44-516: The British Tabulating Machine Company ( BTM ) was a firm which manufactured and sold Hollerith unit record equipment and other data-processing equipment. During World War II , BTM constructed some 200 " bombes ", machines used at Bletchley Park to break the German Enigma machine ciphers. The company was formed in 1902 as The Tabulator Limited , after Robert Porter obtained the rights to sell Herman Hollerith 's patented machines from
88-703: A central force in creating many groundbreaking discoveries that today are shaping life tomorrow. They are at the vanguard of their fields, collaborating with other world-renowned experts at Columbia and other universities to bring the best minds from a myriad of disciplines to shape the future. Large, well-funded interdisciplinary centers in science and engineering, materials research, nanoscale research, and genomic research are making step changes in their respective fields while individual groups of engineers and scientists collaborate to solve theoretical and practical problems in other significant areas. Last year, Columbia Engineering's 2007–2008 research expenditures were $ 92,000,000,
132-611: A device that extended the range of long-distance telephones. Students of his included Irving Langmuir , Nobel laureate in Chemistry (1932), inventor of the gas-filled tungsten lamp and a contributor to the development of the radio vacuum tube . Another student to work with Pupin was Edwin Howard Armstrong , inventor of FM radio . After graduating in 1913 Armstrong was stationed in France during World War I. There he developed
176-721: A fifth company, the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR). Under the presidency of Thomas J. Watson , CTR was renamed International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) in 1924. By 1933 The Tabulating Machine Company name had disappeared as subsidiary companies were subsumed by IBM. Herman Hollerith died November 17, 1929. Hollerith is buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Hollerith cards were named after Herman Hollerith, as were Hollerith strings and Hollerith constants . His great-grandson,
220-540: A home on 29th Street and a business building at 31st Street and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal , where today there is a commemorative plaque installed by IBM . He died of a heart attack in Washington, D.C., at age 69. At the suggestion of John Shaw Billings , Hollerith developed a mechanism using electrical connections to increment a counter, recording information. A key idea was that a datum could be recorded by
264-465: A machine to assist breaking the German Enigma machine ciphers . This machine, known as a bombe , was initially conceived by Alan Turing , but the actual machine was designed by BTM chief engineer Harold 'Doc' Keen , who had led the company's engineering department throughout the 1930s. The project was codenamed "CANTAB". The project was managed by computing pioneer Dora Metcalf until 1942. By
308-523: A master's degree, Hyman George Rickover , working with the Navy's Bureau of Ships , directed the development of the world's first nuclear-powered submarine, the Nautilus , which was launched in 1954. The school's first woman graduate received her degree in 1945. After a substantial grant of $ 26 million from Chinese businessman Z. Y. Fu , the engineering school was renamed again in 1997. The new name, as it
352-409: A part of Columbia, even before the establishment of any separate school of engineering. An early and influential graduate from the school was John Stevens , Class of 1768. Instrumental in the establishment of U.S. patent law, Stevens procured many patents in early steamboat technology, operated the first steam ferry between New York and New Jersey, received the first railroad charter in the U.S., built
396-526: A pioneer locomotive , and amassed a fortune, which allowed his sons to found the Stevens Institute of Technology . (Excerpt from SEAS website.) When Columbia University first resided on Wall Street , engineering did not have a school under the Columbia umbrella. After Columbia outgrew its space on Wall Street, it relocated to what is now Midtown Manhattan in 1857. Then President Barnard and
440-537: A printer. In 1959 BTM merged with former rival Powers-Samas to become International Computers and Tabulators Limited (ICT). ICT later became part of International Computers Limited (ICL), which was later taken over by Fujitsu . Hollerith Herman Hollerith (February 29, 1860 – November 17, 1929) was a German-American statistician, inventor, and businessman who developed an electromechanical tabulating machine for punched cards to assist in summarizing information and, later, in accounting. His invention of
484-567: A specific relation to each other and to a standard, and then counting or tallying such statistical items separately or in combination by means of mechanical counters operated by electro-magnets the circuits through which are controlled by the perforated sheets, substantially as and for the purpose set forth. Hollerith had left teaching and began working for the United States Census Bureau in the year he filed his first patent application. Titled "Art of Compiling Statistics", it
