Established 1874 Undergraduates 6,139 Affiliations Purdue University Founded 1874 | Academic staff 339 Postgraduates 2,211 Dean Leah Jamieson Total enrollment 9,997 (2010) | |
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Location West Lafayette, IN, USA Address Purdue University, 701 W Stadium Ave #3000, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA Undergraduate tuition and fees Local tuition: 9,478 USD (2011) Similar Purdue University, Indiana University – Purdue, Purdue University Northwest, Purdue University College o, Purdue University College o Profiles | ||
The Purdue University College of Engineering is one of eight major academic divisions, or colleges, of Purdue University. Established in 1874 with programs in Civil and Mechanical Engineering, the college now offers B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in more than a dozen disciplines. Purdue's engineering program has also educated 22 of America's astronauts, including Neil Armstrong and Eugene Cernan who were the first and last astronauts to have walked on the moon, respectively. Many of Purdue's engineering disciplines are recognized as top-ten programs in the U.S. The college as a whole is currently ranked 9th in the U.S. of all doctorate-granting engineering schools by U.S. News & World Report.
Contents
Departments
The College of Engineering contains ten Schools, one Department, and three Divisions:
Schools
Departments
Divisions
Location
Neil Armstrong Hall of Engineering, named after Neil Armstrong, is the flagship of the College of Engineering and home to its administrative offices, the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the School of Materials Engineering, Engineering Projects In Community Service (EPICS), Engineering Education, the Minority Engineering Program, and the Women in Engineering Program. Many other campus buildings house faculty offices, classrooms, and laboratories for engineering programs, such as the Martin C. Jischke Hall of Biomedical Engineering, the Forney Hall of Chemical Engineering, and Potter Engineering Center.
History
The Morrill Act, signed by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln in 1862, set the stage for the state of Indiana to establish a college for agriculture and the mechanical arts. In 1874, Purdue established four-year bachelor's degree programs in civil engineering and mechanical engineering. The School of Mechanical Engineering was created in 1882, although none of Purdue's students at the time were actually qualified to enroll in any of its courses. In 1911, the School of Chemical Engineering was founded, and in 1938 became the School of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering. The Agricultural Engineering program was established in 1925; it would be renamed the Division of Agricultural and Biological Engineering in 2005. In 1942, the School of Mechanical Engineering was renamed the School of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering; the Aeronautical Engineering program would be split out into the School of Aeronautics in 1945 and the School of Aeronautical Engineering in 1953. This was also the year that Purdue established the nation's first Freshmen Engineering program, in which all first-year engineering students take fundamental courses prior to enrolling in the school for their specific discipline. That same year, the Industrial Engineering Department was founded, with some courses taught by Lillian Moller Gilbreth. In 1959, the School of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering split into two separate units, the latter of which was renamed the School of Materials Engineering in 1973.
The 1960s saw the establishment of the Nuclear Engineering and Women in Engineering programs. A 1 kilowatt nuclear reactor has been in operation at the campus since 1962. In 1971, the National Society of Black Engineers was founded on the Purdue campus by two undergraduates. The Construction Engineering and Management Division was created in 1976. In 1989, the Materials and Electrical Engineering Building was completed, providing much-needed space for the growing School of Materials Engineering and School of Electrical Engineering. In 1995, the Engineering Projects In Community Service program was established at Purdue. Three years later, Purdue's Biomedical Engineering program was founded; in 2004, it was expanded into the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering. Also in 2004, the College of Engineering was formed as an umbrella organization for the many Schools, Departments, and Divisions of Purdue's engineering programs. That same year (2004), the Department (now School) of Engineering Education, the first of its kind in the nation, was created. Three significant College of Engineering structures would be built over the next few years: the Birck Nanotechnology Center (2005) and the Biomedical Engineering Building (now the Martin C. Jischke Hall of Biomedical Engineering) (2006), both part of Discovery Park; and the Neil Armstrong Hall of Engineering, completed in 2007.
Rankings
The College of Engineering's undergraduate and graduate engineering programs are highly ranked by U.S. News & World Report as some of the best engineering programs in America. Many of Purdue's engineering programs are ranked within the top 10 nationally, or near the top 10, resulting in Purdue's College of Engineering coming in 9th overall for both undergraduate and graduate programs in the United States. The 2017 rankings are listed below.
Purdue's engineering program is also ranked highly internationally. The Times Higher Education Supplement (2007) ranked Purdue as the 24th best university in the world in the Technology category.
Programs
Purdue's College of Engineering offers many programs to its students such as the Engineering Projects In Community Service, First Year Engineering Honors Program, Global Engineering Program, etc. which help young engineers gain real world and international experience.
M.E.T.A.L. at Purdue is a project at Purdue University that focuses on the technical aspects of musical acoustics in guitars. METAL is an acronym for Mechanical Engineering Technology Acoustics Lab. In the project, undergraduate students in the department of Mechanical Engineering Technology build their own guitar.