Overview2

In the Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture, we are committed to offering you the best undergraduate and graduate experience, immersing you in a world-class research environment that offers opportunity for doing hands-on work on real projects.

When WSU opened its doors in Pullman in 1890 as the Washington State Agricultural College and the School of Science, engineering was among the original offerings in keeping with the original mandate for land-grant universities. In 1897, three of the institution’s first graduating class of seven were engineering majors. The first woman engineer graduated in 1899. The architecture program began soon afterwards, with its sole faculty member, Rudolph Weaver, serving also as campus architect. He designed many of the University’s first buildings.

Since then, Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture programs have contributed significantly to the state’s economic growth, the emergence and expansion of private industry, the preservation and restoration of the environment, and safe food production.

The accomplishments of our graduates and several generations of productive, dedicated faculty, are the greatest strength of the College. A small sample of outstanding alumni, for example, reveals top executives, presidents, founders, co-founders, and directors of internationally recognized corporations and utilities, including, in Washington State, Microsoft, Avista Energy, Seattle City Light, Puget Sound Energy, Boeing, and Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories. Also included in that sample are three Washington State Highway Department directors. Many of our graduates left the state and became founders or co-founders and leaders in such renowned organizations as Sprint, Applied Magnetics, Cisco Systems, the Ford Foundation, Western Gas Resources, Prentiss Properties, Genentech, Shell Oil, Chevron, and many more.

Among our graduates’ vast achievements are thousands of innovative designs leading to new developments in engeering such as Hoover and Coolee Dams, California’s Bay Area Rapid Transit System, and America’s first floating bridge in Seattle. Our alumni are also responsible for thousands of patents for new products and processes and hundreds of award-winning buildings including, in Washington, the Downtown Seattle Transit Project, the Washington State Convention Center, Sea-Tac flight terminals, the Spokane Opera House and Convention Center, the Yakima Sundome, and the Boeing Museum of Flight.

With its hundred-and-fourteen-year history of growth and achievement at WSU, the Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture today has a recognized presence in higher education in the state and nation. The College has grown to more than 2700 students. More than 120 faculty teach, offering a wide range of undergraduate fields of study and graduate programs in engineering, computer technologies, and architecture.