Stevens Institute of Technology

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Stevens Institute of Technology is named after a family of accomplished inventors and engineers who also oversaw the development of Hoboken from an old farm into a thriving city.[14] In 1784, the land now occupied by Stevens Institute of Technology was purchased by John Stevens,[15] who would later reverse engineer the British steam locomotive to American standards for domestic manufacture. This innovation would be employed by ferries to Manhattan which still run from Hoboken's piers.[16] Robert Stevens, one of John's sons, invented the flanged T rail, a form of railroad rail in prevalent use today including from the Lackawanna Terminal of Hoboken whose docks are also in a style designed by Robert. Along with his brother Edwin A. Stevens, Robert created America's first commercial railroad[15] presently operating as a large portion of Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor.

John Cox Stevens, John Stevens' eldest son, was the first commodore of the New York Yacht Club.[17] He and his brother Edwin built the yacht America and were aboard its 1851 regatta victory in England, later recognized as the first winner of the America's Cup;[17][18][19] the competition bears the namesake of Stevens' yacht. The NY Yacht Club would defend its title until the 1983 race.

Edwin died in 1868. In his will, he left a bequest for the establishment of an "institution of learning," providing his trustees with land and funds.[20] Edwin's will was executed by surviving wife Martha Stevens who would also serve as a lifetime Trustee of the institute. Martha Stevens oversaw much of the family's philanthropy toward the City of Hoboken including founding of the Church of the Holy Innocents as a free Episcopal church, a foundling hospital and birthing center at St Mary's Hospital; the Robert L. Stevens Fund for Municipal Research; manual training schools for both boys and young girls in Hoboken; the Hoboken Public Library and Manual Training School.[21]

Stevens Institute of Technology opened in 1870 and initially was dedicated to mechanical engineering.[15] The original course of study was a single, rigorous curriculum based upon the European Polytechnic model of engineering science (following the French and German scientific and polytechnic schools), rather than the shop schools that were common at that time.[15] "Mechanical Engineer" (M.E.) was the original degree offered, in addition to a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering, chemistry, or physics. Stevens granted several Ph.D.s between 1870 and 1900, making it one of the earliest Ph.D. granting institutions in the United States.[22] The broad-based interdisciplinary philosophy was put into practice by the founders from the first graduating class. Despite the title of the degree and concentration in mechanical engineering, the curriculum included courses in all engineering disciplines of the time; mechanical, civil, chemical, and electrical. In 1880, Robert H. Thurston, professor of mechanical engineering, was nominated the first president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.[23]

The campus began on the edge of the family estate at Castle Point in Hoboken. It occupied a single building now designated the Edwin A. Stevens Building and a Federal historical landmark.[24] Stone designs on the building's facade are believed to be derived from a pattern repeated in the floor mosaic of Hagia Sophia, the great cathedral in Istanbul, which Edwin Stevens is believed to have visited in the late 19th century.

In 1906, students, under the guidance of President Humphreys, created the honor system – moral and ethical code governing the life of Stevens students, preaching equality and honest work.[15] The student-run system still exists to this day in which the accused are tried by their peers with a punishment recommended to the faculty. Stevens was the first technical school to implement such a system.[25]

During World War II, Stevens Institute of Applied Science was one of 131 colleges and universities nationally that took part in the V-12 Navy College Training Program which offered students a path to a Navy commission.[26] During this time, the institute was also honored by the naming of the Victory Ship, SS Stevens Victory, a merchant cargo ship built by the Bethlehem Fairfield Shipyard at Baltimore. Launched on May 29, 1945, the ship was one of 150 named for U.S. colleges and universities.

In 1959 the undergraduate engineering degree was changed to the Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.) to reflect the broad-based interdisciplinary engineering curriculum (the M.E. degree of that time was a baccalaureate degree, not to be confused with the present Engineer's degree which is a terminal professional graduate degree).

