School History
history
Engineering at Arizona State University has an enduring and remarkable record of accomplishment. Initially comprised of the divisions of agriculture, architecture, engineering and industrial education, the first college was officially established by the Arizona Board of Regents in 1954, and named the College of Applied Arts and Sciences.
The first bachelor's degree program in engineering was approved in 1956, and two years later the college's engineering division became the School of Engineering. Renamed the College of Engineering Sciences in 1966, and a separate College of Architecture was established.
In 1970, a new division of construction was added to the College of Engineering Sciences, and the name of the Division of Industrial Design & Technology was shortened to Division of Technology. Six years later, the College of Engineering Sciences became the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
The rapidly expanding divisions of construction, technology and agriculture were reorganized in 1988, as the Schools of Construction & Technology, and Agribusiness & Environmental Resources. Through a gift of the Del E. Webb Foundation in 1992, an endowment was set up to create the Del E. Webb School of Construction. A separate school was created for technology and in 1996, the Schools of Technology and Agribusiness moved to ASU Polytechnic Campus.
In 2002 the Department of Bioengineering was renamed the Harrington Department of Bioengineering in honor of a $5 million gift from the Harrington Arthritis Research Center.
Ira A. Fulton, founder and CEO of Fulton Homes, one of the largest builders of residential housing in the nation, established an endowment of $50 million in 2003. The College of Engineering and Applied Sciences was renamed the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering in his honor. The following year, he helped establish Decision Theater, an advanced visualization tool that will enable policymakers and others to see in detailed three-dimensional representation the environmental consequences of their actions.
In 2004, the U.S. Army awarded ASU $43.7 million, the largest in ASU’s history- to establish and lead the Flexible Display Center, designed to develop flexible, low-power, light weight information displays for the future war fighter and other military and commercial applications.
That same year, the Institute for Computing and Information Sciences and Engineering (InCISE) was established. InCISE fosters computer science and applications of data acquisition, analysis and management, security, modeling, visualization and interpretation in interdisciplinary research, education and entrepreneurship.
The Fulton Fellowship program was launched to provide funding to academic units to recruit high-quality, diverse graduate students.
In 2005, the engineering school expanded its historic collaboration with Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM). This partnership launched a dual Master of Engineering Degree in Industrial Engineering between the two institutions, with the underlying concept of improving the global competitiveness of the integrated North American manufacturing industry while helping the economy and the welfare of the populations of Mexico and the United States.
High Performance Computing Initiative (HPCI) under direction of Dan Stanzion, became fully operational.
In 2006, Dr. Deirdre Meldrum was named Dean of the Ira A. School Fulton School of Engineering. Dr. Paul Johnson was appointed Executive Dean later that same year.
The newly formed Department of Biomedical informatics (BMI) along with University of Arizona, collaborated to design and teach an innovative biomedical informatics curriculum to be integrated into all four years of medical school instruction. This unique curriculum was the first of its kind worldwide.
Engineering Student Center opened, featuring 7,500 square feet of student space to include study pods, a wireless access facility, a conference room and meeting areas that can accommodate small groups for lectures and movie presentations.
In 2007, in response to the evolution of computing and informatics as distinctive disciplines, the School of Computing & Informatics was established. This integration of computer and information sciences with other academic disciplines will produce the next generation of computer and information scientists and engineers, applying their use-inspired education and research contributions to solve real-world problems and impact society.
Civil and & environmental engineering alumnus Enamul Hoque, made a $250,000 gift to the department of CEE, becoming the first donor to name a lab within the new ISTB 2 research facility, the EM Hoque Geotechnical Laboratory.
The Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering joined with the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences to form School of Materials.
In 2008, former Motorola CEO Gary Tooker and his wife Diane invested $4million to advance ASU’s efforts to better educate
K-12 students in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). The gift will endow five faculty positions within the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering, and these professors will work to strengthen youth’s interest in STEM-related careers.
The "Grand Challenges for Engineering" were introduced by the National Academy of Engineering, and in response, the Ira A. fulton School of Engineering identified and became committed to addressing some of these challenges facing society.
In 2009, the school model was reorganized into five unique academic units and renamed the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering. As one of the largest engineering schools, the academic and research focus of these schools continues to prepare future engineers for impactful careers, and to lead to innovation and discovery, and to the solutions to our society's grand challenge problems.