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#1732775792786528-875: A student at the School of Mines was William Barclay Parsons , Class of 1882. He was an engineer on the Chinese railway and the Cape Cod and Panama Canals. Most importantly he worked for New York, as a chief engineer of the city's first subway system , the Interborough Rapid Transit Company . Opened in 1904, the subway's electric cars took passengers from City Hall to Brooklyn, the Bronx, and the newly renamed and relocated Columbia University in Morningside Heights, its present location on
572-399: A very respectable number given the small size of the school. Harvard's research expenditures in the same period were $ 35,000,000. Columbia Engineering PhD students have ~60% more monetary resources to work with using the research expenditure : PhD student ratio. The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science occupies five laboratory and classroom buildings at the north end of
616-517: Is Shih-Fu Chang , who was appointed in 2022. Included in the original charter for Columbia College was the direction to teach "the arts of Number and Measuring, of Surveying and Navigation [...] the knowledge of [...] various kinds of Meteors, Stones, Mines and Minerals, Plants and Animals, and everything useful for the Comfort, the Convenience and Elegance of Life." Engineering has always been
660-403: Is 6th in the nation, its environmental engineering 4th, industrial engineering 7th, mechanical engineering 5th, applied physics 8th, and operations research 6th. Finally, Columbia's financial engineering program is ranked 3rd nationally, according to the 2020 ranking from Quantnet. Columbia's Plasma Physics Laboratory is part of the School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS), in which
704-558: Is known today is the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science. SEAS continues to be a teaching and research institution, now with a large endowment of over $ 400 million, and sits under the Columbia umbrella endowment of $ 7.2 billion. The admissions rate for the SEAS undergraduate class of 2018 was approximately 7%. Approximately 95% of accepted students were in the top 10% of their graduating class; 99% were in
748-675: Is ranked 11th in the nation, 36th in the world by U.S. News & World Report , and 18th worldwide by QS World University Rankings . Its biomedical engineering program is ranked 9th according to US News. Among the small prestigious programs, the school's chemical engineering is ranked 20th, civil engineering and engineering mechanics 18th, electrical engineering 3rd, applied physics 4th, industrial engineering and operations research 4th, material engineering 10th, computer science 15th, and applied mathematics 15th, according to National Science Foundation . From The Chronicle of Higher Education , Columbia's engineering mechanics
792-475: Is the engineering and applied science school of Columbia University , a private research university in New York City . It was founded as the School of Mines in 1863 and then the School of Mines, Engineering and Chemistry before becoming the School of Engineering and Applied Science. On October 1, 1997, the school was renamed in honor of Chinese businessman Z.Y. Fu , who had donated $ 26 million to
836-672: The City College of New York in 1875, graduated from the Columbia School of Mines with an Engineer of Mines degree in 1879 at age 19, and, in 1890, earned a Doctor of Philosophy based on his development of the tabulating system. In 1882, Hollerith joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he taught mechanical engineering and conducted his first experiments with punched cards. He eventually moved to Washington, D.C., living in Georgetown with
880-504: The National Academy of Engineering and one Nobel laureate . In all, the faculty and alumni of Columbia Engineering have won 10 Nobel Prizes in physics, chemistry, medicine, and economics. The school consists of approximately 300 undergraduates in each graduating class and maintains close links with its undergraduate liberal arts sister school Columbia College which shares housing with SEAS students. The School's current dean
924-542: The US National Research Council revealed its new analyses and rankings of American university doctoral programs since 1995. Columbia Engineering ranked 10th in biomedical engineering, 18th in chemical engineering, 26th in electrical engineering, 14th in mechanical engineering (5th in research), 9th in operations research & industrial engineering, 7th in applied mathematics, and 6th in computer sciences. The school's department of computer science
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#1732775792786968-485: The superheterodyne receiver to detect the frequency of enemy aircraft ignition systems. During this period, Columbia was also home to the "Father of Biomedical Engineering" Elmer L. Gaden . The university continued to evolve and expand as the United States became a major political power during the 20th century. In 1926, the newly renamed School of Engineering prepared students for the nuclear age. Graduating with
