Cockrell School of Engineering

Last updated
The Cockrell School of Engineering
Cockrell School of Engineering logo.png
Type Public
Established1894
Parent institution
University of Texas at Austin
Endowment $780 million (November 2, 2023) [1]
Dean Roger Bonnecaze
Academic staff
289
Undergraduates 6,112 (Fall 2023) [2]
Postgraduates 2.320 (Fall 2023) [3]
Location

The Cockrell School of Engineering is one of the eighteen colleges within the University of Texas at Austin. It has more than 8,000 students enrolled in eleven undergraduate and thirteen graduate programs. [4] Annual research expenditures are over $267 million and the school has the fourth-largest number of faculty in the National Academy of Engineering. [5] [6] [7]

Contents

Previously known as the College of Engineering, on July 11, 2007, the University of Texas at Austin renamed the College after 1936 graduate Ernest Cockrell Jr., whose family helped to build a $140 million endowment for the College. [8]

History

The College of Engineering at the University of Texas was established as the Department of Engineering in 1894. Thomas Ulvan (T.U.) Taylor became the College's first dean in 1906, and he introduced the "Ramshorn" symbol as a mark of academic excellence within the college. In 1910, Dean Taylor established the Engineers Loan Fund to support aspiring engineers. [9]

Over the years, the College of Engineering expanded with the addition of various departments, including Electrical Engineering (1903–), Civil Engineering (1903–), Mining Engineering (1903–1913), and Architecture (1905–1951). The Division of Engineering Research was established in 1915 to advance engineering knowledge through research initiatives. In subsequent years, the college underwent departmental name changes and expansions, reflecting advancements in engineering disciplines and technologies. [10]

On July 11, 2007, the college was renamed the Cockrell School of Engineering after 1936 graduate Ernest Cockrell Jr. [8]

Undergraduate departments

Rankings, in parentheses, taken from the 2023 edition of U.S. News & World Report . [11]

Overall: 11th [12]

Graduate departments

Rankings, in parentheses, taken from the 2023 edition of U.S. News & World Report . [13]

Overall: 7th [14]

Traditions

The Ramshorn

The Ramshorn is one of the most prominent symbols associated with the College of Engineering. Its origins as such can be traced back to over a century ago, when T.U. Taylor, the first engineering faculty member and first dean of the College, began drawing the elaborate checkmark on students' work. A mark reserved for perfect papers, Taylor overheard a student remark he had received a "ramshorn" in 1905, from which the symbol took on its current interpretation and significance. [15] [16]

Alexander Frederick Claire

Alec's beginnings as the patron saint of the College came as the byproduct of the efforts of a group of sophomore engineers back in 1908.

Joe H. Gill and his engineering friends thoughtfully considered how to make a holiday of April Fool's Day. After an unsuccessful attempt involving tying cans around dogs' tails and releasing them to disrupt class, the group of students saw a wooden statue about five feet high while getting refreshments, which they requested to borrow. The next day, Gill presented the statue as their patron saint and traced his ancestry back to ancient times between classes. The presentation successfully broke up classes, and led to his christening as Alexander Frederick Claire, patron saint of UT engineers, exactly one year later. Alec was at the center of a friendly rivalry between law and engineering students for many years, and was subject to numerous escapades such as kidnappings and amputations. [17] Today, what is left of the original wooden statue is safely preserved in the engineering library. [18]

Every year, engineering groups on campus build new Alecs which are then voted on by the students. The winner is announced on April 1 during Alec's birthday party.