In 1959, the land occupied by the 40-room Victorian mansion, "Castle Stevens" or "Villa on the Hudson", was re-purposed for the 14-story administration building completed in 1962, later renamed the Wesley J. Howe building.[27] During its tenure as a campus building starting in 1911, it served as a dormitory, cafeteria and office space. The unsupported cantilevered staircase with its elegant hand-carved balustrade was one of only two such "floating staircases" in America.[28]

The SS Stevens, a 473-foot, 14,893-ton ship, served as a floating dormitory from 1968 to 1975 for approximately 150 students. Moored on the Hudson River at the foot of campus across from New York City, this first collegiate floating dormitory[29] became one of the best known college landmarks in the country.[30] Following the sale of the ship, students of the Class of 1975 presented funds to the institute for the preparation of a site on Wittpenn Walk where one of Stevens' six-ton anchors was placed in tribute to "the Ship".[27] On the day Stevens was towed away, the alumni association recounted sentiments in its journal, "She disappeared into the fog and into our hearts."[29]

Stevens was one of the first five college football teams.[31] In 1873, representatives of Princeton, Yale, Columbia, and Rutgers met in New York City to establish the first American intercollegiate rules for football on the model of the London Football Association.[32] As the game developed in the United States it became progressively more violent and Stevens became disadvantaged. The alumni magazine commented that the style of the game became too difficult and required an enormous amount of time and training which could be afforded by larger colleges, but would add too much work to the already difficult academic coursework at Stevens.[33] President Humphreys ended the football program after the 1924 season.

The first women were admitted to Stevens graduate program in 1967. Stevens undergraduate program became coeducational in 1971. The Class of 1975 matriculated 19 women, and 40 years later, women make up 25 percent of undergraduates.[34] The change in demographic eventually lead to the establishment of the Lore-El Center, named for Lore E. Feiler, to enhance the learning and social experience of women at Stevens.[35]

In 1982, Stevens was the first institution in the U.S. to require all incoming freshman undergraduate students to purchase and use a personal computer.[36] Around this time, an intranet was installed throughout campus, which placed Stevens among the first universities with campus networks.

WCPR: Castle Point Radio, the radio station of Stevens Institute of Technology since 1961, has over 10,000 LPs, one of the largest record collections in New Jersey.[37]

Stevens’ S.C. Williams Library houses the University's Special Collections, which of most prominence, contain the largest compendium of items relating to Frederick Winslow Taylor, Class of 1883, the finest accumulations in the Western Hemisphere of prints, manuscripts in facsimile and books by and about Leonardo da Vinci.[38] and artwork by Alexander Calder. The former consists largely of Taylor's personal and work-related correspondence regarding implementation of scientific management, a field in which he was a pioneer, as well as belongings of the Taylor family, portraits, photographs, furniture and ephemera.[39] The other collection hallmark, the "Leonardo da Vinci Room" was donated by John W. Lieb, Class of 1880.

The library's archives also house many Stevens family documents and artifacts from early American and New Jersey history from as early as the American Revolutionary War.[40] The Archives and Special Collections department aims to engage student, faculty, staff, alumni and the local and global community with primary sources and artifacts. The Hoboken Historical Museum hosted a six-month exhibition on the Stevens Family and their contributions to American life and featured many of the Library's contents.[41] In early 2015, the Stevens Class of 1960 produced a documentary entitled "Stevens and Sons: America's First Family of Engineers" narrated by Richard Reeves highlighting the family's contributions.

In 2009, after a two-year investigation by the New Jersey Attorney General, Stevens and the attorney general filed competing lawsuits against one another.[42] The attorney general suit against Stevens, its then-president and chairman of the board of trustees alleged numerous claims involving breach of fiduciary duty and other causes of action primarily relating to financial practices and the financial management of the institute and the compensation and certain loan transactions involving the then-president.[43] The Stevens suit against the attorney general contended that she had overstepped her legal authority over a private institution, and sought that any case be pursued by confidential arbitration.[42]

