History of

1858

Engineering College IOWA STATE

The Iowa Agricultural College is founded on March 22 when Governor Ralph P. Lowe signs a bill to establish a State Agricultural College and Model Farm. In the beginning, eleven classes were taught in two curriculaagriculture and mechanic arts. (The latter is now referred to as engineering.) From the mechanics course, the school began almost immediately to develop programs in several branches of engineering. The 26 members of Iowa States first graduating class included four civil and two mechanical engineers.

1873
The college motto, Science with Practice, is first used.

1879
Marston Water Tower Iowa State College grants the nations first masters degree in engineering.

1891
Iowa State College establishes a Department of Physics and Electrical Engineering, offering courses in electrical engineering and physical science.

1897
The Marston Water Tower, the first steel and tallest water tower west of the Mississippi, is built. Anson Marston, the head of civil engineering at the time and later the dean of engineering, designed the tower to provide an adequate supply of water on campus. Using steel instead of wood allowed him to double the load requirements and elevate the 162,000-gallon barrel more than 150 feet.

1898
The Board of Trustees adopts an official seal with the colleges new name, The Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic ArtsScience with Practice. Four divisional groupings are made: agriculture, veterinary science, engineering, and science and philosophy.Iowa State University Seal

1903
Engineering Hall (now Marston Hall) is built at a cost of $218,500. The Iowa Legislature passes a bill that appropriates $3,500 for the establishment of the Iowa State Highway Commission to create better roads for automobiles. The appropriation was eventually administered by the dean of engineering, Anson Marston, and the dean of agriculture, Charles F. Curtiss.

1904
Anson Marston becomes the first dean of engineering. He develops the Engineering Experiment Stationthe nations first research agency organized in an engineering school. The purpose was to support faculty research in the emerging areas of science and technology and then transfer the results to the states industries.

1905
Professor Jay Brownlee (J. B.) Davidson arrives on campus and leads the development of the nations first four-year course in agricultural engineering.

1906
Research in geotechnical engineering begins, providing the foundation for Iowa States leadership role in highway systems research. Tau Beta Pi Logo

The Iowa Legislature mandates a course in ceramic engineering to meet the demand for technical support for manufacturers of ceramic drainage tiles.
1907
Tau Beta Pi, an engineering honor society, is installed on campus.

1909
The Department of Electrical Engineering is created when electrical engineering and physics split into two departments.

1910
The first agricultural engineering degree in the world is granted to Jacob E. Waggoner. The engineering student body begins an annual celebration of St. Patricks Day in honor of the patron saint of engineering.

1919
The industrial engineering core curriculum is established.

1922
VEISHEA, the nations first and largest student-run festival, is started by combining the festivals celebrated by each division. Professor Frank Paine, electrical engineering, submits the winning name for the new celebration. The letters stand for the first letters of the divisions: VVeterinary Medicine, EEngineering, ISIndustrial Science, HE Home Economics, AAgriculture.Veishea Celebration

1925
Iowa State College confers its first PhD in engineering to Douglas Vern Moses in chemical engineering.

1929
The Department of General Engineering (the predecessor to industrial engineering) is established with offices in Engineering Hall(now Atanasoff-Berry ComputerMarston Hall).

1939
The worlds first electronic digital computer (Atanasoff-Berry Computer) is built by Iowa State physics professor John Atanasoff and electrical engineering graduate student Clifford Berry.

1941
The State Board of Education approves an aerospace department to be administrated by the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

1942
Frank Spedding and Harley Wilhelm develop a uranium purification method necessary for a self-sustaining atomic reaction.

1943
The Curtiss-Wright Cadettes Program is established to train college women to function during World War II as assistants in the engineering department. Sponsored by the Curtiss-Wright Corporation, the course consists of work in methods, mechanics, drafting, and processing.

1947
Engineering Hall is named Marston Hall in honor of Anson Marston, longtime professor and the first dean of engineering at Iowa State. Marston was informed of the honor on May 31, 1944, at a small dinner commemorating his 80th birthday.Marston Hall The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission formally announces the location of one of its major research facilities at Ames, to be known as the Ames Laboratory. Frank Spedding is named its first director.

1956
A degree in industrial engineering is offered. An option in industrial engineering had been available for mechanical engineers since 1919.

1957
Distinguished professorships are awarded for the first time in Iowa States five divisions of agriculture, engineering, home economics, science, and veterinary medicine.

1959

On July 4, the Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts is officially named the Iowa State University of Science and Technology. Engineering and the other four divisions are now colleges.

1963
The Center for Industrial Research and Service (CIRAS), is founded, with a mission to enhance the performance of Iowa industry.

1970
David Nicholas, a student in electrical engineering, develops a filter and synchronization mechanism for Huffman codes, which is later used in fax machines.