Notable faculty

Research centers

The Cockrell School of Engineering has formal organized research units that coordinate and promote faculty and student research. These units provide and maintain specialized research facilities for faculty within a designated field. [22]

Student organizations

The Cockrell School of Engineering is home to over 80 student organizations under the supervision of the Engineering Student Life Office. These organizations offer a wide variety of student groups that provide academic, professional development, service, and social opportunities. The majority are student chapters of national and international professional engineering organizations. Among the organizations are: [23]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Texas at Austin</span> Public university in Austin, Texas, US

The University of Texas at Austin is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 52,384 students as of Fall 2022, it is also the largest institution in the system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norwegian Institute of Technology</span> Former science institute in Trondheim, Norway

The Norwegian Institute of Technology was a science institute in Trondheim, Norway. It was established in 1910, and existed as an independent technical university for 58 years, after which it was merged into the University of Trondheim as an independent college.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Texas Student Media</span> American student media operation

Texas Student Media (TSM) is an auxiliary enterprise of the University of Texas at Austin (UT) and the largest student media operation in the United States. It is composed of faculty, student, and professional news industry representatives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Whitacre College of Engineering</span>

The Edward E. Whitacre Jr. College of Engineering is the college of engineering at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. The engineering program has existed at Texas Tech University since 1925. Additionally, the Whitacre College of Engineering administers graduate engineering degree programs at the university's campus in Amarillo, Texas. Many of the college's degree programs are accredited by ABET. The Whitacre College of Engineering is the first and, presently, only school in the world to offer a doctor of philosophy degree in wind science and engineering.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture</span> Architecture school at the University of Texas at Austin

The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture (UTSOA) is a college within The University of Texas at Austin, with its major facilities located on the main university campus in Austin, Texas, United States.

Ben G. Streetman is the former dean of the Cockrell School of Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. He earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Texas in 1966, and became a professor there in 1982. He founded the university's Microelectronics Research Center and holds the Dula D. Cockrell Centennial Chair Emeritus in Engineering. Streetman is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. He is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Electrochemical Society. He was awarded the IEEE Education Medal in 1989.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan Bovik</span> American engineer (born 1958)

Alan Conrad Bovik is an American engineer, vision scientist, and educator. He is a professor at the University of Texas at Austin (UT-Austin), where he holds the Cockrell Family Regents Endowed Chair in the Cockrell School of Engineering and is Director of the Laboratory for Image and Video Engineering (LIVE). He is a faculty member in the UT-Austin Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the Machine Learning Laboratory, the Institute for Neuroscience, and the Wireless Networking and Communications Group.

The College of Engineering at Michigan State University (MSU) is made up of 9 departments with 168 faculty members, over 6,000 undergraduate students, 10 undergraduate B.S. degree programs and a wide spectrum of graduate programs in both M.S. and Ph.D. levels. Each department offers at least one degree program, however many include more than one degree, multi-disciplinary programs, certifications and specialties as well as other degree programs affiliated with other colleges at Michigan State University.

The Center for Transportation Research (CTR) is a research center affiliated with the Cockrell School of Engineering's Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin in Austin, Texas. CTR is a research institution focused on transportation research and education.

Surya Santoso is an associate professor of Electrical Engineering at the Cockrell School of Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin and directs the Laboratory for Advanced Studies in Electric Power & Integration of Renewable Energy Systems (L-ASPIRES). A senior member of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), he is actively involved in the IEEE Power and Energy Society and has hosted the IEEE Plain Talk on Power Quality in IEEE Power and Energy General Meeting since 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Harrison (academic)</span>

Frank Harrison Jr. was an American physician, professor and university administrator.

Theodore (Ted) Scott Rappaport is an American electrical engineer and the David Lee/Ernst Weber Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at New York University Tandon School of Engineering and founding director of NYU WIRELESS.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles A. Sorber</span>

Charles A. Sorber was an American civil engineer, engineering professor, and academic administrator He was born in 1939 in Kingston, Pennsylvania, US. He received a bachelor's of science degree in civil engineering in 1961 and a master's of science degree in civil engineering in 1966 at Pennsylvania State University, and a Ph.D. degree in environmental engineering in 1971 at the University of Texas at Austin. During his lifetime Dr. Sorber served in the U.S. Army and in a number of academic, research, and administrative positions in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sanjay Banerjee</span> American engineer

Sanjay Banerjee is an American engineer at the University of Texas at Austin, director of Microelectronics Research Center, and director of the Southwest Academy of Nanoelectronics (SWAN) — one of three such centers in the United States funded by the Semiconductor Research Corporation to develop a replacement for MOSFETs as part of their Nanoelectronics Research Initiative (NRI).

