articles in the Boston Post, the New York Times, and the New York Herald Tribune, down to several lines of print in some Western weeklies. Throughout the rest of the summer many articles will be appearing in newspapers and magazines.

In addition, we have found it helpful to use the medium of radio. Besides giving us support in our fund-raising drive, some of the stations in Boston have broadcast interviews with the students, and one station, WCOP, has arranged a regular Monday evening series of broadcasts where Geoffrey Munday, one of our guests from Great Britain, interviews another of the students as to impressions of the country, interests, and general reactions.

Although the Project was completely student run, we learned early in the planning that it was advisable for us to clear with the President's office or the official news bureau at the Institute any release concerning official MIT policy.

21

We obtained much useful information and advice from Mr. John J. Rowlands, the Director of the News Service at MIT, as to the best day to send releases, names of persons on the various Boston papers, and hints as to correct presentation. We found that personal visits to newspapers -- leisurely visits during which we could thoroughly explain our Project -- were of very great importance to receiving a good presentation. Since we had decided to invite students from all war-devastated countries, there was quite often an initial reaction which we could only counter by patient explanation about our motives for including all countries in our reconstruction program.

## Recommendations

1. Consult your college press agent and local newspaper men for advice.

2. Talk over the project with newspaper editors and reporters and radio men before sending them releases by mail.

3. Send releases often; if you are trying to raise funds in the community, it will pay to keep the project before the public eye.

4. Be accurate in all information you distribute.

5. Join a clipping service. It will be impossible for you to keep a collection of articles that will appear throughout the country.

6. Assign one man to be completely responsible for all news releases pertaining to the project.

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