Stevens Institute of Technology is a technological university located on a 55 acres (220,000 m2) campus in Hoboken, New Jersey, USA, founded in 1870 on the basis of an 1868 bequest from Edwin A. Stevens.[3] It is the fourth-oldest technological university in the United States, and is known for its rigorous engineering, science, and technological management curricula[citation needed].
The institute has produced leading engineers, scientists, and managers in industry and government.[citation needed] Two members of the Stevens community, as alumni or faculty, have been awarded the Nobel Prize: Frederick Reines (class of 1939), in Physics, and Irving Langmuir (Chemistry faculty 1906-1909), in chemistry[4]
The Stevens campus encompasses Castle Point, the highest point in Hoboken. Historic Sybil's Cave bores into the side of Castle Point, 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, occupying the site of the former "Stevens Castle" on Castle Point.
Among the prominent research centers of Stevens is the Davidson Laboratory, Wireless Network Security Center, Keck Geotechnical Laboratory, Plasma Physics Laboratory, Nicoll Environmental Laboratory, Electron Microscopy Laboratory, and Center for Mass Spectrometry.
Education environment
Edwin A. Stevens Building, home to the Charles V. Schaefer, Jr. School of Engineering
Stevens is composed of four academic schools: the Charles V. Schaefer, Jr. School of Engineering and Science, the College of Arts and Letters, the Wesley J. Howe School of Technology Management and the School of Systems and Enterprises.
Stevens offers the Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.) degree in electrical, chemical, biomedical, materials, civil, mechanical, systems, computer, and ocean engineering, as well as in engineering management. A total of 145-155 credits is required for the B.E. degree. All of the engineering curricula, with the exception of Biomedical Engineering, 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.
There is also a prelaw program with New York Law School, and a "3-2" (5 year) dual-degree program with New York University, in which students earn a B.S. in science from NYU, in addition to the B.Eng. from Stevens. Stevens Institute of Technology International offers two graduate programs in the Dominican Republic – a Master of Science in Information Systems and a Master of Engineering Manufacturing Technology and Project Management
The Wesley J. Howe School of Technology Management emphasizes quantitative methods of management, particularly those unique to the management of technologically-based organizations.[citation needed] 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 as descriptors of the dynamic behavior of financial markets) 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 has remained 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.
A view of the gatehouse at Stevens Institute of Technology, with the Babbio Center in the background
The Honor System gives the student the privilege to take an examination without proctoring by a professor. Students are required to sign the Honor System pledge attesting that they have not "asked for, given, nor received aid during this examination" in exchange for that privilege. The pledge reads, "I pledge my honor that I have abided by the Stevens Honor System." At the time of its incorporation, students taking examinations were watched closely by a proctor, and asking not to be proctored was a revolutionary idea. Proctoring presumes students will not do the honorable thing, whereas the Honor System places great trust in the students. Stevens treats its students as future professionals, who will maintain the honor and integrity of their professions. In the case of infractions of the Honor System, a jury of the student's peers hears the case in a trial and decides the outcome.[citation needed]
Stevens was the first technological university in the United States with a humanities department.[citation needed] At least eighteen credit hours of humanities (history, literature, social science, philosophy, and art/music) are required of all undergraduates.
Athletics
- See also: List of college athletic programs in New Jersey, USA #Division III
The sports teams are called the Ducks. They participate in the Empire 8 Conference and NCAA Division III.
History
A view of
New York City from the campus of Stevens Institute of Technology.
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[citation needed], who would later reverse engineer the British steam locomotive to American standards for domestic manufacture. Robert Stevens, one of John Stevens' sons is known for inventing the flanged T rail, a form of railroad rail 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.[citation needed]
The Stevens Institute of Technology opened in 1870 and initially was dedicated to mechanical engineering[citation needed].
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.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed] The broad-based interdisciplinary philosophy was put into practice by the founders from the first graduating class. While the original area of concentration was mechanical engineering, and despite the title of the degree, the curriculum included courses in all of the then-current engineering disciplines; mechanical, civil, chemical, and electrical engineering.
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's degree which is a terminal professional graduate degree).
The campus began on the edge of the family estate at Castle Point in Hoboken. It occupied a single building now designated the Edwin A. Stevens Building and a Federal historical landmark.[5] Stone designs on the building's facade are believed to be derived from a pattern repeated in the floor mosaic of Hagia Sophia, the great cathedral in Istanbul, which Edwin A. Stevens is believed to have visited in the late 19th century.
