The Pratt School of Engineering is located at

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist Jam ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. The school's associated research, education, alumni and service-to-society efforts are collectively known as Duke Engineering. Research expenditures at Duke Engineering exceed $88 million per year. Its faculty is highly ranked in overall research productivity among U.S. engineering schools by

Academic Analytics Academic analytics is defined as the process of evaluating and analyzing organizational data received from university systems for reporting and decision making reasons (Campbell, & Oblinger, 200 Academic analytics will help student and faculty to ...

. More than 30 Duke alumni and faculty have been elected to the prestigious

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Engineering is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of ...

since its founding in 1964. The Pratt School of Engineering also maintains these academic departments: * Biomedical Engineering * Civil & Environmental Engineering * Electrical & Computer Engineering *

Thomas Lord Thomas Lord (23 November 1755 – 13 January 1832) was an English professional cricketer who played first-class cricket from 1787 to 1802. He made a brief comeback, playing in one further match in 1815. Overall, Lord made 90 known appearances ...

Department of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science The school was created by Duke's Board of Trustees in 1939. It was named in 1999 following a $35 million gift by

Edmund T. Pratt Jr. Edmund T. Pratt Jr. (1927 - September 5, 2002) was the Chairman and CEO of Pfizer Inc. He served as President from 1971 to 1972, CEO from 1972 to 1991, and Chairman from 1972 to 1992. He is the namesake of Duke University's Engineering Scho ...

, a 1947 graduate and former chief executive of

Pfizer Pfizer Inc. ( ) is an American multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporation headquartered on 42nd Street in Manhattan, New York City. The company was established in 1849 in New York by two German entrepreneurs, Charles Pfize ...

. The Duke University Pratt School of Engineering celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2014–2015.

Education

Undergraduate

Majors

Duke awards the

Bachelor of Science in Engineering A Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) or a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE) is an academic undergraduate degree awarded to a student after three to five years of studying engineering at an accredited college or university. In the UK, a Bach ...

(BSE) and offers five

ABET The ABET (incorporated as the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, Inc.) is a non-governmental organization that accredits post-secondary education programs in applied and natural sciences, computing, engineering and engineering ...

-accredited engineering majors and independent interdisciplinary options: *

Biomedical Engineering Biomedical engineering (BME) or medical engineering is the application of engineering principles and design concepts to medicine and biology for healthcare purposes (e.g., diagnostic or therapeutic). BME is also traditionally logical sciences ...

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 public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewa ...

Environmental Engineering Environmental engineering is a professional engineering discipline that encompasses broad scientific topics like chemistry, biology, ecology, geology, hydraulics, hydrology, microbiology, and mathematics to create solutions that will protect and ...

Electrical Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described ...

Computer Engineering Computer engineering (CoE or CpE) is a branch of electrical engineering and computer science that integrates several fields of computer science and electronic engineering required to develop computer hardware and software. Computer engineers n ...

Mechanical Engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and mathematics principles with materials science, to design, analyze, manufacture, ...

* Interdisciplinary Options (IDEAS)

Minors

Engineering minors offered at Duke include: *

Machine Learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of inquiry devoted to understanding and building methods that 'learn', that is, methods that leverage data to improve performance on some set of tasks. It is seen as a part of artificial intelligence. Machine ...

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech rec ...

Energy Engineering Energy engineering or Energy Systems Engineering is a broad field of engineering dealing with energy efficiency, energy services, facility management, plant engineering, environmental compliance, sustainable energy and renewable energy tec ...

Certificates

Undergraduate engineering certificates offered by Duke include: *

Architectural Engineering Architectural engineers apply and theoretical knowledge to the engineering design of buildings and building systems. The goal is to engineer high performance buildings that are sustainable, economically viable and ensure the safety health. Archi ...

Aerospace Engineering Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is s ...

* Energy & the Environment * Global Development Engineering * Materials Science & Engineering

Master's Degrees

Duke awards master's degrees in: *

Civil Civil may refer to: *Civic virtue, or civility *Civil action, or lawsuit * Civil affairs *Civil and political rights *Civil disobedience *Civil engineering *Civil (journalism), a platform for independent journalism *Civilian, someone not a membe ...

& Materials Science * Artificial Intelligence for Product Innovation *

Cybersecurity Computer security, cybersecurity (cyber security), or information technology security (IT security) is the protection of computer systems and networks from attack by malicious actors that may result in unauthorized information disclosure, t ...

