Groundbreaking Departments
Michigan Engineering has introduced some of the earliest programs in the nation in metallurgical engineering (1875), naval architecture and marine engineering (1881), electrical engineering (1889), chemical engineering (1898), aeronautical engineering (1916), nuclear engineering (1953) and computer engineering (1965).
Metallurgical Engineering
Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Chemical Engineering
Aeronautical Engineering
Nuclear Engineering
Computer Engineering
Metallurgical Engineering
The University added "Strengths of Materials" as a subject in its curriculum description of Michigan Engineering in the 1850s. The University recognized metallurgy as a course of study in 1875, and the program became an option within the Department of Chemical Engineering.
Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering
The history of the University of Michigan's Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering can be tracked to an 1879 act of Congress, which authorized the U. S. Navy to assign a few officers to engineering colleges around the country. Instructors taught the first courses in naval architecture and marine engineering in 1881.
Electrical Engineering
As early as 1888-89, the University offered a course in dynamo-electric machinery through the Department of Physics. Six years later, there were enough courses and staff members to warrant an important change: The University separated its offerings in electrical engineering from its offerings in physics and created the Department of Electrical Engineering (EE).ÊBetween 1905 and 1915, the number of courses increased from 16 to 32, and the staff grew from four to eight members, with two assistants. Today, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science are one department (EECS).
Chemical Engineering
In 1898, the University Regents approved a request for the first U-M course of study leading to a bachelor of science in chemical engineering. By 1900, students filled the old Chemistry Building to capacity. Chemical Engineering's first graduating class, composed of five students, left the University in 1903. It wasn't until 1925 that the field of chemical engineering received official recognition in the United States as a branch of engineering.
Aeronautical Engineering
Known today as the Department of Aerospace Engineering, aeronautical engineering at Michigan became one of the nation's first collegiate aeronautics programs in 1916, just 13 years after the Wright brothers flew at Kitty Hawk. Felix Pawlowski, who taught the first course in aeronautical engineering, and Herbert Sadler, the grandnephew of Britain's first balloonist, had seen the Wright brothers and other aviation pioneers at flying exhibitions, and the enthusiasm of these two teachers became the driving force behind aeronautics during its first years at Michigan.
Nuclear Engineering
The College of Engineering held the first University of Michigan course in nuclear energy applications in 1947, only five years after Enrico Fermi first demonstrated a controlled fission reaction during the Manhattan Project. In 1953 the country's first graduate program in nuclear engineering began as an interdepartmental program at the University of Michigan. The success of this graduate program led to the establishment of the Department of Nuclear Engineering in 1958. The Department granted only graduate degrees until 1965, when the undergraduate program was instituted by the University. The Department's name changed in 1995 to the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences.
Computer Engineering
The story of computer engineering at the College is complex. A graduate program in Computer and Communications Sciences, which dated to 1957, evolved into the Computer and Communications Sciences (CCS) department in 1965, one of the nation's first computer engineering curricula. In 1971, the Department of Electrical Engineering (EE) became the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE). The College of Engineering also created the Departmentof Computer, Information and Control Engineering (CICE). Students from each department took classes in all of the departments, and this duplication of courses became a significant issue. By 1983, concern for this issue had intensified. Faculty from CCS, CICE and ECE drafted a proposal for the merger of the three departments, which eventually took place in 1984 when the College created the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) department.