On January 15, 2010, Stevens announced that the institute and the attorney general's office settled the competing lawsuits.[44][45] In the settlement, the parties agreed to a number of changes to Stevens' governance procedures, and it appointed a special counsel to oversee the implementation of these changes and prepare periodic reports on Stevens’ progress.[45] Additionally, in a letter to the institute on January 15, 2010, the chairman of the board of trustees, Lawrence T. Babbio Jr., and the then-president Harold J. Raveché announced that Raveché had voluntarily decided not to continue as president beyond June 30, 2010 after 22 years in that position.[46] The settlement made Dr. Raveché a consultant to the institute through October 2011 and forced him to repay the outstanding balance of loans previously made to him by Stevens.[47] It concludes with no admission of liability or unlawful conduct by any party.[45]

The special counsel prepared six reports on the progress of the governance changes outlined in the settlement agreement.[48] The sixth and final quarterly report, dated August 3, 2011, states that Stevens completed on schedule the agreed upon changes to its governance procedures and that "Special Counsel now finds Stevens to be in full compliance with the terms of the Consent Judgment." While the specific compliance requirements have been fulfilled, the special counsel continued to monitor certain activities of Stevens through February 2012.[49]

On June 6, 2016, the Consent Judgment which had been in place since January, 2010, between Stevens Institute of Technology and the New Jersey Attorney General was lifted by Court Order and with the consent of the Attorney General's Office. The Consent Judgment arose from circumstances at Stevens pre-2010, and addressed a number of matters relating primarily to governance.

As stated in the Consent Judgment, "Stevens has fully complied with the obligations to which it agreed in the Consent Judgment and has demonstrated to the State a continued focus on maintaining best practices in the area of governance for institutions of higher education. Lifting the Consent Judgment will afford Stevens added flexibility to make further enhancements to the ways it oversees its affairs and to respond and adapt to the evolving landscape of best governance practices."[50]

Stevens is composed of four academic schools: the Charles V. Schaefer, Jr. School of Engineering and Science, the School of Systems and Enterprises, the School of Business and the College of Arts and Letters.[51] There are 29 undergraduate majors and a 7:1 student to faculty ratio.[52] Graduate offerings include 22 Ph.D. programs, 43 master's programs, 122 certificate programs, and graduate-level offerings custom designed for corporations.[53]

The historic Edwin A. Stevens Building, home to the Charles V. Schaefer, Jr. School of Engineering and Science[54]

Stevens offers the Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.) degree and Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree.[52] At the graduate level, Stevens offers the Master of Engineering (M.Eng.), Master of Technology Management (M.T.M.), Master of Science (M.S.), Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.), Engineer (E.E., M.E., Comp. E., C.E., and Ch. E.), and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees.[53]

The Schaefer School's mission is to address the challenges facing engineering and science now and into the future while remaining true to the vision of the founders of Stevens as one of the first dedicated engineering schools in the nation. The Schaefer School offers bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees with a variety of certificates in various engineering and scientific disciplines for full-time students and part-time professionals.[55] The goal of most doctoral work is to develop technologies and processes that provide social benefit in society's security, energy, environmental, medicine, and health care challenges.[53] Stevens Institute of Technology had a dual degree program in engineering with New York University until New York University started its own engineering school in 2008 by acquiring another reputed school of engineering, which is located in New York City.

The Lawrence T. Babbio, Jr. Center for Technology Management, home of the School of Business and the School of Systems and Enterprises,[54] lit at nighttime with the iconic Gatehouse in the foreground

The School of Business offers undergraduate, master's, MBA, and doctoral degrees, as well as certificates, in a variety of technology management specialties.[56] The Stevens undergraduate program emphasizes mathematical business models, applications of hard science to the concept and marketing of products, financial engineering (stochastic calculus, probability, and statistics as descriptors of the dynamic behavior of financial markets) and the case study method of business analysis. The capstone project in the business curriculum is the design of a technology-based business, with the accompanying business plan, operations research, market analysis, financial prospectus, and risk analysis. Several projects have been developed into real companies.[56]