1012-594: The 1880 census: the larger population, the data items to be collected, the Census Bureau headcount, the scheduled publications, and the use of Hollerith's electromechanical tabulators, reduced the time required to process the census from eight years for the 1880 census to six years for the 1890 census. In 1896, Hollerith founded the Tabulating Machine Company (in 1905 renamed The Tabulating Machine Company). Many major census bureaus around
1056-584: The HBT and Columbia Non-Neutral Torus are housed. The school also has two wind tunnels , a machine shop , a nanotechnology laboratory, a General Dynamics TRIGA Mk. II nuclear fission reactor , a large scale centrifuge for geotechnical testing, and an axial tester commonly used for testing New York City bridge cables. Each department has numerous laboratories on the Morningside Heights campus; however, other departments have holdings throughout
1100-655: The NSEC and the MRSEC NSF-funded interdisciplinary research centers, as well as the Columbia High-Beta Tokamak, the Robert A.W. Carleton Strength of Materials Laboratory , and a 200g geotechnical centrifuge. The Botwinick Multimedia Learning Laboratory is the School's facility for computer-aided design (CAD) and media development. It is equipped with 50 Apple Mac Pro 8-core workstations, as well as
1144-597: The Rt. Rev. Herman Hollerith IV , was the Episcopal bishop of the Diocese of Southern Virginia , and another great-grandson, Randolph Marshall Hollerith , is an Episcopal priest and the dean of Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. Columbia School of Mines The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science (also known as SEAS or Columbia Engineering ; previously Columbia School of Mines )
1188-626: The Trustees of the University, with the urging of Professor Thomas Egleston and General Vinton, approved the School of Mines in 1863. The intention was to establish a School of Mines and Metallurgy with a three-year program open to professionally motivated students with or without prior undergraduate training. It was officially founded in 1864 under the leadership of its first dean, Columbia professor Charles F. Chandler , and specialized in mining and mineralogical engineering. An example of work from
1232-605: The US Tabulating Machine Company (later to become IBM ). During 1907, the company was renamed the "British Tabulating Machine Company Limited". In 1920, the company moved from London to Letchworth , Hertfordshire ; it was also at this point that it started manufacturing its own machines, rather than simply reselling Hollerith equipment. Annual revenues were £6K in 1915, £122K in 1925, and £170K in 1937. In 1916 there were 45 staff; this increased to 132 in 1922, 326 in 1929 and 1,225 in 1939. In return for
1276-584: The Upper West Side of Manhattan. In 1896, the school was renamed to the "School of Mines, Engineering and Chemistry". During this time, the University was offering more than the previous name had implied, thus the change of name. The faculty during this time included Michael I. Pupin , after whom Pupin Hall is named. Pupin himself was a graduate of the Class of 1883 and the inventor of the " Pupin coil ",
1320-504: The campus, including the Schapiro Center for Engineering and Physical Science Research and the new Northwest Building on Morningside Heights. Because of the School's close proximity to the other Morningside facilities and programs, Columbia engineering students have access to the whole of the University's resources. The School is the site of an almost overwhelming array of basic and advanced research installations which include both
1364-716: The end of the European war, over two hundred bombes had been built and installed. BTM built a valve based computer called the Hollerith Electronic Computer (HEC). The first model (HEC 1) was built in 1951, an example is held by the Birmingham Museum. BTM went on to develop the HEC 2, 2M and 4 models, eventually building more than 100. The machines had a 2 kilobyte drum memory and 1000 valves, and could use punched cards for input and output, or drive
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1408-574: The exclusive right to market Hollerith equipment in Britain and the Empire (excluding Canada), BTM paid 25% of its revenues to the American company by way of royalties. This became an ever-increasing burden as the years progressed; BTM attempted to renegotiate the agreement on several occasions, but it was only finally terminated in 1948. During World War II, BTM was called upon to design and manufacture
1452-479: The graduate level is 4.2:1 according to the 2008 data compiled by U.S. News & World Report . PhD acceptance rate was 12% in 2010. As of April 2022, it is ranked 13th among the best engineering schools by U.S. News & World Report , and first within the Ivy League , tied with Cornell University . Its undergraduate engineering program is ranked 21st in the country, according to U.S. News . In 2010,