In 1959, the 40-room Victorian mansion, "Castle Stevens" was demolished to be replaced in 1962 by the 14-story Administration Building, later renamed the Wesley J. Howe building.[citation needed]
In 1906, students at Stevens, under the guidance of President Humphrey, created the Honor System – moral and ethical code governing the life of Stevens students, preaching equality and honest work.[6]
A picture of the Wesley J. Howe Center at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ.
Stevens has a distinguished history and presence in the fields of economics of engineering and management science. Frederick Winslow Taylor (M.E., 1883), the "father of scientific management," developed time and motion studies in the steel industry and other manufacturing industries. The time and motion studies elucidated the most efficient way to do each task, the methods of distributing work in a factory, the assigning of production resources to workers and processes, and the quantifying and measuring of the resulting productivity. His books Shop Management and The Principles of Scientific Management remain classic monographs in the field. Although few or no plants today employ exactly the system of management that Taylor described, the underlying principles of analysis and empiricism that shaped his methods 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 particular steps in a process that control the cost and schedule as a function of the dependencies between the steps. Present day, computer-aided program evaluation and review techniques, critical path optimization, and linear programming 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[citation needed], under the direction of president Charles Stanley (M.E., 1943) developed the ultra-pure 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, M.S., 1941), who would later discover the neutrino — which won him the Nobel Prize in 1995 — directed the experimental division of the Manhattan Project.
SS Stevens, a 473-foot, 14,893-ton ship, served as the floating dormitory from 1968 to 1975 for about 150 students. Permanently moored on the scenic Hudson River at the foot of the campus across from New York City, this first collegiate floating dormitory[7] became one of the best known college landmarks in the country.[8] Following the sale of the ship, students of the Class of 1975 presented funds to the institute for the preparation of a site on Wittpenn Walk where one of Stevens' six-ton anchors was placed in tribute to "the Ship".[9] Recounting the events and sentiments on the day Stevens was towed away, the alumni association expressed in its journal, "She disappeared into the fog and into our hearts."[7]
During World War II, the institute was honored by the naming of the Victory Ship, SS Stevens Victory, a merchant cargo ship built by the Bethlehem Fairfield Shipyard at Baltimore. Launched on May 29, 1945, the ship was among of a group of 150 ships that were named for US Colleges and Universities.
Starting in 1971, women were first allowed to enroll in Stevens.[10]
In 1982, Stevens was the first institution in the U.S. to require all incoming freshman undergraduate students to purchase and use a personal computer.[11] 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's campus network combines high-bandwidth Internet connection with ubiquitous local area wired and wireless network, besides that campus servers provide numerous network services for students.
Research environment
View looking down Wittpenn Walk
[2] on the campus of Stevens Institute of Technology.
Stevens houses many prominent research centers.[citation needed]
Davidson Laboratory
One of the largest research centers is the Davidson Laboratory: the oldest non-military hydrodynamics, naval architecture, and ocean engineering research laboratory in the United States.[citation needed] The Davidson Laboratory houses several towing tanks, which are equipped with computer-controlled machinery to generate waves with precisely determined amplitude and spectral characteristics. Trolleys mounted on rotating and linear arms carry scale models of the ships or vehicles to be tested while sensors record the vehicle motion and the data analyzed on computers. The stability, control, and seaworthiness characteristics of the vessel can thus be precisely characterized. Davidson Lab has designed and tested numerous ships, boats, yachts, submarines, and amphibious vehicles.
Notable projects of Davidson include seakeeping and buoyancy tests of the Apollo flotation balloons. Computer simulations showed the balloons to adequately support the spacecraft when it parachuted into the ocean; however, Davidson Lab proved by experiment that the original design would have caused the spacecraft to overturn and sink. The design was thus corrected and retested.
Davidson Lab designs and tests the majority of the America's Cup racing yachts including several Cup winners, many Navy ships, and amphibious aircraft. The Davidson Laboratory is now part of the Center for Maritime Systems, which conducts research in the fields of coastal oceanography and underwater acoustics, as well as the traditional marine craft hydrodynamics studies. The high-speed linear towing tank facility was recently renovated and was officially rededicated in December 2006, as the highlight of a model testing conference hosted at Stevens. Facility upgrades included widening and deepening the tank to increase cross-sectional area, the addition of underwater viewing ports for photography and measurements, and improvements to the numerous electronic systems used for control, monitoring, and data acquisition.
