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 Issue: Winter 2003 USC Engineering, Then ... and Now Few who remember the basement laboratories and dearth of instruments from the early days could have guessed what lay ahead for USC’s engineering school. 1906
USC offers its first courses toward professional degrees in civil and
electrical engineering through the College of Liberal Arts.
1921 USC awards its first engineering master’s degree, in chemical engineering. 1927 USC has issued 254 engineering diplomas, mostly bachelor’s of science degrees in civil and electrical engineering. That year, a separate College of Engineering is established, with five departments: chemical, civil, electrical, mechanical and petroleum engineering. Philip S. Biegler, chair of electrical engineering, is appointed the first dean of engineering.
1937 The school has 10 full-time faculty and 230 students. “In spite of the lack of equipment and small budgets,” writes chemical engineering professor Robert E. Vivian in his memoir, “there was optimism, initiative, cheerfulness and a willingness to work hard….” 1939 First Ph.D. is awarded (in chemical engineering). 1940 First engineering building is dedicated. The 28,000-square-foot Engineering Building (now Biegler Hall) costs $86,000.
1942 Robert Vivian is named dean. During World War II, USC becomes a major center for Engineering Science and Management War Training. 50,000 students come through the government-sponsored program, the largest single-campus effort of its kind in the country. Hundreds of military aircraft inspectors also receive training here. 1944 Engineering gets its first defense research contract: $10,000 from Lockheed Aircraft for studies of spot-welding aluminum alloy. 1947 At the urging of Capt. Allan Hancock (then chairman of USC’s Board of Trustees) a four-year aeronautical (later aerospace) engineering program is established. 1949 At commencemnt, 605 engineering degrees are awarded.
1950 To reflect its professional status, the College of Engineering is renamed the School of Engineering. 1953 Hughes Aircraft contracts with USC to offer master’s-level instruction to its staff engineers under the Cooperative Engineering Program, a collaboration that continues to this day.
1957 USC installs its first computer – the gift of an alumnus – in Biegler Hall. Also in 1957, Zohrab Kaprielian joins the engineering faculty. The first Ph.D. in electrical engineering is awarded. 1960 Alfred C. Ingersoll becomes dean. 1963 Olin Hall of Engineering is built with a $2.5 million grant from the Olin Foundation. 1965 USC’s engineering graduate school is one of the largest in the country, with more than 2,000 students. It ranks only behind MIT in the number of master’s degrees awarded. 1967 Vivian Hall of Engineering and Materials Science is constructed with a $2.7 million grant from the Olin Foundation.
1970 After more than a dozen years of behind-the-scenes leadership, Zohrab Kaprielian is named dean. (He rises to senior vice president and provost of the university at almost the same time.) ... Seaver Science Center is dedicated. The $4.8 million facility includes a 90,000-volume science-engineering library and a seven-story laboratory complex for research and teaching in solid-state sciences. Electrical engineering is reorganized into four departments: computer science, biomedical engineering, EE/electrophysics and EE/systems.
1972 Rand-based computer scientist Keith Uncapher launches USC’s Marina del Rey-based Information Sciences Institute, a principal player in the development of the Internet ... USC engineering pioneers “distance education” by closed-circuit and later broadcast TV. Decades ahead of its time, USC’s Instructional Television Network establishes off-campus receiving stations on the grounds of major corporations and independent classroom centers across the Southland. 1973 Powell Hall is dedicated.
1984 Leonard Silverman is named dean. Under his 18-year watch, 14 faculty members (including himself and President Sample) are elected to the prestigious National Academy of Engineering ... ISI’s Jon Postel and Paul Mockapetris introduce the “dot-com” domain naming system ... National Institutes of Health establishes the Biomedical Simulations Resource at the USC Department of Biomedical Engineering.
1985 The Center for Photonic Technology is established ... At the height of the nation’s defense buildup in 1985-86, enrollment in Instructional Television Network courses peaks at 3,700 students. 1986 The Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Systems is established to provide a focal point for government- and industry-sponsored research in robotics, machine vision and manufacturing systems.
1989 Kaprielian Hall and the Hedco Neuroscience Building open. 1990 Hughes Aircraft Engineering Center opens; Center for Photonic Technology becomes the National Center for Photonic Technology. 1991 The Center for Advanced Transportation Technology is established.
1992 The USC Photonics Center becomes the DARPA-funded National Center for Integrated Photonics Technology. The W. M. Keck Photonics Research Laboratory opens; its clean room is the largest and best-equipped in academia ... A pilot program to retrain aerospace engineers in environmental engineering begins. 1993 The USC Center for Software Engineering is founded by Barry Boehm. 1994 Professor Leonard Adleman demonstrates that the genetic substance DNA can be used as a computing medium. 1995 The Center for Composite Materials is established. 1996 Amid intense competition, USC engineering wins a $12.4 million NSF grant creating the Integrated Media Systems Center, the national center for research and education in multimedia ... Ultrawideband Radio Laboratory is founded to research sophisticated wireless communication technologies. 1997 USC’s Photonics Center wins a competition for $20.7 million in funding from DARPA ... USC Engineering Technology Transfer Center opens ... US. News & World Report ranks USC engineering No. 11 in the country. 1998 Alfred E. Mann announces a gift of $112.5 million to USC for a new insitute allied to the Department of Biomedical Engineering. 1999 The U.S. Army chooses USC as the site of a $45 million Institute for Creative Technologies. The presence of IMSC and ISI are key factors in the decision ... NSF funds the Digital Government Research Center at USC Engineering and Columbia University ... Lewis Johnson creates the USC Center for Advanced Research in Technology for Education.
2000 Gerald Loeb invents the BION, a miniature muscle stimulator ... The Jon Postel Center for Experimental Networking is established at ISI ... The Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering lauches a program in astronautics (space technology and rocketry) ... NSF renews IMSC’s funding.
2001 C.L. Max Nikias is named dean ... Merwyn Gill gives $7 million to Center for Composite Materials ... Optical Materials and Devices Laboratory created by Armand Tanguay ... Center for Grid Technologies founded by computer scientist Carl Kesselman. His Globus Toolkit, adopted by IBM, Microsoft and others, is the standard for Grid computing on the next-generation Internet.
2002 ITV morphs into the Internet- based Distance Education Network ... Center for Robotics and Embedded Systems and Center for Computer Systems Security are established ... Daniel Epstein gives $10 million to the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering ... Pratt & Whitney Institute for Collaborative Engineering established at USC and Korea’s Inha University.
2003 US. News & World Report ranks USC engineering No. 8 for the second year in a row ... Center for Interactive Smart Oilfield Technology opens ... USC bests 78 other schools to win a $17 million grant for its second NSF-funded ERC, the Biomimetic MicroElectronic Systems center. Its mission, jointly with USC's Keck School of Medicine, is to build microdevices replacing damaged parts of the human body.
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