1972
Tau Beta Pi, an engineering honor society, allows women to join as full-fledged members.

1975
The Department of Materials Science and Engineering is formed by the merger of the previously existing Departments of Ceramic Engineering and Metallurgy.
1980
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration selects Iowa State and the College of Engineering as the site for one of seven U.S. centers of excellence in computational fluid dynamics. 1981 The Marston Water Tower is placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

1985
The Center for Nondestructive Evaluation is formed as a National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center.

1986
The Program for Women in Science and Engineering is founded to increase the representation of women in science, engineering, and technology-related fields.

1987
The Institute for Physical Research and Technology is established as a group of campus scientific centers. Its mission is to focus on the development of new technologies through interdisciplinary research in science and technology. The Iowa State University Research Park (a 230-acre development) is founded to provide space and resources for technology-based firms and research organizations.

1989
The Charles W. Durham and Margre Henningson Durham Center for Computation and Communication opens. The Durhams are 1939 graduates of Iowa State whose $3million contribution to expand computer facilities led to the construction of the center.

1990
The Iowa Center for Emerging Manufacturing Technology, which focuses on using virtual-reality technology to solve problems of engineering and science, is established. James Bernard, professor of mechanical engineering, is director of the center, which becomes the Virtual Reality Applications Center in 1999. The first solar car, PrISUm, is developed as a Tau Beta Pi project. Eventually, the group becomes Team PrISUm.PrISUm Car

1994
The Archives of Women in Science and Engineering is inaugurated. 1995 An interdisciplinary MS in systems engineering is started.

1996
A $7-million gift, including the single largest cash donation ever given to Iowa State University (not including estate gifts), is announced. The gift, $6 million from Stanley and Helen Howe and $1 million in furniture from HON Industries, is for the first phase of the Engineering Teaching and Research Complex (ETRC). The ETRC is the largest capital project ever undertaken at Iowa State. C2, an advanced computer-driven virtual reality synthetic environment facility, opens in Black Engineering. A 12-by-12-foot room, C2 has a 50 percent larger active area than other similar installations allowing researchers to mix physical objects with virtual environments.

1997
The working replica of the Atanasoff-Berry Computer is unveiled in Washington, D.C.

1999
The Iowa Center for Emerging Manufacturing Technology is renamed as the Virtual Reality Applications Center. Stanley and Helen Howe Hall is dedicated. The first of the two-building Engineering Teaching and Research Complex, Howe Hall houses the Department of Aerospace Engineering, the Center for Industrial Research and Service, Engineering Distance Education, and the Virtual Reality Applications Center. Iowa States Society of Women Engineers chapter wins five national awards, including first place for the best student outreach program in the nation. C6 Virtual Reality Facility2000 The countrys first six-sided virtual reality environment, the C6, opens in Howe Hall. The $6-million C-6 is designed to immerse users in images and sound. The Departments of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering partner with the University of Iowas College of Business to offer an Executive MBA program.

2002
The College of Engineering is a key player in four of the six presidential initiatives announcedcombinatorial discovery, human computer interaction, bioeconomy, and information infrastructure.

2003
The Gary and Donna Hoover Hall is dedicated. The building completes phase two of the Engineering Teaching and Research Complex and is home to the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Engineering Computer Support Services, and labs for the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering.Hoover Hall The Institute for Combinatorial Discovery is founded, with a focus on the development and application of parallel computing techniques for the rapid discovery of new materials. The Office of Biorenewables Programs is established to oversee a campuswide effort to investigate the use of biorenewable resources as sustainable feedstocks for producing chemicals, fuels, materials, and energy. Iowa State is one of the first universities in the world to offer masters and doctoral programs in human-computer interaction.

2004
A one-of-a-kind tornado and microburst simulator is constructed in the Wind Simulation and Testing Laboratory in Howe Hall. The simulator creates a tornado-like vortex that is four feet in diameter and can move in a path similar to real tornados. While Hollywood technically has the largest such machine, this simulator is the largest ever built for engineering purposes.

2006
One of the worlds fastest supercomputers, IBM BlueGene/L, arrives on campus.

2007
The C-6 in the Virtual Reality Applications Center undergoes a multimillion-dollar renovation so that it now projects more than twice the resolution produced by any other virtual reality room in the world.

2008
The Center for Biorenewable Chemicals (CBiRC) is founded with funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) creating a NSF Engineering Research Center (ERC) focused on advanced manufacturing for sustainable biobased chemicals.

2011
Dan Shechtman of Iowa State Universitys Department of Materials Science and Engineering, the U.S. Department of Energys Ames Laboratory, and Israels Technion wins the 2011 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.