The laboratory facilities include a comprehensive machine shop (the largest on the Stevens campus) and an electronics/instrumentation shop. These shops provide an in-house capacity to design and fabricate various specialized items of apparatus that may be required for experimental studies but for which there is no readily available commercial source.
Technogenesis
Stevens employs Technogenesis, which is a unique system of scholarship and practical courses, to create an overall learning environment designed to encourage innovation with the ultimate goal of establishing new technology-based businesses. Technogenesis is a trademarked word that is now owned by Stevens but was first used in 1993 by Technogenesis, Inc. (of Mineola, NY) [12].
New Jersey Lawsuit
In 2009, Stevens had attracted attention as described in a New York Times opinion piece entitled "The Stevens Scandal"[13] regarding allegations of financial irregularities.
On September 17, 2009, after a three-year investigation, New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram filed a 16-count lawsuit against Stevens.[14] The lawsuit alleged that the current president, Harold J. Raveche, and chairman, Lawrence Babbio, Jr., misrepresented the finances of the school and caused the endowment to fall by $42 million dollars from $157 million in 2000 to $115 million in 2009.[15] The lawsuit revealed that Raveche received below-market loans from the school, at least some of which were forgiven by Stevens.[16] The complaint also raised questions about Raveche's salary which was greater than that of the president of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a much larger, better known school.[16] Harold J. Raveche's salary in 2009 was approximately $1,119,685 plus $350,000 expenses for a total compensation of $1,469,685.
A Wall Street Journal article [17] notes that it is unusual for a state to take action against an educational institution on questions of salary or financial management. Stevens denied all allegations, contended that the state attorney general had overstepped her legal authority over a private institution,[4], filed its own lawsuit against the state, and sought to seal the case from the public.[16]
The New York Times reported that Jack B. Siegel, a Chicago lawyer specializing in non-profits, said that the Stevens case was "the case of the year" in non-profit circles because there were accusations that the school was "keeping two sets of books, misleading the board and forgiveness of below-market-rate loans."[15]
On January 15, 2010, Stevens announced that the institute and the New Jersey Attorney General's office agreed to a settlement of the September, 2009 lawsuit filed by the NJ Attorney General, as well as the separate suit filed by Stevens against the Attorney General.[18][19] In the settlement, the parties agreed to a number of changes to Stevens' governance procedures, all of which are scheduled to be implemented by June 30, 2011. Additionally, in a letter to the institute, Lawrence T. Babbio Jr. and Harold J. Raveché, announced that President Raveché had voluntarily decided, after 22 years of service as the institute's sixth president, that he would not continue as president beyond June 30, 2010.[20]. The settlement recognizes Dr. Raveché’s contributions to Stevens, and makes him a consultant to the Institute. It concludes with no admission of liability or unlawful conduct by any party.[19]
Facts
The New York Skyline, as seen from Castle Point on the Stevens Institute of Technology campus
- The average SAT score of Stevens is 1750 out of 2400[citation needed] and 58% of the undergraduates come from the top 10% of their high school classes[citation needed] with an average high school GPA of 3.8[citation needed]. The average SAT score of the students in the Accelerated Pre-Medical program is 1430 out of 1600.[citation needed]
- Stevens shares its motto per aspera ad astra, "through adversity to the stars" with NASA
- WCPR, the radio station of Stevens Institute of Technology, has one of the largest record collections in the state of New Jersey at over 10,000 LPs[21]
Notable alumni
The DeBaun Atrium inside the Babbio Center at Stevens Institute of Technology.
The gatehouse at Stevens Institute of Technology.
- Edward G. Amoroso, ’86, M.S., ‘92 Ph.D., Vice President, Network Security, AT&T
- Lawrence Babbio, B.E., 1966, vice chairman and president of Verizon Communications, Domestic Telecom Group.[22]
- Evelyn E. Bailey, B.S., Professor of Economics, Princeton University
- Frederick L. Bissinger, M.E., 1939, M.S. 1941, President, Allied Chemical Corporation (now Allied-Signal)[23]
- Adrian Buscemi, M.E. 1970, co-founder of GTCO
- Samuel P. Bush, 1884, steel and railroad executive, public servant, patriarch of Bush political family[24]
- Alexander Calder, M.E., 1919, creator of the Mobile and popularizer of that art form[22]
- Aaron B. Cohen, M.S., former Director, Manned Space Flight Center, NASA[25]
- Fred H. Colvin, M.E. Hon., 1944, journalist, author, and editor in the fields of manufacturing, machine tools, etc.
