College of Engineering > About Engineering > Facts > Our Heritage ...

Our Heritage ...

• 1856 - East Alabama Male College is chartered
• 1869 - Offers course in civil engineering within School of Sciences
• 1872 - Becomes Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama; College of Engineering founded; awards degree of civil engineering to W.E. Horne, believed to be one of first engineering degrees granted by a southern institution of higher education
• 1886 - Five-horsepower Weston electric generator installed in Langdon Hall basement, lighting engineering shops and, eventually, the town of Auburn
• 1891 - Establishes electrical and mechanical department; offers South's first electrical engineering course; faculty pioneers x-ray technology and makes one of its first applications to medicine
• 1899 - Becomes Alabama Polytechnic Institute, affirming commitment to teach mechanics as a cornerstone of institution's mission
• 1913 - Thomas Edison's chief engineer, Auburn alum Miller Reese Hutchison, donates wireless telegraph, prompting course offering in wireless telegraphy
• 1923 - Maria Rogan Whitson earns bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, making her the institution's first female engineering graduate
• 1925-1959 - First five facilities comprising Engineering Quad constructed: Dunstan, Ramsay, Ross, Textile and Wilmore
• 1960 - Becomes Auburn University
• 1984 - Establishes computer science and software department
• 1984-1986 - Two new facilities constructed for Engineering Quad: Broun Hall and Harbert Engineering Center
• 1999 - Offers Southeast's first bachelor's and master's degrees in software engineering
• 2001 - College of Engineering named for alumnus Samuel Ginn, wireless pioneer who gave the college $25 million ¾ among the largest cash gifts in the history of Alabama higher education and the largest single gift in Auburn University's 150-year history
• 2002 - Offers nation's first wireless engineering degree; Wilmore Laboratories renovated to state-of-the-art laboratory and administrative complex
• 2003 - Becomes only Alabama university to offer a fiber engineering program - one of only four nationally accredited programs of its kind
• 2004 - Graduates inaugural class of nation's first wireless engineering program
• 2006 - Textile Engineering renamed Polymer and Fiber Engineering; Construction of new Shelby Center for Engineering Technology underway; Dedication of newly renovated Ross Hall
• 2008 - Dedication of Phase I of the new Shelby Center. More than 9,600 alumni participate in the "It Begins at Auburn" campaign, raising $10 M than the $105 M goal.
• 2009 - Construction of Phase II of the Shelby Center begins; expected completion 2011.