Stevens Institute of Technology is a technological university located on a 55 acre (223,000 m²) campus in Hoboken, New Jersey, founded in 1870 on the basis of an 1868 bequest from Edwin A. Stevens.
Stevens Institute is built on Castle Point, the highpoint of Hoboken. On the side of Stevens Institute is historic Sybil's Cave and below and to the east of the university is Frank Sinatra Park, Castle Point Park, and Castle Point Skate Park. The tallest building in the institute is the Wesley J. Howe Center. Stevens is known for its rigorous engineering, science, and technological management curricula.
History
The Stevens Institute of Technology is named after a family of accomplished inventors and engineers.
In 1784, the land now occupied by Stevens Institute of Technology was purchased by John Stevens, who would later invent the steam locomotive. Robert Stevens, one of John Stevens' sons is known for inventing the T-rail, the form of railroad track in use today throughout the World. With his brother Edwin A. Stevens, Robert created America's first commercial railroad.
When Edwin A. Stevens died in 1868, he left a bequest in his will as an endowment for the establishment of an "institution of learning", providing his trustees with land and funds.
The Stevens Institute of Technology opened in 1870 and initially was dedicated to mechanical engineering, but over time it has grown to include all disciplines.
The original course of study was a single, rigorous curriculum that was based upon the European model of science, modeled after the French and German scientific and technical schools, rather than the shop schools that were common at that time. The original degree offered was that of "Mechanical Engineer" (M.E.), in addition to a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering, chemistry, or physics. Stevens granted several Ph.D.s between 1870 and 1900, making it one of the earliest Ph.D. granting institutions in the United States. In 1959 the undergraduate engineering degree was changed to the Bachelor of Engineering (B.Eng.) to reflect the broad-based interdisciplinary engineering curriculum (note that the M.E. degree of that time was a baccalaureate degree, not to be confused with the present Engineer degree which is a terminal professional graduate degree).
The campus began on the edge of the family estate at Castle Point in Hoboken. Later, in 1959, the great Victorian Mansion, Castle Stevens was demolished to be replaced in 1962 by Howe Center building.
By 1907, Stevens creates the Honor System – moral and ethical code governing the life of Stevens students, preaching equality and honest work.
Stevens has a distinguished history and present in the fields of economics of engineering and management science. Frederick W. Taylor, the "father of scientific management" (M.E., 1886) was the developer of time-motion studies in the nasceant steel manufacturing and tool and die industry. The time and motion studies elucidated the most efficient methods of distributing work in a factory, assigning production resources to workers and processes, quantifying and measuring the resulting productivity. These techniques led to the improvement of manufacturing productivity that are still in use today. Henry Gantt, Taylor's classmate, was the developer of the "Gantt Chart", which is a graphical technique for identifying the critical path- the succession of steps in a process that control the cost and schedule as a function of dependencies in the process. Present day, computer-aided program evaluation and review techniques, and critical path optimization techniques still utilize Gantt's principles. Closely associated with time-motion studies was the psychology of employee and organizational behavior. Dr. Charles Gaudet organized one of the first Psychological Studies Laboratories at Stevens in 1945. The Laboratory developed psychological tests and standards for public employees such as police and fire. These tests, elements of which are in use today, have proven themselves accurate predictors of performance under stressful conditions.
During the Manhattan Project, the International Nickel Company, under the direction of president Charles Stanley (M.E., 1943) developed the ultrapure nickel that was used to fabricate diffusion barriers used in the gaseous isotope diffusion separation process at Los Alamos which produced the uranium-235 used in the Hiroshima atomic bomb. Previous attempts at gas diffusion failed due to impurities in the diffusion barrier alloys causing corrosion of the apparatus by the uranium hexafluoride gas used in the process. Frederick Reines, (M.E., 1939), who would later discover the neutrino- which won him the Nobel Prize in 1995- directed the experimental division of the Manhattan Project.
From 1971 women were finally allowed to enroll in Stevens, before 1971, since the foundation of the university, no women were permitted to attend.
In 1982, Stevens was the first institution in the country to require all undergraduate students to own and use a personal computer. Around this time, an intranet was installed throughout the campus, which also placed Stevens among one of the very first universities with campus networks.
Today campus network combines high-bandwidth Internet connection with ubiquitos local area wired and wireless network, besides that campus servers provide numerous network services for students.
The current president of Stevens Institute of Technology is Harold J. Raveché.
Education Environment
Stevens houses three academic schools, the Charles V. Schaefer, Jr. School of Engineering, the Arthur Imperatore School of Sciences and Arts, and the Wesley J. Howe School of Technology Management.
Stevens offers the Bachelor of Engineering (B.Eng.) degree in electrical, chemical, biomedical, materials, civil, mechanical, systems, engineering management, computer, and ocean engineering. A total of 145-155 credits is required for the B.Eng. degree. Stevens is one of the few schools in the United States that has retained a broad-based engineering curriculum, requiring many courses in engineering disciplines outside of one's major area of concentration. Stevens students credit the high, diverse course load with providing them the ability to solve problems outside their immediate fields of study, and to effectively attack interdisciplinary problems that cut across many different, but related, areas of engineering and science. The Stevens curriculum is noted for its large number of required core courses that are optional in many other schools.
