Penn State College of Engineering
Encyclopedia
The Penn State College of Engineering is the engineering school
Engineering education
Engineering education is the activity of teaching knowledge and principles related to the professional practice of engineering. It includes the initial education for becoming an engineer and any advanced education and specialization that follow...

 of the Pennsylvania State University
Pennsylvania State University
The Pennsylvania State University, commonly referred to as Penn State or PSU, is a public research university with campuses and facilities throughout the state of Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1855, the university has a threefold mission of teaching, research, and public service...

. It was established in 1896, under the leadership of George W. Atherton
George W. Atherton
George Washington Atherton was president of the Pennsylvania State University from 1882 until his death in 1906. He earned a degree from Yale in 1863 and taught at universities such as the University of Illinois and Rutgers before accepting the position of president at Penn State...

. Today, with 13 academic departments, over 9,700 enrolled students and research expenditures that exceed 100 million dollars annually, the Penn State College of Engineering is one of the leading engineering schools in the United States. It is estimated that approximately one out of every fifty engineers in the United States got their bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...

 from Penn State .

Academic departments and rankings

The Penn State College of Engineering was ranked 17th on the list of Best Engineering Undergraduate Schools and 25th on the list of Best Engineering Graduate Schools in 2011 by US News and World Report . The college has 13 degree granting academic departments, many of which are ranked in top 10 nationally :
  • Acoustics
    Acoustics
    Acoustics is the interdisciplinary science that deals with the study of all mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids including vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound. A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician while someone working in the field of acoustics...

     (grants only graduate degrees)
  • Aerospace Engineering
    Aerospace engineering
    Aerospace engineering is the primary branch of engineering concerned with the design, construction and science of aircraft and spacecraft. It is divided into two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering...

     - undergraduate program ranked 13th nationally, graduate program ranked 12th .
  • Agricultural
    Agricultural engineering
    Agricultural engineering is the engineering discipline that applies engineering science and technology to agricultural production and processing...

     and Biological Engineering
    Biological Engineering
    Biological engineering, biotechnological engineering or bioengineering is the application of concepts and methods of biology to solve problems in life sciences, using engineering's own analytical and synthetic methodologies and also its traditional...

     - undergraduate program ranked 10th nationally, graduate program ranked 9th .
  • Architectural Engineering
    Architectural engineering
    Architectural engineering, also known as building engineering, is the application of engineering principles and technology to building design and construction...

  • Bioengineering
    Biomedical engineering
    Biomedical Engineering is the application of engineering principles and design concepts to medicine and biology. This field seeks to close the gap between engineering and medicine: It combines the design and problem solving skills of engineering with medical and biological sciences to improve...

     (also called biomedical engineering)
  • Chemical Engineering
    Chemical engineering
    Chemical engineering is the branch of engineering that deals with physical science , and life sciences with mathematics and economics, to the process of converting raw materials or chemicals into more useful or valuable forms...

     - undergraduate program ranked 20th nationally, graduate program ranked 21st .
  • Civil
    Civil engineering
    Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including works like roads, bridges, canals, dams, and buildings...

     and Environmental Engineering
    Environmental engineering
    Environmental engineering is the application of science and engineering principles to improve the natural environment , to provide healthy water, air, and land for human habitation and for other organisms, and to remediate polluted sites...

     - Civil Engineering undergraduate program ranked 13th nationally, graduate program ranked 19th ; Environmental Engineering graduate program ranked 16th nationally .
  • Computer Science
    Computer science
    Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...

     and Engineering
    Computer engineering
    Computer engineering, also called computer systems engineering, is a discipline that integrates several fields of electrical engineering and computer science required to develop computer systems. Computer engineers usually have training in electronic engineering, software design, and...

     - Computer Science
    Computer science
    Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...

     graduate program ranked 28th nationally ; Computer Engineering
    Computer engineering
    Computer engineering, also called computer systems engineering, is a discipline that integrates several fields of electrical engineering and computer science required to develop computer systems. Computer engineers usually have training in electronic engineering, software design, and...

     graduate program ranked 20th nationally .
  • Electrical Engineering
    Electrical engineering
    Electrical engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical...

