History
1828 – The Ohio Mechanics Institute is founded in order to “facilitate the diffusion of useful knowledge” to “ingenious artisans and mechanics.” John P. Foote is named the first President of the OMI’s Board of Directors. OMI will later become the College of Applied Science which will merge with the College of Engineering to form the College of Engineering and Applied Science.
1829 - The OMI's free evening lectures take place in Cincinnati city council chambers, downtown halls and churches, often alongside Dr. Daniel Drake's famous lectures on medicine.
1838 – The OMI’s first Annual Fair, an “Exhibit of Arts & Manufactures,” displays some 400 articles in Trollope’s Bazaar Building, on Third Street east of Broadway in downtown Cincinnati.
1843 – Ormsby MacKnight Mitchel, engineering professor at UC’s predecessor, Cincinnati College, founds the first public observatory in America. Former president John Quincy Adams presides over its dedication.
1856 - OMI opens a School of Design, which houses Artistic, Mechanical, and Architectural Departments. More than 100 students enroll in the first year.
1857 – The Cincinnati Public Library houses its first collections in the Ohio Mechanics Institute building, alongside the OMI Library. The public library collection moves to a new home on Vine St in 1870.
1860 - OMI holds its eighteenth and last Annual Fair as the Civil War looms. The fair is proclaimed to be “far superior to any that preceded it, both artistically and mechanically viewed.” A total of 114 gold and silver medals are awarded.
1865 - Thomas Edison reads technical literature in the OMI Library while working as a telegrapher’s assistant at Western Union.
1869 – The Cincinnati Observatory becomes the world’s first weather bureau. Observatory director Cleveland Abbe collected national weather information by telegram and issued storm predictions.
1870 - The 1st Grand Industrial Exposition of “Manufactures, Products, and Arts” is organized by the OMI, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Board of Trade under the direction of the Alfred T. Goshorn. A total of fourteen Grand Industrial Expositions are held from 1870 to 1888.
1873 – The first engineering program begins at the University of Cincinnati.
1874 – Henry Turner Eddy joins UC as a professor of civil engineering, mathematics and astronomy at UC. In 1890, he serves as Acting President and President-Elect of UC.
1874 - Frank Duveneck begins teaching art classes in the OMI School of Design.
1875 – Edward Wyllys Hyde joins UC as assistant professor of civil engineering and mathematics. In the 1890s, he serves as President of UC for multiple terms.
1876 - The OMI Directors propose a plan to erect a “grand central building, to be known as a Music Hall” to house the Grand Industrial Expositions.
1877 – UC awards its first degrees, a Bachelor of Arts and two Masters of Arts.
1879 – Ward Baldwin becomes the first UC alumnus to join the engineering faculty.
1879 – Antonio De Toledo Piza receives the first UC degree in civil engineering. A native of Brazil, he begins a long line of international students who pursue engineering studies at UC.
1879 - President Rutherford B. Hayes opens the 7th Grand Industrial Exposition at Music Hall and in the North and South exposition halls surrounding the auditorium.
1880 - OMI holds monthly scientific discussions and publishes a journal titled The Scientific Proceedings of The Ohio Mechanics Institute.
1881 – Nelson W. Perry joins UC as an instructor in engineering metallurgy and assaying.
1882 – The OMI’s School of Design is absorbed into a new School of Technology, and more science pervades the technical curriculum. A new Department of Science and the Arts focuses on evening lectures designed for middle-class audiences.
1884 - The OMI School of Technology is renamed the Industrial and Art School to include Artistic, Mechanical and Architectural departments. The Hannaford Brothers, Charles Edward and Harvey Eldridge, of Samuel Hannaford and Sons’ Architects, begin teaching in the OMI’s Architectural department and develop a rigorous course of study in building design.
1887 – OMI alumnus Richard Knight Leblond founds the R.K. Leblond Machine Tool Company in Norwood, Ohio.
