The Drexel University College of Engineering is the university's flagship college, founded in 1891 by banker A.J. Drexel to prepare his hometown Philadelphians to participate in opportunities provided by the Industrial Revolution. The college has six departments, 11 undergraduate programs/majors, and 18 graduate degree programs at its main campus in the University City section of Philadelphia, one block from

30th Street Station 3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious or cultural significance in many societie ...

. The college is listed in the '' U.S. News & World Report'' 2020 rankings as #54 for Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs and #74 in Best Engineering Schools (graduate). Drexel was cited by '' Forbes'' magazine as one of the top 25 STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) schools in the country.

History

The Drexel Institute of Art, Science and Industry was founded in 1891 with a $3 million investment by banker Anthony J. Drexel, who played a major role in the rise of modern global finance after the American Civil War. Drexel foresaw the need for an institution with an emphasis on science and technology that would advance the common ideals of a just and diverse society by providing open access to higher education. Drexel offered a Bachelor of Science in Engineering degree beginning in 1914. In 1943, the first women enrolled in the School of Engineering and in 1945 the school became the College of Engineering. The first graduate degrees were conferred in 1952.

Academics

Drexel's College of Engineering offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in six academic departments: *Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering *Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering *Department of

Electrical and Computer Engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

*Department of Engineering Leadership and Society (includes Engineering Technology and

Engineering Management Engineering management is the application of the practice of management to the practice of engineering. Engineering management is a career that brings together the technological problem-solving ability of engineering and the organizational, admini ...

) *Department of Materials Science and Engineering *Department of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics There are also several institutes and centers: *A.J. Drexel Institute of Energy and the Environment *A.J. Drexel Nanomaterials Institute *C. & J. Nyheim Plasma Institute *Center for Electric Power Engineering *Centralized Research Facilities *Expressive and Creative Interaction Technologies *Materials Center of Excellence The college has one of the nation's oldest

cooperative education Cooperative education (or co-operative education) is a structured method of combining classroom-based education with practical work experience. A cooperative education experience, commonly known as a "co-op", provides academic credit for struct ...

programs, established in 1919. Under the program, students alternate study with six-month cycles of full-time, professional employment both within and without the university, and at institutes and universities abroad. Up to 99% of undergraduates in the college participate in the co-op program.

Research

The

Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, or simply the Carnegie Classification, is a framework for classifying colleges and universities in the United States. It was created in 1970 by the Carnegie Foundation for the Adv ...

classifies Drexel University as "R1: Doctoral Universities – Highest research activity," the highest category which includes just 37 private institutions. General research areas at the College of Engineering include advanced manufacturing, cyber and physical infrastructure, health and medicine, automation, computation, engineering education, materials, and systems engineering. Translational and novel research is supported by grants and funding from extra-University sources such as the National Science Foundation, the

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the Adv ...

, the National Institutes of Health, the Office of Naval Research, and the

Army Research Laboratory The U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Army Research Laboratory (DEVCOM ARL) is the U.S. Army's foundational research laboratory. ARL is headquartered at the Adelphi Laboratory Center (ALC) in Adelphi, Maryland. Its largest singl ...

. Research expenditures for the college in 2018 were $20,081,937. In 2017, Drexel University was ranked 54th (tie) in the Top 100 Worldwide Universities Granted US Utility Patents by the

National Academy of Inventors The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) is a US non-profit organization dedicated to encouraging inventors in academia, following the model of the National Academies of the United States. It was founded at the University of South Florida in 2010 ...

Notable alumni

Alumni from the college of engineering include astronauts

Christopher Ferguson Christopher J. "Fergy" Ferguson (born September 1, 1961) is a Boeing commercial astronaut and a retired United States Navy Captain and NASA astronaut. He was the pilot of Space Shuttle ''Atlantis'' on his first mission to space, STS-115, which ...

and Paul W. Richards, inventor of network packet switching

Paul Baran Paul Baran (born Pesach Baran ; April 29, 1926 – March 26, 2011) was a Polish-American engineer who was a pioneer in the development of computer networks. He was one of the two independent inventors of packet switching, which is today the dom ...

, developers of

barcode A barcode or bar code is a method of representing data in a visual, machine-readable form. Initially, barcodes represented data by varying the widths, spacings and sizes of parallel lines. These barcodes, now commonly referred to as linear or on ...

technology

Bernard Silver Bernard Silver (September 21, 1924 – August 28, 1963) was an early developer of barcode technology alongside Norman Joseph Woodland. Silver earned his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the Drexel Institute of Technology in 1947. ...

and Norman Joseph Woodland, professor Eli Fromm, AI researcher and podcast host

Lex Fridman Lex Fridman ( /'lɛks 'friːdmæn/; , Russian: ) is a Russian-American computer scientist, podcaster, and an artificial intelligence researcher. He is a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and he hosts the ''Lex Fr ...

, financier Bennett S. LeBow, and engineer

David H. Geiger David H. Geiger (1935 – October 3, 1989) was an American engineer who invented the Air-supported structure, air-supported fabric roof system that at the time of his death was in use at almost half the domed stadiums in the world. Geiger was born ...

References and sources

External links

* {{Coord, 39.95411, -75.18673, type:edu_globe:earth_region:US-PA, display=title Drexel University Engineering universities and colleges in Pennsylvania Educational institutions established in 1891 1891 establishments in Pennsylvania