     - graduate program ranked 25th nationally .
  • Engineering Science and Mechanics
    Applied mechanics
    Applied mechanics is a branch of the physical sciences and the practical application of mechanics. Applied mechanics examines the response of bodies or systems of bodies to external forces...

     - undergraduate program ranked 6th nationally .
  • Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
    Industrial engineering
    Industrial engineering is a branch of engineering dealing with the optimization of complex processes or systems. It is concerned with the development, improvement, implementation and evaluation of integrated systems of people, money, knowledge, information, equipment, energy, materials, analysis...

     - undergraduate program ranked 8th nationally, graduate program ranked 4th .
  • Mechanical
    Mechanical engineering
    Mechanical engineering is a discipline of engineering that applies the principles of physics and materials science for analysis, design, manufacturing, and maintenance of mechanical systems. It is the branch of engineering that involves the production and usage of heat and mechanical power for the...

     and Nuclear Engineering
    Nuclear engineering
    Nuclear engineering is the branch of engineering concerned with the application of the breakdown as well as the fusion of atomic nuclei and/or the application of other sub-atomic physics, based on the principles of nuclear physics...

    - mechanical engineering undergraduate program ranked 15th nationally, graduate program ranked 16th . Nuclear engineering graduate program ranked 5th nationally .
  • School of Engineering Design, Technology, and Professional Programs (SEDTAPP) (offers design courses)

  • The departments of Materials Science and Engineering
    Materials science
    Materials science is an interdisciplinary field applying the properties of matter to various areas of science and engineering. This scientific field investigates the relationship between the structure of materials at atomic or molecular scales and their macroscopic properties. It incorporates...

    , Mining Engineering
    Mining engineering
    Mining engineering is an engineering discipline that involves the practice, the theory, the science, the technology, and application of extracting and processing minerals from a naturally occurring environment. Mining engineering also includes processing minerals for additional value.Mineral...

    , Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering
    Petroleum engineering
    Petroleum engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the activities related to the production of hydrocarbons, which can be either crude oil or natural gas. Subsurface activities are deemed to fall within the upstream sector of the oil and gas industry, which are the activities of...

    , Environmental Systems Engineering
    Environmental engineering
    Environmental engineering is the application of science and engineering principles to improve the natural environment , to provide healthy water, air, and land for human habitation and for other organisms, and to remediate polluted sites...

    , and Energy Engineering are under the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences
    Penn State College of Earth and Mineral Sciences
    The College of Earth and Mineral Sciences is a constituent, semi-autonomous part of Penn State University, University Park, Pennsylvania.The College was founded in 1896 as a School of Mines, but, over time, diversified becoming the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences...

    .

Student body

College of Engineering student body is relatively large, and in 2009 out of 9,736 enrolled students (8,278 undergraduate and 1,458 graduate), 1,480 were women and 545 minorities. First woman engineer to graduate from Penn State was Frances Barbara Hosfeld from Scranton who got a degree in Industrial Engineering in 1921

Research centers

In addition to intradepartmental research, Penn State College of Engineering faculty and students also conduct research through interdisciplinary research centers and institutes :
  • Applied Research Laboratory
  • Institute for Computational Science
  • Materials Research Institute
  • Penn State Institutes of Energy and the Environment

Alumni

The College of Engineering has over 81,000 living engineering alumni . The Penn State Engineering Alumni Society (PSEAS) is the oldest active alumni group at The Pennsylvania State University .

Firsts

  • First accredited in 1936, Architectural Engineering program at Penn State is nation's oldest continuously accredited curriculum in this field.
  • In 1923, professor Paul Schweitzer started one of the first systematic research programs in diesel engineering in United States.
  • In 1909, the first Industrial Engineering academic department and baccalaureate program in the nation were established at Penn State.
  • In 1960, Penn State established the first national curriculum in solid-state technology and in 1962 created the interdisciplinary materials research laboratory.
  • In 1965, Penn State Aerospace engineer Barnes W. McCormick led a research team that made the first wake turbulence
    Wake turbulence
    Wake turbulence is turbulence that forms behind an aircraft as it passes through the air. This turbulence includes various components, the most important of which are wing vorticies and jetwash. Jetwash refers simply to the rapidly moving gases expelled from a jet engine; it is extremely turbulent,...

    measurements behind a full-scale aeroplane.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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