A Brief History of Georgia Tech and the Woodruff School

A school of technology was established in Atlanta in 1885. In October 1888 the Georgia School of Technology opened its doors and admitted its first engineering class: 129 mechanical engineering students enrolled in Tech's first degree program. As part of their education these early students worked at trades such as forging, woodworking, machining, and mechanical drawing. The products of these shop exercises were then sold to the public to produce income for the School.

The first Head (starting in 1888) and Professor of Mechanical Engineering was John Saylor Coon, a graduate of Cornell University and a charter member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He held this position for 35 years until his retirement in 1923. For eight years mechanical engineering was the only degree offered at Tech, and Dr. Coon saw to it that classes were challenging---so challenging that only 28 of the original students earned degrees. Uncle Si, as Professor Coon was known, set high standards, which became a precedent at Tech.

Over the years, the mechanical engineering program expanded and changed. By 1896, the contract system of shops had been abandoned. Free from the need to render a profit on instructional time, Dr. Coon implemented an educational format which, while it retained elements of hands-on shop training, placed more stress on the emerging tenets of quantification and analysis. Dr. Coon revised the curriculum, describing a mechanical engineering program that emphasized design, mathematics, and problem solving. Prominent here was a senior thesis, which was an experimental laboratory project emphasizing design and testing. Increasing emphasis was given to higher mathematics, theoretical science, and original research. The experimental project requirement survives today as the capstone experimental engineering course.

The notion that an engineer was a technical master first and a businessman second permeated the curriculum of Georgia Tech at the turn of the century. Mechanical engineering students conducted efficiency tests for businesses in Atlanta and experiments using campus facilities. Practical projects at local businesses became a significant part of the educational process at Georgia Tech, especially after the Cooperative Program officially began in 1912. This continues to be the largest optional program of its kind in the country. About forty percent of all mechanical engineering undergraduate students at Georgia Tech are involved in the program. In addition, there is a Graduate Co-op Program, an International Co-op Program, an Undergraduate Professional Internship Program, and a number of study-abroad programs for students to gain international experience.

Tech graduated its first two students, with bachelor's degrees in mechanical engineering, in 1890. The first MSME was authorized in 1922, and a doctoral program was added in 1946. The first MS degrees were awarded in 1925, and the first Ph.D.'s were granted in 1950. Georgia Tech was renamed the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1948. Women were admitted in 1952, and the campus was voluntarily integrated in 1962. In 1949, the Department of Mechanical Engineering officially became the School of Mechanical Engineering with its own director and administrative staff. In 1985 the School was named for its benefactor, distinguished Atlanta business and civic leader, the late George W. Woodruff (class of 1917).

Today, the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering is the oldest and second largest of the ten divisions in the College of Engineering at Georgia Tech. Our enrollment includes 1675 undergraduate students and almost 700 graduate students. Currently, we have programs in mechanical engineering, nuclear and radiological engineering, medical physics, paper science and engineering, and bioengineering. We offer nine degrees: two in undergraduate studies (BSME and BSNRE) and seven in graduate studies (MS, MSME, MSNE, MSMP, MSPS, MSBIOE, and the Ph.D.).

Currently, sample courses of instruction in mechanical engineering include: engineering graphics, mechanics, computing techniques, creative decisions and design, systems dynamics and control, dynamics of rigid bodies, circuits and electronics, engineering materials, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, mechanics of materials, experimental methods, heat transfer, machine design, systems lab, energy systems, manufacturing processes, experimental engineering, and capstone design.

Research and teaching in the Woodruff School is directed by a distinguished group of 80 academic faculty, 22 full-time research engineers and scientists, and five academic professionals. Also, many of our graduate students are employed as research assistants and are an integral part of this technical community. Faculty work in all the traditional and cutting-edge areas of mechanical engineering: acoustics and dynamics; automation and mechatronics; bioengineering; computer-aided engineering and design; fluid mechanics; heat transfer, combustion, and energy systems; manufacturing; mechanics of materials; MEMS; and tribology. Faculty participating in the Nuclear and Radiological Engineering/Medical Physics Program do research in fission, fusion, and medical physics. In 2004-2005, Woodruff School research teams conducted work on more than 236 grants and contracts from government and industry.

In 2000, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers recognized the Woodruff School as a Mechanical Engineering Heritage Site. Of the 225 landmarks, sites, and collections, we are the only educational institution with this honor, which was granted for the impact that mechanical engineering education at Georgia Tech had on the South and the nation.

Graduates from Georgia Tech have always had a hand in helping build industry in the South. This is as true today as it was 117 years ago when Georgia Tech began to educate engineers and revitalize the economy of the South, devastated after the Civil War. Today's rigorous engineering curriculum allows our students to continue to have a lasting impact on the global society.