The School of Systems and Enterprises (SSE) features faculty with industry and government experience to provide real-world applications to its students. SSE offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees along with a combined bachelor's and master's program and graduate certificates. SSE offers flexibility in its graduate course delivery. Options include on campus in Hoboken or at the Washington, D.C. location, at a work site, or online through Stevens' WebCampus.[57] The school's education and research reaches across industries, including defense, homeland security, intelligence, nuclear weapons, communications, space, infrastructure, finance and business solutions.[58] The school follows an open academic model, which emphasizes the interplay between academia, industry, and government.[59]

The College of Arts and Letters (CAL) approaches the humanities, social sciences, and the arts from a science and technology perspective. While every undergraduate at Stevens is required to take a set of humanities courses, CAL offers B.A. degrees in literature, history, philosophy, and the social sciences. CAL was established as a separate college in 2007 as part of a larger institutional realignment. CAL's formation followed a history of integrating humanities and liberal arts education which dates back to the university's founding in 1870.[60] In fall 2011 CAL began offering a new M.A. and graduate certificate in Technology, Policy, and Ethics.[61] CAL also offers an accelerated, six-year combined bachelor's/J.D. degree program, in partnership with New York Law School and Seton Hall University School of Law.[62]

Undergraduate students may elect to follow the cooperative education program, usually extending their timeline from four to five years, gaining about 18 months of increasingly progressive work experience.[63] The program helps students confirm their choice of major, clarify their interest and career goals while working in paid full-time positions. Over one-third of undergraduate students follow this path while the remaining engage in research, externships or internships secluded to the summer months.

The combination of rigorous coursework and real-world application allow 73% of students to finalize their path prior to graduation, with 95% securing their intended outcomes within six months after graduation. The average accepted salary across all majors for the Class of 2019 is $76,400 with a maximum of $142,000 from over 300 companies recruiting on campus.[64] Majors among those ranking the highest individually are Chemical Engineering, Computer Science/Cyber Security and Quantitative Finance. The vast application of Stevens degrees are often quantified through return on investment in which the Institute ranks among the top in the United States.[65]

The Stevens Institute of Technology campus, facing the Hudson River and Manhattan's skyscrapers

The research enterprise at Stevens features three national Centers of Excellence, as designated by the U.S. government: the National Center for Secure and Resilient (CSR) Maritime Commerce;[66] the National Systems Engineering Research Center (SERC);[67] and the Atlantic Center for the Innovative Design and Control of Small Ships (ACCESS).[68]

Stevens also features the Center for the Advancement of Secure Systems and Information Assurance (CASSIA),[69] dedicated to advancements in cybersecurity. The center was developed in response to Stevens' designations by the Department of Homeland Security and the National Security Agency as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education for the academic years 2003 through 2014, and as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Research for the years 2008 through 2013.[53]

The Center for Maritime Systems at Stevens works to preserve and secure America's maritime resources and assets.[70] The center includes the Davidson Laboratory, a research facility focused on physical modeling and computer simulation of marine craft designs. The lab houses a 313-foot-long wave tank capable of recreating a variety of wave types for maritime testing.[71] Work at the lab was dedicated to the war effort during World War II.[72] The facility is one of only two designated International Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmarks in the United States.[53]

The Center for Maritime Systems contributed to the US Airways Flight 1549 Miracle on the Hudson recovery by analyzing water currents to identify the best location to tow the plane and locate the plane's missing engine.[73]

The Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education (CIESE), part of the Schaefer School, provides expertise to improve K–12 science, mathematics, engineering, and technology education, with the goal to increase the number of students pursuing STEM majors and careers in technological fields.[53] CIESE received the Presidential Award for Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring in 2011.[74]

The Center for Environmental Systems (CES) develops environmental technologies through collaboration between faculty in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Ocean Engineering, the Department of Defense, and private enterprise.[75] Principal research areas for CES include drinking water technologies, wastewater treatment, air pollution control, environmental systems modeling and monitoring, pollution prevention and minimization, and life cycle assessment.[75]

The Highly Filled Materials Institute (HfMI) develops the theoretical, experimental, and numerical analysis techniques for providing solutions for the problems of the industrial processing, especially with twin-screw extrusion, of highly filled materials. HfMI research areas include extrusion, die and extruder design, crystallization, surface science, particle size analysis, and rheology.[76]

Other research centers at Stevens are the Wireless Network Security Center, Keck Geotechnical Laboratory, Plasma Physics Laboratory, Nicoll Environmental Laboratory, Electron Microscopy Laboratory, Center for Mass Spectrometry, and the Center for Complex Systems and Enterprises (CCSE).