1496-460: The largest and most successful companies of the 20th century. Hollerith is regarded as one of the seminal figures in the development of data processing. Herman Hollerith was born in Buffalo, New York , in 1860, where he also spent his early childhood. His parents were German immigrants; his father, Georg Hollerith, was a school teacher from Großfischlingen , Rhineland-Palatinate . He entered
1540-434: The presence or absence of a hole at a specific location on a card. For example, if a specific hole location indicates marital status , then a hole there can indicate married while not having a hole indicates single . Hollerith determined that data in specified locations on a card, arranged in rows and columns, could be counted or sorted electromechanically. A description of this system, An Electric Tabulating System (1889) ,
1584-457: The punched card tabulating machine, patented in 1884, marks the beginning of the era of mechanized binary code and semiautomatic data processing systems, and his concept dominated that landscape for nearly a century. Hollerith founded a company that was amalgamated in 1911 with several other companies to form the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company . In 1924, the company was renamed "International Business Machines" ( IBM ) and became one of
1628-449: The school. The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science maintains a close research tie with other institutions including NASA , IBM , MIT , and The Earth Institute . Patents owned by the school generate over $ 100 million annually for the university. SEAS faculty and alumni are responsible for technological achievements including the developments of FM radio and the maser . The current SEAS faculty include 27 members of
1672-496: The top 20% of their class. 58% of admitted students attended high schools that do not rank. The yield rate for the class of 2014 was 59%. As for SAT scores, SEAS students within the Columbia University community have raised the composite SAT statistic for the undergraduates at Columbia University. The Class of 2013's SAT interquartile range was 2060–2320 and 1400–1560 (old SAT). The ACT composite interquartile range
1716-526: The world leased his equipment and purchased his cards, as did major insurance companies. Hollerith's machines were used for censuses in England & Wales , Italy , Germany , Russia , Austria , Canada , France , Norway , Puerto Rico , Cuba , and the Philippines , and again in the 1900 U.S. census . He invented the first automatic card-feed mechanism and the first keypunch . The 1890 Tabulator
1760-707: The world. For example, the Applied Physics department has reactors at Nevis Labs in Irvington , NY and conducts work with CERN in Geneva. The School of Engineering and Applied Science celebrates its ties and affiliations with at least 8 alumni Nobel Laureates . Alumni of Columbia Engineering have gone on to numerous fields of profession. Many have become prominent scientists, astronauts, architects, government officials, pioneers, entrepreneurs, company CEOs, financiers, and scholars. Columbia Engineering faculty are
1804-493: Was hardwired to operate on 1890 Census cards. A control panel in his 1906 Type I Tabulator simplified rewiring for different jobs. The 1920s removable control panel supported prewiring and near instant job changing. These inventions were among the foundations of the data processing industry, and Hollerith's punched cards (later used for computer input/output ) continued in use for almost a century. In 1911, four corporations, including Hollerith's firm, were amalgamated to form
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1848-577: Was 32–34. Those accepting enrollment at Columbia SEAS typically completed engineering programs at the undergraduate level and are pursuing professional graduate school in engineering, business, law, or medical school, so as to become what Columbia terms "engineering leaders." Engineering leaders are those who pioneer or define engineering: patent lawyers, doctors with specialties in biophysical engineering, financial engineers, inventors, etc. Columbia Engineering's graduate programs have an overall acceptance rate of 28.0% in 2010. The PhD student–faculty ratio at
1892-470: Was filed on September 23, 1884; U.S. Patent 395,782 was granted on January 8, 1889. Hollerith initially did business under his own name, as The Hollerith Electric Tabulating System , specializing in punched card data processing equipment . He provided tabulators and other machines under contract for the Census Office, which used them for the 1890 census . The net effect of the many changes from
1936-566: Was submitted by Hollerith to Columbia University as his doctoral thesis, and is reprinted in Brian Randell 's 1982 The Origins of Digital Computers, Selected Papers . On January 8, 1889, Hollerith was issued U.S. Patent 395,782, claim 2 of which reads: The herein-described method of compiling statistics, which consists in recording separate statistical items pertaining to the individual by holes or combinations of holes punched in sheets of electrically non-conducting material, and bearing
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