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Why Cornell Engineering?
"Scientists study the world as it is; engineers create the world that never has been."—Theodore von Karman
Cornell engineers challenge the status quo and do great things. Steeped in an environment of questioning, and with a focus on innovation, Cornell Engineering pursues excellence in all areas. Its faculty, students, and alumni design, build, and test products, improve the world of medicine, inform and shape our laws, create and drive businesses, become research luminaries, and overcome real and perceived barriers to achieve scientific breakthroughs that advance the quality of life on our planet.
We invite you to learn more about Cornell Engineering and its programs.
Did you know?
In 1933 Ralph Mosser Barnes was awarded the first PhD worldwide in Industrial Engineering for his dissertation “Practical and Theoretical Aspects of Micromotion Study” . It was retooled into the 1937 text, Motion and Time: Design and Measurement in Work, that sold 300,000 copies:, forming a quantitative basis for analyzing the industrial production process, including such applications as movements required for typing and the commercial folding of napkins .
The Electric Wave Form Tracer was created by Harris J. Ryan, (Electrical Engineering, B.S., 1887). His new technology was applied to versatile monitors for modern cathode-ray oscilloscopes, television sets, radar and computers.
The electric elevator was invented in 1891 by Frederick Bedell (Physics, Ph.D., 1892) while he was still a grad student. His invention was an improvement over the hydraulic elevators that couldn’t reach the upper floors of New York City’s rising skyline. Bedell was later appointed to the Cornell faculty as an instructor and in 1904 had risen to the rank of full professor.
The Kessler Fellows Program at Cornell Engineering was founded in 2009. This innovative and one-of-a-kind program combines an engineering degree with deep exposure to start-up culture making graduates uniquely prepared to apply to skills to new opportunities and industries.
In 2014, Prof. Michael King and his team unveiled a new method for killing metastatic cancer cells directly in the bloodstream. Almost 90 percent of all cancer deaths are caused by metastases and this new method could prove a valuable weapon in the fight against cancer.