School Notes: School of Engineering & Applied Science
September/October 2011

Providing Hands-On Design Experience

A new Center for Engineering Innovation & Design at SEAS aims to expose Yale students in all majors to principles of innovation and the practice of interdisciplinary collaboration. The center, directed by design industry veteran John Morrell ’86, will house an inventory of state-of-the-art machine tools, instruments, and equipment to support biomedical, chemical, electrical, and mechanical engineering projects, including design, modeling, manufacturing, and testing activities. Innovative in form and function, the center will be an open and accessible space in a high-profile facility featuring areas for instruction, team meetings, computer-aided design, fabrication, and assembly. Spanning graduate and undergraduate education, the center’s offerings will include introductory design courses open to all Yale students and multidisciplinary capstone design courses for engineering majors. While a new 8,500-square-foot facility is being designed and built, the center’s activities will commence this fall in existing space at SEAS.

First Honorary Engineering Degree

Yale presented its first honorary doctor of engineering and technology degree to inventor and computing pioneer Douglas Engelbart during the 310th commencement ceremonies in May. A trailblazer in the field of computing, Engelbart is credited with many technological firsts, including the invention of the computer mouse. The first mouse, unveiled in 1963, featured two wheels attached to an analog device set in a wooden box and wired to an early computer workstation. Five years later, Engelbart and colleagues demonstrated a computer with a keyboard, screen, mouse, and head-mounted microphone—the basis for the world’s first personal computer, the Altair, and the precursor of the technology necessary for Internet-based computing. The honorary degree citation reads, in part, “As the inventor of the mouse, you put computing into our hands, creating a user interface that the world now takes for granted. … By making science useful to all, you have been the quintessential engineer.”