<p>At Bama Bound on Monday afternoon during the Engineering session an interesting factoid was presented that in 1837 UA was one of the first five universities in the nation to offer engineering classes.</p>
<p>Quoting the a web page for UA (Source: [History</a> of UA - The University of Alabama](<a href=“http://www.ua.edu/history.html]History”>http://www.ua.edu/history.html) )</p>
<p>“1837 - The University of Alabama becomes the first in the state to offer engineering classes. It was one of the first five in the nation to do so and one of the few to have maintained accreditation continuously since national accreditation began in 1936.”</p>
<p>But WHO were the other four universities? I have not been able to find it on the internet. One guess for the other four is Georgia Tech since they are named in the lyrics of the UA fight song.</p>
<p>The first 3: (from [Engineering</a> Your Future - What is Engineering?](<a href=“http://www.futuresinengineering.com/what.php?id=1]Engineering”>http://www.futuresinengineering.com/what.php?id=1))</p>
<p>Engineering education in the U.S.
Three schools in the United States were the first to offer an engineering education: </p>
<p>1817 The U.S. Military Academy (West Point, New York)
1819 An institution now known as Norwich University (Vermont)
1825 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (New York)</p>
<p>Yep, believe it! If you really have spare time and want to search, you can search all ABET accredited schools in the nation: [Accredited</a> Program Search](<a href=“http://main.abet.org/aps/Accreditedprogramsearch.aspx]Accredited”>http://main.abet.org/aps/Accreditedprogramsearch.aspx) . A ‘casual’ search of the Mechanical Eng’g discipline yields 296 results (I chose that because Mech Eng’g is usually the largest branch…you can search other branches on the site.) You can search by state, and 7 schools come up for Mechanical Eng’g in Alabama. You could then go to each of those schools and see when they started offering eng’g. It will either be Civil or Mech Eng’g that they offered. 6 schools offer accredited Civil Eng’g degrees in AL.</p>
<p>I do know in Aerospace (because I went through all 65 of <em>those</em> entries), UA shares the oldest accredited distinction with only 5 others in the nation: Georgia Tech; UofMinnesota; UofMichigan; UofWashington; and UofCincinnati. <a href=“http://aem.eng.ua.edu/files/2011/07/history.pdf[/url]”>http://aem.eng.ua.edu/files/2011/07/history.pdf</a></p>
<p>But yes, 1837 just amazes me…</p>
<p>This source confirms those three and lists the fourth as U.Va. (1833) : [No</a>. 1107: Engineering Education](<a href=“http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1107.htm]No”>No. 1107: Engineering Education)</p>
<p>So why, after 175 years, has UA engineering not risen to prominence?</p>
<p>Maybe the department, as well as the school, was set back after being burned down during the civil war? I think the South’s Reconstruction set back many public universities and public education in general. If you look, many public universities in the South are also some of the oldest, including UA. The area was very weak economically after the war and didn’t have much state funding to invest. I think that the state was close to only having one public engineering school, Auburn, at one point due to a lack of funding and the introduction of the Morrill Acts, making Auburn the more trade/hands on school in the state and UA the more liberal arts one. Throughout its history, UA’s College of Engineering has been underfunded. I guess that has changed and the College is once again on its way to being prominent again. I’ve read old articles where UA’s College of Engineering was acclaimed for being at the forefront of the field in both education and technology.</p>
<p>In keeping with the spirit of Alabama technology, this just crossed my desk:</p>
<p>[NASA</a> - Huntsville, Alabama From Space](<a href=“http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_2521.html]NASA”>Huntsville, Alabama From Space | NASA)</p>
<p>The ISS SERVIR Environmental Research and Visualization System or ISERV - a camera aboard the International Space Station - captures an image of her hometown. ISERV was designed and built at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville,</p>