In the 1950s, Stevens developed the "Jersey barrier" (introduced in its current form in 1959).

Stevens partnered with Parsons The New School for Design and Milano School of International Affairs, Management and Urban Policy to design an affordable green home as part of the 2011 Solar Decathlon.[77] The entry, "Empowerhouse", was awarded first place in affordability during the 2011 competition.[78] The team partnered with Habitat for Humanity of Washington, DC to provide the home to a low-income family in the Deanwood section of Washington at the conclusion of the competition.[77]

The U.S. Department of Energy selected Stevens as one of 20 teams to compete in the 2013 Solar Decathlon to be held at Orange County Great Park in Irvine, California, the first time the competition has been held outside of Washington, D.C.[79] Stevens' independent entry, "Ecohabit", placed fourth overall and second among United States entries.[80] The institute was invited to compete in the 2015 competition, among 19 other universities. Stevens’ entry, SURE HOUSE, was inspired by Hurricane Sandy. A net-zero home resilient enough to withstand Hurricane-force winds and flooding, the entry won the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2015 at Orange County Great Park in Irvine, California. SURE HOUSE achieved a total score of 950.685, ranking first in architecture, market appeal, communications, appliances, engineering, commuting and home life. It also received second place in the comfort zone contest.

Stevens embraces a culture of entrepreneurship instilled in the institute from its founding family who transformed their inventions into a number of successful enterprises included the first steam-driven locomotive. The University's Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship was established to enhance scientific discoveries by facilitating technology transfer.[81] In May 2014 a collaboration with Scivantage was announced to create the FinTech Incubator Program to provide capital, guide and accelerate start-ups developing dynamic and disruptive technology to transform the financial services industry.[82]

Stevens' Innovation Expo, also referred to as "Senior Design Day" or simply "D-Day" by students, is an annual event at the end of the spring semester to feature capstone projects from undergraduate seniors of all schools and majors. Capstone projects are a two-semester term, culminating the undergraduate "design spine" taken each semester.[83] The day of activities is also marked by the Project Plan Pitch and Elevator Pitch Competition in which students are judged on presentation of their idea and feasibility; many competitors spin-out companies and business ventures from their projects.[84] The panel of judges typically consists of entrepreneurs, CEOs and venture capitalists.

Additionally, the institute hosts the "Thomas H. Scholl Lecture by Visiting Entrepreneurs". Guest lecturers include Dr. Paul R. Sanberg, Jeong H. Kim and Dr. Winslow Sargeant. The campus is also home to monthly summits of "NJ Tech Meetup" – branded as "NJ's largest technology and entrepreneurial community",[85] it is composed of over 150 entrepreneurs and innovators.

The 2008 men's soccer team reached the Div. III NCAA championship game, losing to Messiah College in penalty kicks.[104][105]

• Soccer goalkeeper Zach Carr received All-American and Academic All-American honors in 2010.[104] Carr led the nation in 2010 with a .927 save percentage and maintained a 3.92 grade-point average.[104] During the course of his career, he held the second longest scoreless streak in NCAA history and held an unofficial record of 55 shutouts.[104]

Stevens holds the distinction of having the oldest continuously running lacrosse program in the country. The program won the national championship in men's lacrosse four times: 1892, 1894, 1917 and 1918. It has also won conference championships in the Skyline Conference and the Empire 8. Players to come through the program have achieved All-America, Academic All-American, Conference Awards, and North-South All-Star Game invitations. Some of them include:

• Brian Lalli: All-America and Academic All-America midfielder (2004)
• Mark Beilicky: 3× All-American Midfielder (2005,[106] 2006,[107] 2007[108]), 2007 pre-season midfielder of the year
• JR (Oreskovich) Maehler: 3× All-America attackman (2006,[107] 2007,[108] 2009[109]), 2009 pre-season attackman of the year