All of the engineering curricula are accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET). The Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree is offered in chemistry, business & technology management, computer science, mathematics, physics, materials science, and chemical biology/biochemistry. At the graduate level, Stevens offers the Master of Engineering (M.Eng.), Master of Technology Management (M.T.M.), Master of Science (M.S.), Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.), Engineer (E.E., M.E., Comp.E., C.E., and Ch.E.), and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees.
Stevens offers an accelerated Chemical Biology/Pre-Medical program with the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. In this program, students can enter the medical school after the third year at Stevens. Stevens confers the B.S. degree after the first year of medical school, and the M.D. degree is awarded after the fourth year. There is also a prelaw program with New York Law School.
The Wesley J. Howe School of Technology Management differs substantially from most traditional business schools in that it emphasizes quantitative methods of management, particularly those unique to the management of technologically-based organizations. The Stevens undergraduate program emphasizes mathematical business models, applications of hard science to the concept and marketing of products, financial engineering (stochastic calculus, probability, and statistics) and the case study method of business analysis. The capstone project in the Business curriculum is the design of a technology-based business, with the accompanying business plan, operations research, market analysis, financial prospectus, and risk analysis. Several of the capstone projects done in the business school have actually been realized in the marketplace as new companies. Stevens is proud to be a "small school" because it allows smaller classes for improved efficiency and better student-faculty interaction.
Current focus in Stevens is integration of business and technology, with technology coming first. The aim is to produce alumni possessing both the skills to create and to lead and manage technological projects. This achieved through high student involvement in research activities and collaboration with faculty helping bring any project from concept to a real commercial product.
Stevens created the Technogenesis – a system of scholarships and practical courses and overall environment to encourage innovation with the purpose to establish new technology-based businesses.
Another important trait of Stevens is its interdisciplinary philosophy – students are not forced to only take courses from their particular department, it is possible to get involved into different fields of science and technology or even get with an interdisciplinary major. The quality of individual study plan is assured through faculty advisers representing the respective departments.
Stevens was the first technological university in the United States with a humanities department. Twenty-four credit hours of humanities (history, literature, social science, philosophy, and art/music) are required of all undergraduates.
Facts
- Stevens is a very selective university. The average SAT score of Stevens is 1380 and 50% of the undergraduates came from the top 10% of their high school classes with an average high school GPA of 3.8. The average SAT score of the students in the Accelerated Pre-Medical program is 1430.
- The engineering curricula require 149 to 155 credit hours of study. Stevens has retained the broad-based engineering curriculum that its founders considered the cornerstone of training the complete engineer. The large number of courses, many in engineering disciplines outside of one's direct concentration, account for the large total number of credits. Many students find this workload very challenging.
- The Gourman Report ranks Stevens 30th in the nation in engineering, and all of its engineering programs in the "Very Strong" category.
- The Princeton Review has ranked Stevens among the Top 25 Most Entrepreneurial Campuses in 2004
- In 2003 Stevens was ranked #1 most connected campus in the country by Princeton Review.
- 50% of Stevens’ engineering students participate in cooperative education. Stevens is one of eleven institutions accredited by the Accreditation Council for Cooperative Education.
- Stevens is accredited in nine engineering disciplines by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology. Stevens was one of the first three institutions in the United States to receive accreditation in Computer Science from the Computer Science Accreditation Board.
- A Standard and Poor's survey of the backgrounds of directors and CEOs of Fortune 500 corporations placed Stevens as 11th in alumni who have become presidents and directors of major corporations.
- In the National Research Council's survey of "Baccalaureate Origins of United States Doctoral Recipients", Stevens was ranked as 16th in the United States for the number of undergraduate alumni who go on to earn doctorates in engineering, science, law, and medicine.
Notable Alumni
- Charles Stewart Mott, M.E. 1882, co-founder of General Motors Corporation
- Eugene McDermott, M.E., 1953, founder, Texas Instruments
- Louis A. Hazeltine, M.E., Sc.D., 1926, founder Hazeltine Corporation, inventor of the neutrodyne radio receiver
- Frederick Reines, M.E., 1939, M.S. 1943, discoverer of the neutrino, 1995 Nobel Prize in Physics
- Frederick L. Bissinger, M.E., 1939, M.S. 1941, President, Allied Chemical Corporation (now Allied-Signal)
- Leland B. Jackson, Sc.D., 1966, head Dept. of Electrical Engineering, University of Rhode Island
- Aaron B. Cohen, M.S., former Director, Manned Space Flight Center, NASA
- Frank Fernandez, M.S., head, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
- Alexander Calder, M.E., 1919, creator of the Mobile and popularizer of that art form
- Richard Reeves, M.E., 1960, syndicated columnist, author, television commentator
- John McLean, MD, B.S., 1960, developer of corneal transplant and founder of the Eye Bank for Sight Restoration
- Cardinal Warde, B.S., 1969, Professor of Electrical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Stephen Crandall, M.E., 1959, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- John Van der Sande, B.S., Professor of Materials Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Zehev Tadmor, Sc.D., 1966, President, Technion- Israel Institute of Technology
- James Spady, M.E., 1955, Professor, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
- James Corcoran, M.E., M.S., President and COO, Lockheed Martin Corporation
- Lawrence Babbio, B.E., 1966, former CEO, Verizon Wireless Corporation, now CEO, ADC Telecommunications Corp.
- Rowland W. Redington, M.E., 1945, inventor of the "fan beam" method of Computer Axial Tomography (CAT) scanners and refiner of MRI techniques
- Leon F. Cordero, M.E., 1953, President of Ecuador