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 ...

* Financial Technology (FinTech) * Materials Science & Engineering

Doctorate

Duke's Pratt School of Engineering awards

PhDs A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

in: *

& Materials Science With Duke's School of Medicine, Duke's Department of Biomedical Engineering offers a dual MD-

Master of Engineering A Master of Engineering (abbreviated MEng, M.E. or M.Eng.) is either an academic or professional master's degree in the field of engineering. International variations Australia In Australia, the Master of Engineering degree is a research de ...

degree program. Also, medical students in Duke's MD/PhD Medical Science Training Program, can earn a doctorate in an engineering discipline in partnership with Duke's Pratt School of Engineering.

Doctoral Certificate Programs

* Biomolecular &

Tissue Engineering Tissue engineering is a biomedical engineering discipline that uses a combination of Cell (biology), cells, engineering, Materials science, materials methods, and suitable biochemistry, biochemical and physicochemical factors to restore, maintai ...

Nanoscience The nanoscopic scale (or nanoscale) usually refers to structures with a length scale applicable to nanotechnology, usually cited as 1–100 nanometers (nm). A nanometer is a billionth of a meter. The nanoscopic scale is (roughly speaking) a lo ...

Photonics Photonics is a branch of optics that involves the application of generation, detection, and manipulation of light in form of photons through emission, transmission, modulation, signal processing, switching, amplification, and sensing. Though ...

Professional Education/Graduate Certificates

Standalone graduate-level certificates, intended for working professionals, are granted in: * AI Foundations for Product Innovation * Business Foundations for Engineers

Research and Innovation

Duke Engineering faculty research is grouped into four signature themes: * Data Science, Advanced Computing and Intelligent Systems * Materials Discovery and Development * Personal, Environmental & Population Health * Resilient Systems and the Environment

Faculty Research

The school's faculty research laboratories have played major roles in the development of many high-impact technologies, including: * Real-time

ultrasound imaging Medical ultrasound includes diagnostic techniques (mainly imaging techniques) using ultrasound, as well as therapeutic applications of ultrasound. In diagnosis, it is used to create an image of internal body structures such as tendons, muscl ...

in clinical practice (1976) * Continuous interleaved sampling strategy for

cochlear implant A cochlear implant (CI) is a surgically implanted neuroprosthesis that provides a person who has moderate-to-profound sensorineural hearing loss with sound perception. With the help of therapy, cochlear implants may allow for improved speech unde ...

s (1991) * First working " invisibility cloak" using

metamaterial A metamaterial (from the Greek word μετά ''meta'', meaning "beyond" or "after", and the Latin word ''materia'', meaning "matter" or "material") is any material engineered to have a property that is not found in naturally occurring materials. ...

s (2006) * World's first

gigapixel A gigapixel image is a digital image bitmap composed of one billion (109) pixels (picture elements), 1000 times the information captured by a 1 megapixel digital camera. A square image of 31,623 pixels in width and height is one gigapixel. Cur ...

camera (2012)

Student Research

More than 62 percent of all Duke engineering undergraduates report having participated in some way in research in a faculty research lab. Since July 2018, Duke engineering students have held the

Guinness World Record ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

for inventing the world's most fuel-efficient vehicle—powered by a fuel cell, it achieved 14,573 miles per gallon equivalent. In 2019, Duke Engineering students earned a second

for the world's most efficient all-electric vehicle—797 miles per

kilowatt-hour A kilowatt-hour ( unit symbol: kW⋅h or kW h; commonly written as kWh) is a unit of energy: one kilowatt of power for one hour. In terms of SI derived units with special names, it equals 3.6 megajoules (MJ). Kilowatt-hours are a common b ...

Leadership

Former Deans

* William H. Hall, 1939-1953 * Walter J. Seeley, 1953-1962 * James L. Meriam, 1962-1969 * George Pearsall, 1969-1974, 1982-1983 * Aleksandar Vesic, 1974-1982 * Earl H. Dowell, 1983-1999 *

Kristina M. Johnson Kristina M. Johnson (born May 7, 1957) is an American business executive, engineer, academic, and former government official who served as the 13th chancellor of the State University of New York from September 2017 until June 2020. In June 2020 ...