- James Corcoran, M.E., M.S., President and CEO, Lockheed Martin Corporation
- Leon Febres Cordero, M.E., 1953, President of Ecuador[22], 1984–1988
- Rev. Gabriel Costa, Ph.D., 1972, Professor of Mathematics, United States Military Academy at West Point
- Stephen Crandall, M.E., 1959, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Mark Crispin, B.S., 1977, Inventor of IMAP
- Chuck Dages, B.S. 1970, Executive Vice President, Emerging Technology, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group
- Nate Davis, B.E., President and COO - XM Satellite Radio; formerly COO of XO Communications
- Richard J. Decker B.S, M.S, Chief Information Officer, McAfee Inc.
- L. Sprague de Camp, M.S., 1933, science fiction author, Lest Darkness Fall , The Wheels of If, The Great Monkey Trial , winner of the Hugo Award (1997)
- Brian Fabiano, MBA, Senior Vice President, Network Services - Optimum Lightpath (Cablevision Systems Corporation)
- Frank Fernandez, M.S., head, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
- Alfred Fielding, 1939, Co-inventor of Bubble Wrap[22]
- Henry Gantt, developed the Gantt chart, an important project management tool
- Louis A. Hazeltine, M.E., Sc.D., 1926, founder Hazeltine Corporation, inventor of the neutrodyne radio receiver [22]
- Richard Herman, B.S., 1963, Chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- Peter Cooper Hewitt, electrical engineer and inventor of the Mercury arc rectifier
- Darko Hrelic, M.S., Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Gartner, Inc
- Leland B. Jackson, Sc.D., 1966, head Dept. of Electrical Engineering, University of Rhode Island [26]
- Walter Kidde, B.E., 1897, founder of Walter Kidde Constructors; oversaw the construction of Port Newark and Kearny, New Jersey's first traffic circle and the world's first cloverleaf interchange, the Pulaski Skyway; served as New Jersey State Highway Commissioner; founder of the Walter Kidde Company, maker of WWII safety equipment [27]
- John West Kinney, M.E., 1925, Engineer of Construction, Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, NYC, 1959–1964
- Jerry Luftman, PhD, 1990, VP, Academic Community Affairs, Society for Information Management
- Paul Mankiewich, M.S., Chief Technology Officer, Alcatel-Lucent
- Eugene McDermott, M.E., 1953, founder, Texas Instruments
- John McLean, MD, B.S., 1960, developer of corneal transplant and founder of the Eye Bank for Sight Restoration
- Charles Stewart Mott, M.E. 1882, co-founder of General Motors Corporation [22]
- Stephen B. Pudles, B.E., M.S., Chief Executive Officer, API Nanotronics, Corp
- Charles Petzold, B.S., M.S. 1975, Author, The Annotated Turing: A Guided Tour through Alan Turing's Historic Paper on Computability and the Turing Machine 2008, Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software 1999, Programming Windows 1988-1998
- Jon Rabinowitz, M.E. 1971, co-founder of GTCO
- Rowland W. Redington, M.E., 1945, inventor of the "fan beam" method of Computer Axial Tomography (CAT) scanners and refiner of MRI techniques[28]
- Richard Reeves, M.E., 1960, Emmy Award winner, syndicated columnist, author, television commentator[22]
- Frederick Reines, M.E., 1939, M.S. 1943, discoverer of the neutrino, 1995 Nobel Prize in Physics[22]
- Virginia P. Ruesterholz, B.E., 1983, President, Verizon Telecom
- Mark Schubin, B.S., 1971, Emmy Award winner, satellite broadcast engineering consultant
- Karan Sorensen, EMTM, 1997, CIO and Vice President Information Management Johnson and Johnson Pharmaceutical Research and Development
- James Spady, M.E., 1955, Professor, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
- Edwin Augustus Stevens, Jr., son of the school's founder.
- Moisés Tacle, M.Eng., 1975, Rector of the Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral, Ecuador
- Zehev Tadmor, Sc.D., 1966, President, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
- Frederick Winslow Taylor, M.E., 1883, developer of scientific management methods and time-motion studies[22]
- John Van der Sande, B.S., Professor of Materials Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology [29]
- Cardinal Warde, B.S., 1969, Professor of Electrical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology [23]
- Kevin Zagorda, B.S., 1980, Radiological Controls Director, Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory
References
Clark, G.W. (2000). History of Stevens Institute of Technology, Jensen/Daniels. ISBN 1-893032-24-8
External links