A Brief History of Nuclear Engineering at Georgia Tech

1885	The Georgia Legislature passes a bill appropriating $65,000 to found a technical school. 1886 Atlanta is chosen as the location for the Georgia School of Technology.
1887	Developer Richard Peters donates four acres of land known as Peters Park to the new school. 1888 Georgia Tech opens for classes on October 8 with 129 students working toward the only degree offered, the Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering.
1890	Tech graduates its first two students with degrees in mechanical engineering. 1912 The Cooperative Education Department is established to coordinate work-study programs.
1931	The Georgia Legislature creates the University System of Georgia. 1948 The Board of Regents authorizes Tech to change its name to the Georgia Institute of Technology.
1950	Tech awards its first Ph.D. 1952 The Board of Regents votes to make Tech coeducational. The first two women students enroll for fall quarter.
1956	Tech's first two women graduates receive their degrees. 1957 Frank Neely helps Georgia Tech get one of the first nuclear reactors in the South. The Georgia Legislature grants Tech $2.5 million for a nuclear reactor. The cost for the entire complex was 4.5 million dollars.
1958	The first master's degree in Applied Nuclear Science (an interdisciplinary program in physics, chemistry and math) is granted. This later became the health physics degree. 1960 The Board of Regents names the research facility that contains the reactor the Frank H. Neely Nuclear Research Center.
1961	A 30kCi Cesium 137 source is installed in the Radioisotope Facility (later the Cherry-Emerson Building). 1962 The School of Nuclear Engineering is established with the M.S.N.E. as its first degree. The first director of the School of Nuclear Engineering is named: Dr. W. B. Harrison, a professor of mechanical engineering.
1963	Dr. Geoffrey Eichholz is the first faculty member hired in the School of Nuclear Engineering. He retired in November 1988 as a Regents' Professor. 1964 The heavy-water-cooled nuclear reactor begins operations. The Ph.D. in nuclear engineering is approved. Reactor physics is taught by a faculty member at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory over a phone line and with a stylus printer, making it, perhaps, the first distance-learning course at Georgia Tech.
1965	The first Ph.D. in nuclear engineering is awarded to Walter Waverly Graham. The curriculum option of health physics within the MSNE program is initiated. Captain F. W. (Bill) Chambers, Jr. is hired as the first HP faculty member. 1967 The undergraduate program in Nuclear Engineering is established.
Late 1960s	The Department of Nuclear Engineering is one of the largest producers of Ph.D.'s on campus. 1972 The first master's degree in nuclear engineering is awarded to a minority student. The Board of Regents approves the conversion of the master's degree in applied nuclear science to be conferred on health physics students in the nuclear engineering department. This will be called the M.S. in Health Physics.
1973	The bachelor's degree in nuclear engineer is approved. 1975 The master's degree in nuclear engineering is accredited. The first master's degree in nuclear engineering is awarded to a female student.
Mid-1970s	Tech is one of the first undergraduate programs in nuclear engineering to be accredited. Materials fuel technology and reactor operations become options in nuclear engineering in an effort to broaden the curriculum. 1977 The Center of Radiological Research is formed to coordinate research in health physics. The distance-learning (video) program in health physics (M.S.H.P.) and nuclear engineering (M.S.N.E.) is started. Dr. Weston M. Stacey comes to Tech to set up the Fusion Research Center in the School of Nuclear Engineering. The Center of Radiological Research was formed to coordinate research in health physics.
1979	The School of Nuclear Engineering is renamed the School of Nuclear Engineering and Health Physics. Late 1970s Tech has the largest graduate health physics program in the country. 1980 The large Cobalt 60 source from the Department of Energy is installed in the Neely Center.
1981	The first Ph.D. in nuclear engineering is awarded to a minority student.
1984	The first Ph.D. in nuclear engineering (HP) is awarded to a woman. The School of Nuclear Engineering is merged into the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering.
1985	Tech decides to maintain its nuclear engineering program during a period of downturn because nuclear power and security are important to the economies of the southeast and the nation. Late 1980s Tech still has one of the largest health physics programs in the country.
1990 1995 1999   2002	The 30kCi Cesium 137 source in the Radioisotope Building is removed. The nuclear reactor is shut down. 1997 The B.S.N.E. degree becomes the B.S.N.R.E. degree to reflect the addition of radiological engineering courses in the curriculum. Decommissioning the nuclear reactor begins. Neely Professor Emeritus of Nuclear Engineering and Health Physics Melvin W. Carter is elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering. The undergraduate nuclear engineering scholarship program begins. 2000 The Nuclear and Radiological Engineering Program joins the Academic Common Market for the undergraduate students wishing to get a BSNRE. Decommissioning the nuclear reactor is completed. Georgia Tech receives an award from the State of Georgia for engineering excellence for the completion of the decommissioning of the Georgia Tech Research Reactor. A Strategic Plan is developed by the faculty for the nuclear and radiological engineering/health physics program. The NRE/HP program becomes an autonomous unit in the Woodruff School. A period of program growth that includes the addition of faculty and an increase in the number of undergraduate students enrolled in the program. A Woodruff School Associate Chair is appointed for the program. The first Annual Report for the NRE program is published. 2003 A new faculty member is hired as a full professor in partial fulfillment of the strategic plan. A master's degree (M.S.M.P.) in medical physics in conjunction with Emory University is proposed and is waiting for Board of Regents approval. No new graduate students were accepted into the Health Physics program. Self-selected research areas are created: fusion, fission, and health physics. ABET approval of the undergraduate program. Nuclear Engineering and Health Physics at Georgia Tech (1958-1990) by Geoffrey Eichholz, Regent's Professor Emeritus, is published. The Master's Degree in Medical Physics receives approval from the Board of Regents. A transition plan is developed for health physics students to complete the degree.
2004	Students are admitted to the Medical Physics program, which begins in fall 2004. The distance-learning program in Medical Physics begins. Enrollment in NRE continues to rise. The undergraduate program in nuclear and radiological engineering is ranked 11th in the nation by U. S. News & World Report.
2005	The first three students finished the M.S.M.P. Program, received their Master's degrees and found jobs. The undergraduate enrollment in NRE continues to increase substantially. The M.S.H.P. degree program is no longer offered. The Ph.D. in medical physics is an option in nuclear engineering.

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