Tuck Lye Koh’s Post

As we celebrate 100 years of Stanford Engineering, we’re looking back at each decade. The fourth decade, from 1955 to 1964, saw the final years of Fred Terman’s tenure as dean. In 1958, electrical engineering professor Joseph Pettit was appointed to the role and would remain dean for the next 14 years. Under Dean Pettit’s leadership, the school transformed its academic and research landscape, adding new departments in aeronautics and astronautics, industrial engineering, and materials science. The university welcomed an IBM 650 mainframe computer and, in the math department, offered its first courses in digital and analog computing. (Computer science would later become part of the School of Engineering in 1985.) By the end of the decade, Stanford was among the top producers of engineering PhDs in the country. The decade also saw landmark achievements like the completion of the Stanford “Dish” in 1961, a 150-foot radio telescope that advanced radio science and aerospace research. And in 1962, the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory was founded, quickly becoming highly influential in Silicon Valley and continuing to shape the field of AI today. Read the full story of our fourth decade and find photo details at stanford.io/eng100-decade4.

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