OSU : ECE : History

1884	Dr. Thomas C. Mendenhall, Professor or Physics at OSU, urged teaching of applied electricity and obtained two dynamo machines for the physics laboratory in University Hall.
	Benjamin F. Thomas, Professor of Physics at OSU, taught first course called electrical engineering.
1887	Thomas wrote letter to OSU President William F. Scott requesting laboratory equipment and building. (pdf)
	President William H. Scott's statement in Annual Report to the Board of Trustees. (pdf)
1888	President Scott reports to Board of Trustees regarding equipment purchase and request for building. (pdf)
	The start of Electrical Engineering at The Ohio State University
1889	Ohio State Legislature appropriated $10,000 for new EE building at the northeast corner of Seventeenth and Neil Avenues. It was completed the same year.
	Program leading to the M.E. in E.E. degree was administered by the Department of Physics and Electrical Engineering.
1891	First degrees (M.E. in E.E.) awarded. (2 total)
1892	EE building named Electrical Hall.
1893	Bertha Lamme (sister of Benjamin Lamme) was first woman ever to receive a degree in electrical engineering (M.E. in E.E.). Later she went to work at Westinghouse.
	Electrical Engineering courses were limited to study of dynamos, motors, transformers, arc lamps, the telephone, the telegraph, storage batteries, circuits and instruments.
	Generator among lab equipment furnished all electricity for various building at OSU. Students in EE courses paid 10 cents per hour for wiring of buildings and of circuits in the tunnels.
	Short telephone line said to be the first in Central Ohio was constructed between University Hall and Eleventh Avenue at High Street and used as a laboratory line.
1895	Electrical Engineering began being listed as its own department in university catalogs.
1897	Department authorized to "exact from each student in the dynamo laboratory a fee of $2.00 each term to pay for any loss or damage to the property in such laboratory which may be traceable to him."
1898	Electrical Engineering began being budgeted separately.
1900	Master's degree program authorized.
~1900	Campus power and lighting system was entirely separated from the electrical engineering department.
1903	Francis (Frank) Cary Caldwell became first Chairman of the newly-formed Department of Electrical Engineering.
1904	Eta Kappa Nu (HKN), the Electrical Engineering honorary, was formed.
1906	Robinson Laboratory was built for $75,333 because Electrical Hall proved to be too small for the growing department. Both Electrical and Mechanical Engineering departments shared the building, with Electrical Engineering using approximately 90% of the north half.
1911	M.E. in E.E. degree was changed to B.E.E.
1914	Electrical Hall was destroyed by fire while being used by the Department of English.
1915	First Master's degree (M.Sc.) in electrical engineering awarded. First B.E.E. degrees awarded.
1918	Communications Laboratory built next to Robinson Lab.
1922	WEAO, the University's radio station, installed in the Communications Lab northeast corner under the supervision of Professor roy Atkinson Brown of the Department of Electrical Engineering.
1923	Department of Electrical Engineering expanded into Communications Lab.
1928	First doctor's degree in electrical engineering awarded.
1930	Professor Erwin Ernest Dreese became second Chairman of the Department of Electrical Engineering.
1940	First electron microscope built in the U.S. constructed by Dr. Albert F. Prebus in Communications Lab building.
1943	The Honor System for examinations first used in department.
1948	Second floor added to Robinson Lab above the electrical engineering machinery laboratory to provide communication equipment laboratories and offices and classrooms.
1950	First part of Caldwell Laboratory was built.
1951	Caldwell Lab first occupied.
	Radio telescope to detect and record electromagnetic radiation arriving from outer space was started by Dr. John D. Kraus, Professor of Electrical Engineering.
1953	Radio telescope completed.
1956	New Antenna Laboratory Field Station on Kinnear Road was opened.
	The Radio Observatory began. Dish antenna completed on west campus.
	Work started on parabolic reflector and main building near the Perkins Observatory off Route 23 south of Delaware, Ohio.
1960	Wing was added to Caldwell as well as a basement between the two wings.
1961	Parabolic reflectors installed as an antenna array at Field Station to be used in research dealing with intercontinental and interplanetary communication.
1965	Professor Marlin Oakes Thurston became third Chairman of the Department of Electrical Engineering.
1967	10,500 square feet added onto the Antenna Laboratory building. The new complex was renamed the ElectroScience Laboratory.
1965	Last addition to Caldwell Laboratory.
1964	Planning for Electronics Laboratory began.
1969	Electronics Laboratory occupied (later named Dreese Laboratory).
~1972	Completion of parabolic reflector in Delaware, Ohio.
1977	Professor Hsien C. Ko became fourth Chairman of the Department of Electrical Engineering.
1990	Professor Daniel Hodge became fifth Chairman of the Department of Electrical Engineering.
1993	Professor Yuan F. Zheng became sixth Chairman of the Department of Electrical Engineering (until 2004).
2004	Department of Electrical Engineering named changed to Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering.
2007	Professor Robert Lee became seventh Chairman of the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering.