Chapter History

The Lamar University Delta Beta Chapter of Eta Kappa Nu (HKN) has a long and illustrious history that stretches back to the formation of the chapter on March 26th of 1960. In December of 1959 a petition to form a chapter was made by the Electrical Engineering students of the Lamar State College of Technology, which was later to become Lamar University. The student petitioners were:

Charles Zoch

The petition included the curriculum vitaes of the following Electrical Engineering faculty:

The ETA KAPPA NU Honor Stole

The honor stole for Eta Kappa NU electrical and computer engineering honor society is embroidered onto gold satin. The color gold is used to symbolize the metal with the least resistance. The symbolism is taken from Ohms law applied to HKN members in that they will end up with the most potential (V) if they can carry a heavy load (I) with the least resistance (R). Gold also symbolizes the honor associated with being a member of HKN. The great seal of Eta Kappa Nu is embroidered in Royal Blue. Royal Blue is the Society color, taken from the HKN Shield, and signifies the loyalty that he founding fathers and HKN members display in performing their life's work,

The HKN seal is symbolic of many aspects of electrical and computer engineering. The outer circle is a 3-phase sine wave representative of the electrical power industry. The inner circle represents a binary modulated canter wave symbolizing both digital and analog communications, spanning such concepts as Morse Code, radio transmission, binary on-off keying, and digital modem technologies.

In early Greece, there was a philosopher who discovered that if he rubbed a piece of amber With a cloth he experienced a phenomenon known as static electricity. The Greek name of amber is electron, spelled H L E K T P 0 N, (Eta, Lambda, Epsilon, Kappa, Tau, Rho, Omicron and Nu). From this word physicists and electrical engineers derive the words electricity, electron, and electronic. And from this name we derive our society name by using the first, the fourth, and the last letters, namely, Eta Kappa and Nu. The words Eta, Kappa, and Nu appear at the top of the circle of the Great Seal.

In the center of the great Seal is the Wheatstone Bridge, the emblem of our Society. The Wheatstone Bridge is an accurate precision electrical instrument, but the significant analogy which we draw from it for Eta Kappa Nu is the fact that it is in balance when it is correctly adjusted. As members of Eta Kappa Nu, we strive to lead a balanced life, a life in which scholarship, character, and personality are jointly developed. In using the Wheatstone Bridge, an unknown quantity can be determined when the other three elements are known, the three qualities of which we are certain in an HKN member are scholarship, character, and personality. When these three are balanced then the unknown quantity, success, is determined. Remember that the Wheatstone Bridge is symbolic of a balanced person. Across the center of the Wheatstone Bridge, where the meter is connected, an, emblazoned the Greek letters H, K, and N. The early form of the Greek letters are used, where Eta has a bar across the top and bottom of the letter, and the right leg of Kappa and Nu do not extend fully to the baseline. The HKN honor stole is a symbol of your membership HKN and should old be worn only by HKN members at Graduation, Installation, or other Chapter activities. Wear the stole with honor to signify your membership in HKN.