1888 - The 14th Grand Industrial Exposition attracts over one million visitors to commemorate the founding of Cincinnati. Called the Centennial Exposition of the Northwest Territory, it features the largest outdoor electrical lighting display to date.
1890s – UC Engineering faculty and students help plan relocation of UC to its current location.
1892 – Joseph B. Strauss graduates from UC with a degree in civil engineering. He later gains fame as the chief engineer of the Golden Gate Bridge project.
1895 - OMI offers its first classes in electricity.
1900 – College of Engineering is officially established. Harry Thomas Cory named first dean. The college offered three bachelor’s degrees – civil, mechanical, and electrical. Chemical engineering is offered in the chemistry department.
1900 - Bert. L. Baldwin, OMI graduate and leading mechanical, electrical, and architectural engineer who designed the Mount Adams and Eden Park Railway Inclines, joins the OMI Board of Directors.
1903 – Herman Schneider hired as UC assistant professor of civil engineering.
1906 – Herman Schneider develops the cooperative education model at UC and becomes Dean of the College of Engineering.
Most professors objected to the idea for fear that industrial exposure would turn their students into common laborers or boilermakers. Many in industry were skeptical, thinking students would not take their jobs seriously and/or feel superior to the full-time workers.
Schneider subtly and patiently met with industry leaders, workers, and trade associations, convincing many that both education and industry would benefit.
Charles Dabney became UC president at this same time. He came to UC desiring a closer relationship with local industry. He immediately advocated for cooperative education.
1906 – 27 students comprise UC’s first co-op class – 12 studying electrical engineering, 12 studying mechanical engineering and 3 studying chemical engineering. Co-op students earn 8 to 10 cents an hour.
1908 - Mary Emery, in memory of her late husband Thomas J. Emery, donates “the funds necessary for the erection of a building suitable for the OMI’s purposes for educational uses . . . and an assembly hall for school use and also for lectures, symphony, May Festival, et cetera.” In 1911, OMI moves to this new home located at Walnut Street and Central Parkway (then the Miami-Erie canal).
1909 – Civil engineering joins the cooperative education program at UC, building connections to the construction, concrete and railroad industries.
1910 – The College of Engineering reduced cooperative education plan of study from six years to five for convenience of students and employers.
1910-1919 – College of Engineering students establish UC branches of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (now IEEE - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), the American Society of Civil Engineers, and Tau Beta Pi (national engineering honor society).
1911 – College of Engineering building later known as Baldwin Hall is completed. Named in 1930 for Cincinnati publisher and UC donor Frances Howard Baldwin.
1912 - The OMI’s schools have grown to include Architecture, Chemistry, Household Art and Science, Industrial Art, Lithography, and Mechanics and Electricity.
1916 – UC Chemistry Building (now known as Old Chemistry) is completed.
1916 – The College of Engineering library is established, bringing together collections from individual departments. Paul D. Bogle is appointed the first engineering librarian.
1916 –The College of Engineering class of 1916 raises funds to commission murals for the Engineering Library reading room. Mrs. Frances Faig, a student of Frank Duveneck, paints scenes reflecting engineering feats of the day including skyscrapers, suspension bridges, and transcontinental railroads.
1917 – UC’s co-op program is replaced by Student Army Training Corps until World War I ended in November 1918.
1918 - OMI contracts with the U.S. Army to provide technical instruction to more than 1000 injured World War I servicemen. The Williston Report reviews the contributions of the OMI and recommends that the Institute should produce industry’s “non-commissioned officers.”
1918 - John T. Faig leaves a professorship at the University of Cincinnati to become President of the Ohio Mechanics Institute. His leadership continues for the next thirty-three years, until 1951.
1919 – The College of Engineering merges with the College of Commerce to create the College of Engineering and Commerce.
1919 – OMI reorganizes full-time, two-year programs with a focus on laboratory and shop-based instruction in Industrial Mechanical, and Industrial Electrical Engineering at the college level.
1920 – A burned-out ventilation motor causes $11,000 in smoke and fire damage to Baldwin Hall. In the course of building evacuation, College of Engineering students carry out the college’s precious art collection including paintings by Duveneck and Wessel, to safety.
1920 – UC is the first school in the world to admit women into the co-op program. Seven pioneering women participate in the first year.
1920 – The College of Engineering and Commerce eliminates the four-year, classroom-only option and becomes the first in the nation with mandatory co-op work experience.
1920 – The Institute of Scientific Research is established in the College of Engineering and Commerce to join the university with industry at a research level. The Institute includes the Leather Research Laboratory of the Tanners’ Council of America.
1920 – OMI creates a new two-year co-op program in Power Laundry and enrolls students from 17 states, Canada, England, and Scotland in its first year.
1921 – Dean Herman Schneider establishes a Department of Chemical Engineering in the College of Engineering and Commerce. The program was formerly a subdivision of the Department of Chemistry.
1921 – The Co-operative Engineer publishes its first issue. Produced quarterly until 1975, this College of Engineering magazine included articles from students and alumni on technological advancements, reflections on student life, a column from Dean Schneider (in early years), advertisements from co-op employers, and insights on the college, the campus and the City of Cincinnati.
1922 – Dean Herman Schneider establishes a Department of Architecture in the College of Engineering and Commerce.
1923 – A six-year, dual degree (Bachelor of Engineering and Master of Science) program begins in the College of Engineering and Commerce.
1924 – The Basic Science Research Laboratory is established. It was the first time at an American university that scientists in biology, chemistry, physics, and medicine explored together fundamental research questions.
1926 – UC Swift Hall completed.
1928 - OMI celebrates its 100th Anniversary. In the anniversary address, retired Superintendent John L. Shearer observes, “It is only the exceptional man who projects his vision into the future and endeavors by pre-vision to calculate the direction and requirements for future progress. The story of the Ohio Mechanics Institute illustrates this thought.”
1929 – The College of Engineering and Commerce establishes a Department of Aeronautical Engineering, the first of its kind to include co-op.
1931 – The Basic Science Research Laboratory in Cunningham Hall is almost totally destroyed by a fire.
1932 – Winston Kock invents the electric organ as his undergraduate thesis in electrical engineering.
1933 - George Rieveschl, Jr., perhaps the most famous OMI alumnus, graduates with a degree in Commercial Art. He later enrolls at UC, completing master’s and doctoral degrees in Chemical Engineering by 1940.
1934 - Fredrick A. Geier, founder of Cincinnati Milling Machine (later known as Cincinnati Milacron and Cincinnati Machine), becomes President of the OMI Board of Directors.
1936 – ECPD, the Engineers’ Council for Professional Development (later known as ABET) first accredits College of Engineering programs in Aerospace Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering.
1937 – College of Engineering and Commerce’s electrical engineering students and professor William Osterbrock serve as the city’s only means of communication during the Great Flood of 1937 via their amateur radio station in Swift Hall.
1939 – Dean Herman Schneider dies from a heart condition at age 66.
1941-1945 – The College of Engineering and Commerce is in full swing with supporting the war effort. Many faculty leave for military service. Co-ops and vacations are eliminated to accelerate graduation. The college provides special training to soldiers and civilians through special courses. Chemical engineering professors test potential rocket fuels. The Department of Aeronautical Engineering and Goodyear Aircraft Corporation trains female students to serve as airplane factory supervisors.
1942 – OMI Cooperative Industrial Courses for women train them to replace the male workforce involved in fighting World War II.
1946 – The three divisions of the College of Engineering and Commerce split to become the College of Engineering, the College of Business Administration, and the College of Applied Arts.
1946 – Benedryl (the first antihistamine), discovered by chemical engineering professor George Rieveschl, Jr., is released commercially.
1947 – College of Engineering enrollment reaches a post-war high of 2,154 students (Enrollment was 225 in 1944). Large numbers of older students and veterans enrolled, supported by the GI Bill.
1950 – Henry Thomas Brown (chemical engineering) and Clark Beck (mechanical engineering) are the first African-Americans to enroll in UC’s co-op program.
1951-1952 OMI daytime programs renamed to Mechanical Engineering Technology, Electrical Engineering Technology, Construction Technology, and Chemical Technology.
1952 – Cincinnati is selected by the Engineers’ Council for Professional Development (ECPD) to be a pilot city for the First Five Years Program, guiding engineers in their first five years of employment and offering a graduate degree without leaving their jobs.
1955 – The College of Engineering Class of 1955 gifts a sun-clock (analemma) designed by Chemical Engineering students Ron Rosensweig and Hans Mueller. The brass hand-made analemma now tells time from the Schneider quadrangle.
1956 – The College of Engineering celebrates the 50th anniversary of co-op with a week-long conference that provided a forum for the college and industry to develop new ideas and celebrated the science work of area high school students.
1956 - Perrin G. March III becomes the last President of the OMI Board of Directors. He serves through 1968, until the Institute merges with the University of Cincinnati in 1969.
1958 - OMI designates separate names and administrative structures for its day and night schools. The Day School is named Ohio College of Applied Science (OCAS), and the Night School is named Ohio Mechanics Institute Evening College (OMIEC). The resulting acronym is OCAS-OMIEC!
1958-1989 – OMI adds programs in Electrical Engineering Technology (Electronics) and Civil Engineering Technology. All two-year OMI degrees are renamed Associate in Applied Science degrees.
1963 – College of Engineering students begin taking classes on the university-wide calendar of 10-week quarters, instead of the previous Engineering-specific calendar of alternating seven-week rotations of co-ops and classes.
1963 – The College of Engineering holds its first annual Recognition Day in May. More than 30 college and departmental awards are issued to students. The following year, the first Herman Schneider Award was issued for achievement in co-op work.
1964 – The College of Engineering switches from awarding the professional degree of engineer to the bachelor of science in each field as the undergraduate degree.
1965 – The Structural Dynamics Research Laboratory launches as the first business to emerge from research in the College of Engineering. The SDRL continues to research vibration problems in machinery to this day.
1966 – The College of Engineering begins a long relationship with the General Electric Aviation, still existing today, that allows GE Aviation employees to attend graduate school at UC.
1965 – The Procter & Gamble Company endows an OMI chair in Engineering Graphics to demonstrate its interest in promoting quality technical education in the region.
1967 – College of Engineering graduate programs grow immensely as more engineers from industry seek master’s and doctoral degrees. This year, graduate enrollment reaches over 200 full-time and 600 part-time students.
1967 – The OMI Mechanical Engineering Technology facilities are renovated with a grant from the DuPont Company.
1968 – The OMI Chemical Technology laboratories are remodeled with grants from Emery Industries, Shepherd Chemical Co., and the Greater Cincinnati Foundation.
1968 – The College of Engineering awards its first Distinguished Alumni Awards, presenting 149 awards for all previous classes.
1968 – UC Electrical Engineering professor Alexander Bereskin develops one of the first microelectronics laboratories in the United States. The three-room clean area is located in the basement of Swift Hall.
1968 – The UC Department of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering splits into the Department of Chemical and Nuclear Engineering and the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgical Engineering.
1969 - OCAS-OMIEC, the combined day and night schools of the Ohio Mechanics Institute, becomes the last private college to join the University of Cincinnati. At the time of the merger, 114 members comprise the OMI Corporation and its Board numbers.
1969 - The OCAS Civil, Architecture, and Construction programs merge to form a new department of Building Construction Technology.
1969 – The College of Engineering Student Tribunal awards its first Awards for Excellence in Teaching.
1970 – The OCAS Building Construction Technology students construct a park in Cincinnati’s historic Over-the-Rhine district.
1970 – Construction of Rhodes Hall is completed after breaking ground in 1968.
