1854 was an exceptional year for technology. Engineers used coal gas to light major streets for the first time. Scientists fractionated petroleum by distillation. Elisha Otis demonstrated his first elevator. A British mathematician, George Boole, made a breakthrough that, 100 years later, would become the foundation for modern digital communications. And in Ann Arbor, Michigan, an insignificant city of 3,339 people, Alexander Winchell, a professor of physics and civil engineering, stepped into a classroom and taught the first engineering class at the University of Michigan. Winchell's educational venture was the beginning of what would be 150 years of excellence -- in education, in research and in the creation of engineers who've made a difference in people's lives.

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