Ferdinand Redtenbacher

Under Redtenbacher's leadership, the Karlsruhe Polytechnic achieved world renown and became the model for many a foundation or reorganization of other higher technical educational institutions, such as the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich in 1855.
Redtenbacher's great significance lies in the mathematization of mechanical engineering, i.e. he led mechanical engineering from its predominantly manual-empirical basis to applied higher mathematics. Ferdinand Redtenbacher thus paved the way for the scientificization of technology by taking scientific phenomena into account, for example in the construction of power machines. Many well-known mechanical engineers such as Eugen Langen and Emil Skoda studied under Redtenbacher. Redtenbacher's separation of the study of chemistry and mechanics in 1847 created the conditions for the brilliant rise of chemistry and mechanical engineering at Karlsruhe Polytechnic.
Redtenbacher advocated a broad humanistic education for engineers and promoted the subjects of philosophy, history, literature, economics and political and legal studies.

".. By the way, I must confess that I have not been interested in these steam engine control stories and the whole machine itself for a long time. A few percent more or less fuel is not important, and there is nothing more to be gained from such fiddling. From now on, I consider it more worthwhile to rack our brains over heat and put an end to our present steam engines, and hopefully this will happen in the not too distant future as the nature and effects of heat gradually become clearer. Of course, the capital invention still has to be made so that ... ... these machines in particular are given a moderate volume; but all this will probably be found once the inner essence of the matter has been completely clarified ..."
(Redtenbacher 1856, quoted from: Propyläen Technikgeschichte, 4th vol., p.53)