1971 – Neil Armstrong joins UC as a University Professor of Aerospace Engineering, teaching many undergraduate courses and working with Dr. Henry Heimlich and others on a prototype heart-lung machine. He remained in this role until 1979 then became an adjunct professor.
1971 - Jack Spille is named Dean of OCAS/OMI.
1972 – OCAS/OMI begins a new Associate’s degree program in Fire Science Technology.
1975 – The National Environmental Research Center is dedicated across Martin Luther King Drive from the college, beginning long-standing cooperative research endeavors.
1975 – OCAS/OMI awards its first eight bachelor’s degrees in Engineering Technology to graduates in Electrical Engineering Technology, Mechanical Engineering Technology, and Construction Management.
1976 - College of Engineering students establish a UC chapter of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE).
1977 – ABET, the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, first accredits OCAS/OMI programs in Electrical Engineering Technology and Mechanical Engineering Technology.
1978 – OMI College of Applied Science (OMI-CAS) is designated the official college name by the University of Cincinnati Board of Trustees.
1979 - College of Engineering students establish a UC chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE).
1983 – The OMI-CAS Fire Science Technology program expands to become the Open Learning Fire Service program and awards Bachelor’s degrees in Fire and Safety Engineering Technology.
1986 - OMI-CAS rekindles the tradition of annual expositions. The Tech Expo is reminiscent of the Industrial Expositions and focuses on student projects. Graduates present to the public the products that result from their senior project study. Premiums are awarded within each degree program, and from these winners the annual “Best of Show” exhibit is selected.
1986 – Nationally, the average co-op student earns $6.49 an hour, more than sixty times what their original counterparts earned in 1906.
1987 – Steve “Woz” Wozniak, co-founder of Apple with Steve Jobs, is guest speaker at the OMI-CAS annual Tech Expo.
1988 – Edward Prather becomes Assistant Dean for Minority Affairs at the College of Engineering. In addition to providing support and mentoring opportunities for African-American students in the college, he develops college preparatory programs such as the Summer Enrichment Program, Summer Institute, and Bridge Program.
1988 – The College of Engineering establishes a College Advisory Council comprising industry executives and distinguished alumni to advise on the long-range needs of industry such as technical, research and business trends.
1989 – OMI-CAS moves to a new home, the Edgecliff campus on Victory Parkway.
1995 – The Engineering Research Center (ERC), designed by DAAP alumnus Michael Graves, is completed as part of UC’s “Signature Architect Program.” ERC houses state-of-the-art research laboratories and core facilities, seminar rooms, faculty offices and administrative offices.
1997 – The OMI-CAS Chemical Technology program awards its first Bachelor’s degrees in a laboratory-based, baccalaureate curriculum.
1999 – The OMI-CAS Information Engineering Technology program awards its first baccalaureate degrees.
2000 - New OMI-CAS programs in Computer Science Technology and Computer Engineering Technology admit their first students.
2001-2002 – Baldwin Hall undergoes a major renovation resulting in updated electronic classrooms, seminar rooms, computing labs, administrative offices and a state-of-the-art Engineering Library.
2003 - OMI-CAS celebrates its 175th anniversary with a "Mechanics and Citizens Ball" in the Rotunda of the Cincinnati Union Terminal. More than 450 attendees view 19th-century machine tools on display. The historic exhibit is opened by George Rieveschl, Jr., OMI Class of 1933 and Honorary Commissioner of the 175th Anniversary.
2003 - The Mayor of Cincinnati proclaims November 20, 2003, the founding date of the Ohio Mechanics Institute, to be "OMI College of Applied Science Day."
2009-2010 – OMI-CAS and the College of Engineering combine as the new College of Engineering and Applied Science (CEAS).
2009 – Freshman Engineering Program (FEP) established. FEP has continued to be a critical pathway for promising students to earn engineering and engineering technology degrees through CEAS.
2012 – the Alumni Engineering Learning Center opens on the eighth floor of Rhodes Hall with classrooms, open study areas, mobile furniture and whiteboards and Department of Engineering Education faculty offices.