 Sanderson Building | |
| Head of School | Guangzhao Mao [1] |
|---|---|
| Location | , |
| Affiliations | University of Edinburgh |
| Website | www |
The School of Engineering is the engineering faculty of the University of Edinburgh. The school is part of the University's College of Science and Engineering. [2]
Engineering and its underpinning applied mathematics, chemistry and natural philosophy has been taught and practiced at the University since at least the 1600s. [3] During this period and particularly during the early-to-mid-19th century many renowned engineers were educated at the University, notably the Stevenson family of lighthouse engineers (including acclaimed novelist Robert Louis Stevenson), John Rennie, the canal and bridge pioneer, and Robert Stephenson, inventor of the Rocket locomotive.
Engineering gained a formal footing with the establishment of the Regius Professor of Engineering in 1868. Selected ahead of the acclaimed William Rankine, the first incumbent was Henry Charles Fleeming Jenkin, an accomplished telegraph engineer and contemporary of Lord Kelvin. Fleeming Jenkin established the programme for the new degree of Bachelor of Science in Engineering. The department was part of the Faculty of Arts before joining the newly created Faculty of Science in 1893. [4]
From the start of the 20th century, the third Regius chair Thomas Hudson Beare led the development of the department for almost 40 years. During that time, there was considerable growth in student numbers, development of new facilities and, from 1926, the establishment of separate Honours degrees in civil, mechanical and electrical engineering (chemical engineering followed later). Some of these early developments were undertaken with the Heriot-Watt College (the forerunner of Heriot-Watt University). The arrival of Ronald Arnold in 1946 saw a renewed focus on research alongside teaching, and in the early 1960s, the creation of new facilities, and the establishment of new chairs and separate departments of chemical, civil, electrical and mechanical engineering. [3]
The School has since taken various forms with the establishment of new departments of fire (safety) engineering, as well as various groupings of departments under a School of Engineering Science. For much of the 1990s, the School also incorporated the departments of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence (it was known as the School of Engineering and Information Technology) [4] prior to the formation of the standalone School of Informatics.
The School took its current form in 2002 and is currently organised into four major disciplines of chemical engineering, civil and environmental engineering, electronics and electrical engineering and mechanical engineering. [1] It is the largest School in the College of Science and Engineering.
Many staff and alumni have made major and pioneering contributions across a wide array of fields, notably in civil engineering, lighthouse engineering, railway engineering, thermodynamics, renewable energy, telegraphy, fire safety, electronics and signal processing. [3]
Research is carried out in thematic Research Institutes: [5]
Since 2005 the School has maintained a formal research collaboration with Heriot-Watt University. The Edinburgh Research Partnership in Engineering [6] has been the focus of joint submissions to recent Research Excellence Framework exercises.
The department has occupied many sites in its history, from facilities in Old College until 1906, to High School Yards (1906-1932) and its current, primary location at King's Buildings in 1932. The move to King’s Buildings was part of a wider effort to provide facilities for the universities scientific departments. [4]
The Sanderson Building was purpose-built following a £50,000 bequest by James Sanderson of R. and A. Sanderson and Co., a Scottish tweed manufacturer based in Galashiels. [3] The building was designed and built by the Scottish architectural partnership of Sir Robert Lorimer and John Fraser Matthew and is ‘Category B’ listed. [7] This has been followed by additional buildings adjacent to the Sanderson Building and elsewhere on the King's Buildings site from the 1960s onwards. [4]
Alumni and staff include Fellows of the Royal Society, Royal Society of Edinburgh and Royal Academy of Engineering as well as inductees of the Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame.
Henry Charles Fleeming Jenkin FRS FRSE LLD was Regius Professor of Engineering at the University of Edinburgh, remarkable for his versatility. Known to the world as the inventor of the cable car or telpherage, he was an electrician and cable engineer, economist, lecturer, linguist, critic, actor, dramatist and artist. His descendants include the engineer Charles Frewen Jenkin and through him the Conservative MPs Patrick, Lord Jenkin of Roding and Bernard Jenkin.
Heriot-Watt University is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was established in 1821 as the School of Arts of Edinburgh, the world's first mechanics' institute, and was subsequently granted university status by royal charter in 1966. It is the eighth-oldest higher education institution in the United Kingdom. The name Heriot-Watt was taken from Scottish inventor James Watt and Scottish philanthropist and goldsmith George Heriot.
Sir James Alfred EwingMInstitCE was a Scottish physicist and engineer, best known for his work on the magnetic properties of metals and, in particular, for his discovery of, and coinage of the word, hysteresis.
The King's Buildings is a campus of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Located in the suburb of Blackford, the site contains most of the schools within the College of Science and Engineering, excepting only the School of Informatics and part of the School of Geosciences, which are located at the central George Square campus. The campus lies south of West Mains Road, west of Mayfield Road and east of Blackford Hill, about 2 miles (3.2 km) south of George Square. Scotland's Rural College (SRUC) and Biomathematics and Statistics Scotland (BioSS) also have facilities there.
The Department of Engineering Science is the engineering department of the University of Oxford. It is part of the university's Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences Division. The department was ranked third best institute in the UK for engineering in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework.
The Swanson School of Engineering is the engineering school of the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1846, the Swanson School of Engineering is the second or third oldest in the United States.
Sir Vito Antonio Muscatelli is the Principal of the University of Glasgow and one of the United Kingdom's top economists.
The School of Law at the University of Glasgow provides undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Law, and awards the degrees of Bachelor of Laws, Master of Laws, LLM by Research, Master of Research (MRes) and Doctor of Philosophy, the degree of Doctor of Laws being awarded generally only as an honorary degree.
The John and Marcia Price College of Engineering at the University of Utah is an academic college of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah. The college offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in engineering and computer science.
The Institution of Engineers in Scotland (IES) is a multi-disciplinary professional body and learned society, founded in Scotland, for professional engineers in all disciplines and for those associated with or taking an interest in their work. Its main activities are an annual series of evening talks on engineering, open to all, and a range of school events aimed at encouraging young people to consider engineering careers. Between 1870 and 2020 the institution was known as the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland (IESIS).
Sir Alistair George James MacFarlane was a Scottish electrical engineer and leading academic who served as Principal and Vice Chancellor of Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, and Rector, University of the Highlands and Islands.
Mary (Molly) Isolen Fergusson was a British civil engineer, the first female fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, elected in 1957.
Peter Mitchell Grant is Senior Honorary Professorial Fellow, former Regius Professor of Engineering and Head of School of Engineering and Electronics at the University of Edinburgh. In 2004 he was awarded the 82nd Faraday Medal by the Institute of Electrical Engineers for his 'outstanding contributions to signal processing'.
Sir Thomas Hudson Beare FRSE RSSA was a British engineer. He was successively Professor of Engineering at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, at University College, London, and Regius Professor of Engineering at the University of Edinburgh.
The Regius Chair of Engineering is a royal professorship in engineering, established since 1868 in the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. The chair is attached to the University's College of Science and Engineering, based in the King's Buildings in Edinburgh. Appointment to the Regius Chair is by Royal Warrant from the British monarch, on the recommendation of Scotland's First Minister.
George Frederick Armstrong,, was a distinguished 19th century English academic specialising in railway, civil, and sanitary engineering who served as the Regius Professor of Engineering at the University of Edinburgh. Over the course of his life he became a member of many learned societies and the author of many papers and lectures.
Charles Frewen Jenkin, CBE, FRS was a British engineer and academic. He held the first chair of engineering at the University of Oxford as Professor of Engineering Science.
The School of Mathematics is the mathematics department of the University of Edinburgh. The school is part of the university's College of Science and Engineering.