CoE Points of Pride

Iowa State engineers and their collaborators are leading the charge into the frontier between the digital and biological worlds.
  • Birthplace of some of the 20th century’s most significant technological achievements, including the world’s first electronic digital computer, the encoding process essential to nearly all fax machines, discovery of the world’s second hardest substance, and the development of “smart materials” that make air travel safer.

  • Home of the nation’s first formal program in agricultural engineering and model for the rest of the nation’s programs. Fully one-quarter of the presidents of the American Society of Agricultural Engineers have come from Iowa State. The Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering celebrated its centennial year in 2005.

  • Iowa State is the home of Ames Laboratory, one of two-dozen major research centers supported by the U.S. Department of Energy. Ames Lab and the College of Engineering enjoy a close collaborative relationship, sharing significant scientific staff and facilities.
  • Home of the NSF Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals (CBiRC), a partnership of six universities and nine industries, as well as the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society in Germany and the Technical University of Denmark.
  • Doug Jacobson, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, has earned two R&D 100 awards for innovations in computer network security.

  • The Engineering Teaching and Research Complex is home to one of the world’s only six-sided virtual reality labs (C6), which supports the research of more than 50 faculty and over 200 graduate students, undergrads, and postdocs. More than $20 million in ongoing research for industry and government agencies is underway in C6.

  • The college hosts the nation’s largest indoor career fair. Nearly 1,100 recruiters from more than 290 companies participated in 2008. The event drew approximately 3,500 students and 200 guests.

  • The National Security Agency (NSA) designated the Information Assurance Center as one of seven charter Centers of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education. The college is one of the first in the nation to offer a certificate program in information assurance and now awards a multidisciplinary MS in information assurance.

  • Partha Sarkar, professor of aerospace engineering, directs the Wind Simulation and Testing (WiST) Laboratory, a one-of-a-kind experimental facility that houses the world's largest tornado simulator for wind engineering research, which has been featured on several national and international news programs including National Geographic Explorer, The History Channel, CNN, and Discovery Channel with a combined audience of several million.

  • Chemical engineering associate professors Surya Mallapragada and Balaji Narasimhan are recipients of TR 100 awards, given by Technology Review, to individuals under the age of 35 whose innovative work is having a profound impact on today’s world.

  • The college is engaged in numerous entrepreneurial activities that are significantly impacting Iowa’s economy. Close to one-third of the high-tech, start-up companies located at Iowa State’s Research Park have ties to the College of Engineering.

  • Bruce Thompson, distinguished professor in two engineering disciplines—aerospace engineering and materials science and engineering—is one of the nation’s top technology advisers to the government. He also serves as director of the Center for Nondestructive Evaluation (CNDE) at Iowa State. CNDE is a National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center that focuses on the research and development of new theories and techniques for use in quantitative nondestructive evaluation. The center applies its expertise to aerospace, nuclear energy, automotive, materials manufacturing, and other industries.