• In 2011 Laura Barito, a 22-time All-American in swimming and track and two-time, two-sport NCAA national champion (in 50-yard freestyle swimming and the 400-meter hurdles), was awarded the NCAA Woman of the Year.[110] Barito, who was also named by CoSIDA/Capital One to the Academic All-America First Team, was only the second Division III athlete to win the NCAA Woman of the Year Award in its 21-year history.[110][111]
• In 2012, Stevens swimmer Brittany Geyer won the national women's 200-yard breaststroke title.[112] Geyer came back in 2015 to win the national 100 breaststroke and 200 breaststroke titles making her a 3-time NCAA champion.

On April 26, 2015, Stevens won the NCAA Division III men's championship on its home court of Canavan Arena.

Stevens has a men's club ice hockey team that plays at the AmeriHealth Pavilion at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, which is the same practice facility of the New Jersey Devils.

Stevens has won the D3 fencing championship award at the National Intercollegiate Women's Fencing Association (NIWFA) for several consecutive years. In 2018, they did not lose to a fellow Division III team all season and went 32–3 overall. That year they established a new school-record for winning percentage at .914, the first team to be over .900.

In 1994, the school built the Schaefer Athletic and Recreation Center, which features an NCAA competition-sized pool and indoor soccer, basketball, volleyball, squash and racquetball courts.[113] The Schaefer Center construction was part of a $23 million investment in new facilities that also included renovations to Walker Gym, and installation of a new turf field.[104] During the 2000s, the school added nine new varsity programs, for a total of 26, in an effort to build a nationally competitive sports program.[104] The effort succeeded in attracting more women to apply to Stevens and expanded recruitment for athletes across the country. The women's soccer team was the first athletics team to receive an at-large bid, host and record a victory in the NCAA Tournament over Johns Hopkins in 2002.[104]

Stevens Institute of Technology hosts chapters of fifteen social and academic fraternities and sororities, many of which were founded on campus over a century ago.[114][115] These groups, through their social, academic, leadership and alumni networking programs, are aimed at building lifelong connections among participants and to the institute. Indeed, they are successful at this aim, as evidenced by the fact that across the nation, "most of the donations made to [an] alma mater are given by members of Greek organizations."[116] Popular hubs of social activity, in 2013, 25% of Stevens Institute students were members of these organizations.[117]

Members self-select prospective members, and chapters cooperate on a wide variety of inter-Greek programming to support campus life.[114] Once a student becomes a member of one of the traditional social and academic societies they may not join another from that conference due to 'anti-poaching' rules.[118] However, members of the traditional social and academic fraternities, sororities and societies are often elected as members of professional, honor and/or service societies as they are chosen or earn the honor by grade, class rank or achievement.[119] All but one of Stevens' Greek organizations are chapters of national fraternities or sororities, which in turn participate in several cooperative national associations, designated by one or more conference allegiances: the NIC (most social fraternities), the NPC (most social sororities), the NPHC (culturally African American), the NAPA (culturally Asian & Pacific Islander), the NALFO (culturally Latino/Latina), the NMGC (multicultural), the ACHS (most Honor Societies), or the PFA (Professional) associations.

• ΦΣΣ Phi Sigma Sigma, 1982, (NPC)
• ΔΦΕ Delta Phi Epsilon, 1985, (NPC)
• ΘΦΑ Theta Phi Alpha, 2012, (NPC)
• ΣΔΤ Sigma Delta Tau, 2014, (NPC)
• ΩΦΒ Omega Phi Beta, 2016, (NALFO)
• ΑΦ Alpha Phi, 2017, (NPC)
• ΣΨΖ Sigma Psi Zeta, 2019, (NAPA)
• ΛΤΩ Lambda Tau Omega, 2020, (NMGC)

Among fraternities and sororities, inter-chapter cooperation is managed by two governing councils: the Interfraternity Council (IFC), and the Stevens Panhellenic Association (NPC groups). Professional and Honor societies are faculty sponsored.[116]