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Why Cornell Engineering?
"Scientists study the world as it is; engineers create the world that never has been."—Theodore von Karman
Cornell engineers challenge the status quo and do great things. Steeped in an environment of questioning, and with a focus on innovation, Cornell Engineering pursues excellence in all areas. Its faculty, students, and alumni design, build, and test products, improve the world of medicine, inform and shape our laws, create and drive businesses, become research luminaries, and overcome real and perceived barriers to achieve scientific breakthroughs that advance the quality of life on our planet.
We invite you to learn more about Cornell Engineering and its programs.
Did you know?
Professor Christine Shoemaker initiated and led the United National Environment Program/Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment. The group focuses on groundwater contamination in development. She was also one of the first women engineering department chairs at an American university.
Olin Hall of Chemical Engineering was opened in 1942. Named after Franklin W. Olin (Civil Engineering, B.S., 1886), it was the first building of the current Engineering Campus.
Charles Manly (M.S., 1898) invented and built the first gasoline engine used for aviation. He also piloted an early experimental aircraft called the Great Aerodrome, built in collaboration with the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution (Samuel Langley), but the early experiments were not successful and Manly crashed it into the Potomac River.
CDMA (Code Division and Multiple Access) technology for cell phones was developed in 1989 by alum Irwin Jacobs , co-founder and former chairman of Qualcomm. This innovation greatly increased the number of calls cell phone towers could handle simultaneously and became the world’s fastest-growing and most advanced voice and data wireless communications technology.
George Winter's (Ph.D. Civil and Environmental Engineering, 1940) research led to the first publication in 1946 of the American Iron and Steel Institute Specification for the Design of Cold-Formed Steel Structural Members. Most of the research and the writing of this code can be attributed to George Winter. It soon became the world-recognized standard for this type of construction and has been published abroad in many languages.