, 1999-2007 * Robert L. Clark, 2007-2008 * Thomas C. Katsouleas, 2008–2015 * George Truskey, 2015-2016 * Ravi V. Bellamkonda, 2016-2021 * Jeffrey T. Glass, 2021

History

The precursor to the school of engineering dates back to 1851, when Duke was known as Normal College and located in Randolph County,

North Carolina North Carolina () is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 28th largest and List of states and territories of the United ...

. At that time, engineering was included in a classical course for seniors. A course in engineering was introduced in 1887, eventually becoming a regular course offering in 1903. ' At that time, engineering courses were limited to such fields as architecture and surveying until 1924, when Trinity College was renamed Duke University. Engineering was taught in the new separate departments of civil and electrical engineering. In 1931, a mechanical engineering department was created. Duke's Board of Trustees created the College of Engineering in 1939, with William H. Hall its first dean. The College of Engineering graduated its first female graduates in 1946. The next year, the three departments moved from East Campus to West Campus. It became the Duke School of Engineering in 1966. Two years later the school's first black students graduated. The Division of Biomedical Engineering was created in 1967 — the first accredited biomedical engineering department at a U.S. university — in September 1972.Biomedical Engineering Celebrates 30 Years
Pratt School of Engineering, November 2001 In 1997, the Master of Engineering Management was established. The school was renamed the

School of Engineering in 1999, in honor of the 1947 graduate and former

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

Facilities

Duke Engineering occupies more than 300,000 net square feet of educational, administrative and research space on and near the Duke campus in Durham, North Carolina. The Duke Engineering campus is adjacent to

Duke University Medical Center Duke University Hospital is a 957-acute care bed academic tertiary care facility located in Durham, North Carolina. Established in 1930, it is the flagship teaching hospital for the Duke University Health System, a network of physicians and hos ...

and 10 miles from

Research Triangle Park Research Triangle Park (RTP) is the largest research park in the United States, occupying in North Carolina and hosting more than 300 companies and 65,000 workers. The facility is named for its location relative to the three surrounding cities ...

. Pratt's faculty, labs, and courses can be found in Hudson Hall, the Nello L. Teer Engineering Building, the Fitzpatrick Center for Interdisciplinary Engineering, Medicine and Applied Sciences (also known as FCIEMAS), Gross Hall, the North Building, the Levine Science Research Center (also known as the LSRC) and in The Chesterfield, a former cigarette factory near downtown

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county * Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...

that has been redeveloped into academic and industry research space.

Wilkinson Building

This 150,000-square-foot building opened for classes in early 2021 with new spaces for education and research related to

interdisciplinary Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combination of multiple academic disciplines into one activity (e.g., a research project). It draws knowledge from several other fields like sociology, anthropology, psychology, ec ...

themes of improving human health, advancing computing and intelligent systems, and

sustainability Specific definitions of sustainability are difficult to agree on and have varied in the literature and over time. The concept of sustainability can be used to guide decisions at the global, national, and individual levels (e.g. sustainable livi ...

. The Wilkinson Building, located at Research Drive and Telcom Drive next to Bostock Library, also houses Duke Engineering's

entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values t ...

initiatives. The building's name recognizes lifetime philanthropic and service contributions of Duke Engineering alumnus Jerry C. Wilkinson and family.

Fitzpatrick Center

The Fitzpatrick Center for Interdisciplinary Engineering, Medicine and Applied Sciences (FCIEMAS) opened in August 2004.

Research Research is "creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness ...

facilities focus on the fields of

photonics Photonics is a branch of optics that involves the application of generation, detection, and manipulation of light in form of photons through emission, transmission, modulation, signal processing, switching, amplification, and sensing. Though ...

bioengineering Biological engineering or bioengineering is the application of principles of biology and the tools of engineering to create usable, tangible, economically-viable products. Biological engineering employs knowledge and expertise from a number o ...

, communications, and materials science and materials engineering. The aim of the building was to emphasize interdisciplinary activities and encourage cross-departmental interactions. The building houses numerous wet bench

laboratories A laboratory (; ; colloquially lab) is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific or technological research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. Laboratory services are provided in a variety of settings: physi ...

(highlighted by a world-class

nanotechnology Nanotechnology, also shortened to nanotech, is the use of matter on an atomic, molecular, and supramolecular scale for industrial purposes. The earliest, widespread description of nanotechnology referred to the particular technological goal ...

research wing), offices, teaching spaces, and a café. FCIEMAS is also home to the Master of Engineering Management Program offices. The construction of FCIEMAS took more than three years and cost more than $97 million.