Don Fussell is an American computer scientist, currently the Trammell Crow Regents Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, and the chairman of its computer science department.

T. R. Viswanathan is an American engineer, who is currently the Silicon Laboratories Endowed Chair in Electrical Engineering at the Cockrell School of Engineering, University of Texas at Austin. He is formerly the Dean of the Indian Institute of Technology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ahmed Tewfik</span> Egyptian American engineer

Ahmed H. Tewfik is an Egyptian-American electrical engineer, professor and college administrator who currently serves as the IEEE Signal Processing Society President. He also holds the Cockrell Family Chair in Engineering #1 at UT Austin. He served as the former chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Cockrell School of Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin from 2010 to 2019. For his research and contributions to the field of Signal Processing he was elected as an IEEE Fellow in 1996, received the IEEE Third Millennium Award in 2000, and awarded the 2017 IEEE Signal Processing Society Technical Achievement Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deji Akinwande</span> Nigerian-American professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Deji Akinwande is a Nigerian-American professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering with courtesy affiliation with Materials Science at the University of Texas at Austin. He was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2016 from Barack Obama. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the African Academy of Sciences, the Materials Research Society (MRS), and the IEEE.

Maruthi Ram Akella is an Indian-American aerospace engineer. Akella specializes in the control of complex dynamical systems that are subject to large scale nonlinearities and uncertainties.

References

  1. "Endowment Information". utimco.org.
  2. "Program Enrollments and Degrees". cockrell.utexas.edu.
  3. "Program Enrollments and Degrees". cockrell.utexas.edu.
  4. Haurwitz, Ralph K. M. "Industrial meets very cool: UT's $313.7M engineering building debuts". Austin American-Statesman. Retrieved 2023-03-30.
  5. "Cockrell School of Engineering Facts & Figures" . Retrieved 2010-01-30.
  6. "Cockrell School of Engineering Research" . Retrieved 2010-01-30.
  7. "Cockrell School of Engineering Facts & Figures" . Retrieved 2020-11-24.
  8. 1 2 "UT Cockrell School of Engineering". www.engr.utexas.edu.
  9. UT College of Engineering Records, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin. 2024/04/06, https://txarchives.org/utcah/finding_aids/03265.xml
  10. "ECE120 | Texas ECE - Electrical & Computer Engineering at UT Austin". www.ece.utexas.edu. Retrieved 2024-04-06.
  11. "UT Cockrell School of Engineering". www.engr.utexas.edu.
  12. "Program Rankings". www.engr.utexas.edu.
  13. "UT Cockrell School of Engineering". www.engr.utexas.edu.
  14. "Program Rankings". www.engr.utexas.edu.
  15. "The Ramshorn". Cockrell School of Engineering. Archived from the original on 2013-05-02.
  16. Taylor, T. U. (June 11, 1944). "53 Seniors in Ramshorn". The Daily Texan . Vol. 45, no. 197. pp.  1, 8 via Newspaper Archive.
  17. Helton, Alicia (October 2, 1964). "The Saga of Alexander Claire". The Daily Texan . Vol. 64, no. 37. pp.  1, 7 via Newspaper Archive.
  18. Nicar, Jim (2014-03-31). "The Thrilling Adventures of Alec!". The UT History Corner.
  19. "The Legend of Bob Metcalfe". Wired. November 1998. Archived from the original on 2008-05-16. Retrieved 2007-12-07.
  20. Faculty Council. "Faculty Council | The University of Texas at Austin". Utexas.edu. Retrieved 2016-09-09.
  21. Faculty Council. "Faculty Council | The University of Texas at Austin". Utexas.edu. Retrieved 2016-09-09.
  22. "Research Centers". www.engr.utexas.edu.
  23. "Student Organizations". Cockrell School of Engineering. The University of Texas at Austin. 2023.
  24. "Longhorn Racing | UT Austin". Longhorn Racing. Retrieved 2023-01-27.

30°17′19″N97°44′08″W / 30.2885°N 97.7355°W / 30.2885; -97.7355