Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science

Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science
Established	1909
Type	Unit of Northwestern University
Dean	Julio M. Ottino [1]
Academic staff	180
Undergraduates	1,450
Postgraduates	1,121
Location	Evanston, Illinois, US
Campus	Suburban
Website	mccormick.northwestern.edu

Established in 1909, the Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science is one of eleven schools at Northwestern University. Most engineering classes are held in the Technological Institute, which students often refer to as "Tech." In October 2005, another building called the Ford Motor Company Engineering Design Center opened.

History

The trustees of Northwestern University ambitiously founded a college of Technology in June 1873, but in his report for 1876-77 President Oliver Marcy announced failure of the college due to lack of financial resources to develop the faculty and facilities.

In 1891 president Henry Wade Rogers called for the founding of a new Engineering School, stating that universities in general were “not performing the work necessary to prepare men for the various activities of modern life, so different from the life their fathers lived half a century ago.” This was realized in 1909, when the new College of Engineering was opened out of Swift Hall. Operationally, the Engineering School until the mid-1920s was a department of the College of Liberal Arts. The major emphasis was on a broad general education with particular emphasis on mathematics and science. In 1937, the Engineering School ran into difficulties with the American Engineers' Council for Professional Development, which denied accreditation. In response, a four year curriculum satisfying the ECPD was put into place.

In 1939 Walter Patton Murphy (1873–1942), a wealthy inventor of railroad equipment,^[1] donated $6.735 million to the School of Engineering. Murphy meant for the Institute to offer a “cooperative” education, where academic courses and practical application in industrial settings were closely integrated. In 1942, Northwestern received an additional bequest of $28 million from Murphy's estate to provide for an engineering school "second to none." A cooperative education program was designed in the late 1930s for the Institute by Charles F. Kettering, former research head of General Motors, and Herman Schneider, dean of the engineering school at the University of Cincinnati. The program required undergraduates to work outside the classroom in technical positions for several terms over the course of their college years.

Campus

Technological Institute in 1942, before the construction of the Lakefill

Most engineering classes are held in the Technological Institute building, which students refer to as "Tech." Ground was broken for the new building on April 1, 1940 and the building was dedicated on June 15–16, 1942. The building was designed in the shape of two letter E's, placed back to back and joined by a central structure. Each of the six original departments used one of the wings. When it was built it was the largest building on Northwestern's Evanston campus.

New Wings and Neighboring Buildings

In 1961, construction began on two new wings, which were added to the eastern ends of the building, along with additions to the library and physics wing. The expansion, dedicated in October, 1963, was prompted by a $3.4 million contract awarded by the Advanced Research Agency of the Department of Defense. In 1973, a new entrance terrace was dedicated. After a $30 million grant from the McCormick Foundation, the school was renamed in his honor in 1989.^[2] Robert R. McCormick (1880–1955) was owner of the Chicago Tribune and other media enterprises of the Tribune Company. In 1999, a ten-year, $125 million renovation of the Technological institute was completed.

Additional buildings around the original Technological Institute are connected by pedestrian bridges. Among them are the Seeley G. Mudd Library for Science and Engineering opened in 1977, the Center for Catalysis and Surface Science in 1986, and Cook Hall in 1989. More recent additions to the facilities include Hogan Hall, the Pancoe Life Sciences Pavilion, the Center for Nanofabrication, and the Ford Motor Company Engineering Design Center. McCormick is also affiliated with Silverman and Chambers Hall.

Curriculum

As of 2010^[update] a faculty of 180 taught 1450 undergraduates.^[3]

In 1996, Northwestern University launched an engineering program called Engineering Design and Communication (EDC), which is a mandatory class for all undergraduate engineering students. EDC consists of two quarter-long classes that focus on design and communication within the Engineering discipline. Each EDC class has 16 students who are team-taught by one professor from the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science and one professor from the Writing Program of the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. EDC classes typically work with the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago or other local non-profit organizations.^[4]

The Engineering Analysis program is also mandatory for all undergraduate engineering students and consists of four quarter-long classes. These classes provide the basis for Northwestern's engineering curriculum, and teach linear algebra, statics and dynamics, system dynamics, and differential equations. In addition, students become familiar with the computer programming language MATLAB.^[5]

McCormick is home to eight departments which offer the following degrees:

	B.S.	M.Eng.	M.S. / Ph.D.
Chemical and Biological Engineering	O	O	O
Biomedical Engineering	O	O	O
Biotechnology		O
Civil and Environmental Engineering	O	O	O
Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences	O	O	O
Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics		O	O
Engineering Design and Innovation		O
Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences	O		O
Material Science and Engineering	O	O	O
Project Management		O
Engineering Management		O
Mechanical Engineering	O	O	O
Technology and Social Behavior			O
Theoretical Applied Mechanics		O	O
Applied Mathematics	O

References

1. ^ Walter Dill Scott (1952). Walter Patton Murphy, 1873-1942 : a biography. Evanston, Illinois. hdl:2027/wu.89076991066. 
2. ^ "History: 1989-1998". Northwestern Engineering web site. http://www.mccormick.northwestern.edu/100/?history#decade-9. Retrieved December 17, 2010. 
3. ^ "McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science". Northwestern University office of undergraduate admissions web site. http://www.ugadm.northwestern.edu/academics/schools/mccormick/index.html. Retrieved December 17, 2010. 
4. ^ Designing Solutions, Winter 2006, Northwestern Magazine
5. ^ Engineering First Program - Northwestern University: McCormick School of Engineering

External links

• McCormick School

Departments

• Biomedical Engineering
• Chemical and Biological Engineering
• Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
• Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics
• Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences
• Materials Science and Engineering
• Mechanical Engineering