Levine Science Research Center

The Levine Science Research Center (LSRC) is a facility. When it was opened in 1994, the LSRC was the largest single-site interdisciplinary research facility in the U.S. Its classrooms are shared by several departments, but the majority of its offices and laboratories are utilized by the

Nicholas School of the Environment The Nicholas School of the Environment is one of ten graduate and professional schools at Duke University and is headquartered on Duke’s main campus in Durham, N.C. A secondary coastal facility, Duke University Marine Laboratory, is maintained ...

, the Pratt School of Engineering, the Center for

Cognitive Cognition refers to "the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses". It encompasses all aspects of intellectual functions and processes such as: perception, attention, thought ...

Neuroscience Neuroscience is the science, scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions and disorders. It is a Multidisciplinary approach, multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, an ...

and Developmental and the departments of

Computer Science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

Pharmacology Pharmacology is a branch of medicine, biology and pharmaceutical sciences concerned with drug or medication action, where a drug may be defined as any artificial, natural, or endogenous (from within the body) molecule which exerts a biochemica ...

and

Cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

Biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary ...

and

Cell Cell most often refers to: * Cell (biology), the functional basic unit of life Cell may also refer to: Locations * Monastic cell, a small room, hut, or cave in which a religious recluse lives, alternatively the small precursor of a monastery ...

and

Molecular Biology Molecular biology is the branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular basis of biological activity in and between cells, including biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactions. The study of chemical and phys ...

. The building was named for

Leon Levine Leon Levine (born June 8, 1937) is an American businessman and philanthropist. He founded the Family Dollar chain of discount stores. Early life Leon Levine was born into a Jewish family on June 8, 1937, in Wadesboro, North Carolina. The family ...

, the

Family Dollar Stores Family Dollar Stores, Inc. is an American variety store chain. With over 8,000 locations in all states except Alaska and Hawaii, it was the second largest retailer of its type in the United States until it was acquired by Dollar Tree in 2015 and i ...

Hudson Hall

Hudson Hall is the oldest

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...

building at Duke, constructed in 1948. It was renamed to honor Fitzgerald S. "Jerry" Hudson (E'46) in 1992.About Pratt Facilities
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Nello L. Teer Building

The Nello L. Teer Library Building opened in 1984. Located adjacent to Hudson Hall, it is now called the Nello L. Teer Building, and houses the Dean's offices, a

computing Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and development of both hardware and software. Computing has scientific, ...

lab, a circuits lab, an auditorium and a student lounge. The building's name honors Teer, its donor and a

Durham, North Carolina Durham ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County and Wake County. With a population of 283,506 in the 2020 Census, Durham is the 4th- ...

-based builder and philanthropist.

Notable alumni

* M. Katherine Banks—

Phytoremediation Phytoremediation technologies use living plants to clean up soil, air and water contaminated with hazardous contaminants. It is defined as "the use of green plants and the associated microorganisms, along with proper soil amendments and agronom ...

of petroleum contamination * Robert E. Fischell—Leadership and innovation in bringing

aerospace technology Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is s ...

to implantable

medical devices A medical device is any device intended to be used for medical purposes. Significant potential for hazards are inherent when using a device for medical purposes and thus medical devices must be proved safe and effective with reasonable assura ...

* William A. Hawkins III—Leadership in biomedical engineering and

translational medicine Translational medicine (often called translational science, of which it is a form) is defined by the European Society for Translational Medicine as "an interdisciplinary branch of the biomedical field supported by three main pillars: benchside, bed ...

Blake S. Wilson Blake Shaw Wilson is an American research scientist best known for his role in developing signal processing strategies for the cochlear implant. Degrees His undergraduate and Ph.D. degrees from Duke University, are in electrical engineering. He ...

—Engineering development of the

* Kathryn R. Nightingale— Invention of Ultrasound Acoustic Radiation Force Imaging

Notes

External links

* {{Coord, 36.0040, -78.9403, region:US-NC_type:edu, display=title Pratt School of Engineering Engineering schools and colleges in the United States Engineering universities and colleges in North Carolina Educational institutions established in 1939 1939 establishments in North Carolina