College of Engineering History

In the Beginning

The University of Nebraska first offered civil engineering courses in 1877 within the Industrial College in Lincoln. In 1898 the Mechanical Arts Building (later Stout Hall) was built to house Engineering Mechanics, Civil Engineering and the Math Department. In 1909, state legislation reorganized the old Industrial College into two offshoots:

• The College of Engineering
• The College of Agriculture

The engineering college then had 400 students and, by 1911, its first real home in Mechanical Arts Hall. In 1918 at East Campus, the Agricultural Engineering Building was built. Renamed L. W. Chase Hall after the first head of Ag Engineering, the building now houses the Department of Biological Systems Engineering, which includes Agricultural Engineering.

Around 1950, Electrical Engineering moved into the newly built Ferguson Hall. Mechanical Arts Hall was renamed Stout Hall, named for Oscar Van Pelt Stout, who led the college during World War I. This facility contained laboratories, classrooms, offices and an engineering library, and was used until 1974.

A chemical engineering wing was added to Avery Hall and in 1958, Chemical Engineering became a department.

Enrollment grew and technologies advanced, necessitating more (and updated) engineering facilities. The purchase of Nebraska Hall in 1958 from the Elgin Watch Factory gave the university an additional 440,000 square feet; however, it was not until early 1971 that engineering moved into the west half of the building. Nebraska Hall currently houses the following departments:

• The Durham School: Construction Engineering and Construction Management
• Mechanical & Materials Engineering 
• Engineering Library (including Engineering Student Services)

Scott Engineering Center (SEC), dedicated in 1972, holds laboratories, research centers and engineering shops. Later, a link was added between SEC and Nebraska Hall. This houses research labs, offices and classrooms.

The Link connects Scott Engineering Center and Nebraska Hall and features the following departments. The Link is scheduled for demolition in summer 2019 as part of a three-phase building and renovations project for the College of Engineering. 

• Civil Engineering
• Electrical and Computer Engineering

Computer Science and Engineering resides in Avery Hall; in 2008, additional computing, classroom and office spaces opened in the Schorr Center, a specially renovated facility located in Nebraska's famous Memorial Stadium.

The College of Engineering encompassed architecture until that program became a separate college in 1974. In the early 1970s, the University of Nebraska became a system of universities including UNL and a municipal university in Omaha. A merger with Omaha's College of Engineering and Technology formed the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Engineering. 

In 1995, The Peter Kiewit Institute took shape in Omaha to better meet the changing needs of students and local industry. The Institute houses the UNL College of Engineering and the University of Nebraska Omaha College of Information Science and Technology. PKI opened in 1999 with each college occupying a wing; the Institute is located at 67th and Pacific streets on UNO's Scott Campus. Engineering programs there include:

• The Durham School: Architectural Engineering, Construction Engineering, Construction Management
• Civil Engineering
• Computer Engineering
• Electrical Engineering
• Pre-engineering

In 2003, Donald F. Othmer Hall, adjacent to Scott Engineering Center, became home to the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and the Dean's Office suite.

• Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

The $24 million building features the latest in research laboratory design, including a bio-process manufacturing facility, the first of its kind in any American university; a state-of-the-art computer control system for laboratories; and next-generation distance education technology. Funding came from the estate of Mildred Topp Othmer, a 1928 UNL graduate who was the widow of Donald F. Othmer, noted chemical engineer and professor at the Polytechnic Institute of New York in Brooklyn. Donald Othmer earned his bachelor's degree in chemical engineering at UNL in 1924 and later accumulated 150 patents in a variety of fields. In 1947, he and Raymond Kirk, a Polytechnic colleague, published the Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology.  

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Construction beginning in 2019: The College of Engineering is beginning the process of transformational facilities renovations and new construction.

• Phase I features the $75 million renovation of two primary buildings within the engineering complex on City Campus in Lincoln: Scott Engineering Center (SEC) and the Link, which connects SEC and Nebraska Hall. The Link will be demolished and a new building constructed in its place to house research labs. SEC will undergo a major renovation for upgraded labs, classrooms and graduate student spaces. 
• Phase II is a new $85 million building in the vicinity of 17th and Vine (across from the engineering complex), geared toward providing a transformational undergraduate experience
• Phase III (still to be determined) will encompass renovations and upgrades to the facilities in the Peter Kiewit Institute in Omaha.