Stevens Institute of Technology has been a part of the New Jersey landscape and a local icon since it opened its doors in 1871. Its history is closely connected with not only the family for which it is named, but it is intertwined with the culture of Hoboken and its other famous deeds.
When Colonel John Stevens bought the land in 1784, upon which Hoboken grew, the land was mostly empty. His original plan was to create a resort for people to visit to get away from the rush of nearby New York. He even built a boardwalk along the river that eventually leads up to Elysian Fields where the first official baseball game would someday be played. He also had a great deal of interest in technology that would someday set up Hoboken to become the bedrock for the science of mechanics and industry.
Colonel Stevens was intrigued with the concept of steam engines so he decided to work on it himself. He is credited with designing and building the first steam locomotive on American soil. His fascination with locomotion was carried on by his sons, as well. Robert Stevens invented the now familiar T-rail that railroads still use today. Indeed, with his technical knowledge and his brother, Edwin’s, financial backing the two of them developed the first commercial railroad in the USA. Edwin was also a tinkerer who designed and developed the construction methods for ironclad vessels used by the United States Navy.
Colonel Stevens long hoped to eventually build a school to teach young men the science of engineering, similar to the schools of thought in Europe. Most schools at the time focused on shop training rather than science and theory. His son, Edwin, finally made it happen, although only after his death. He had made a bequest in his last will that a Trust be created for the purpose of building a school of technology.
As a result of Edwin’s bequest the doors to the Stevens Institute of Technology opened in 1871. Initially the trustees set up the school to provide its graduates with a Baccalaureate in Mechanical Engineering, with a curriculum heavy in scientific principles and the humanities (as they related to science). Graduates could also work toward PhDs. In 1959, the degree offered to undergraduates was changed to a Bachelor of Engineering.
Among the school’s alumni there are two notable Nobel Prize winners:
Frederick Reines of the class of 1939 won in physics after discovering the neutrino as a part of the Manhattan Project.
Irving Langmuir, who was a part of the school’s chemistry department, won the prize for chemistry due to this work in surface chemistry.
For the first 100 years, Stevens Tech was a male only student body, but that changed in 1971 when women were enrolled. In 1975, 19 women graduated. The current gender make up at Stevens in about 25% women. Stevens Tech is also one of the first schools to require its students to purchase and use personal computers for their classwork. If fact, the school is one of the first schools to use an intranet to allow communication among students and faculty. And so turns the wheels of innovation.
