The organization, first chartered on the university’s campus in 1880, captures faculty, students and labs on video for a series exploring engineering’s power to transform society
In the mid 19th century, Stevens professor Robert Thurston — the first professor of mechanical engineering at America’s first college of mechanical engineering — determined to help lead the way forward in the professionalization and standardization of the field.
Stevens would end up playing a central role in the formation of the resulting trade organization, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).
In an assembly hall in the Edwin A. Stevens Building, an ASME gathering was held on April 7, 1880, where the association was officially chartered. Thurston served as inaugural president of the organization; two years later, Stevens President Henry Morton assumed the role of vice president of ASME.
Others from Stevens would go on to serve as presidents and vice presidents of the Society during the intervening century-and-a-half, and Stevens faculty have also been elected as ASME Fellows — a prestigious distinction held by a small number of ASME’s members.
Stevens Researchers Featured by ASME
This month, ASME paid tribute to its long and close ties by featuring the university’s research in a series of videos recorded on Stevens’ Hoboken campus.
ASME kicked off the launch of its new YouTube channel January 19 by featuring a video captured in Stevens professor Brendan Englot’s Robust Field Autonomy Lab, explaining Englot’s research with remotely controlled vehicles as they navigate, map and image underwater in the university’s historic Davidson Lab wave tank.
A second video, featuring Stevens doctoral student Ralf Zgeib, was released on the video channel later in January. The video includes footage recorded in Stevens professor Robert Chang’s Biomodeling and Biomeasurements Lab, which develops novel bioprinting techniques.
Then, in early February, a video featuring Stevens doctoral student Ben Segall debuted--with outstanding footage of professor Nick Parziale's lab and shock tunnel.
Additional videos were also produced from footage acquired during ASME’s first campus visit — and the Association plans to return to campus periodically to record additional features highlighting Stevens research, as well.
“ASME is proud to showcase the excellent work of Stevens Institute of Technology, its innovative faculty and promising future engineers,” said ASME Executive Director/CEO Tom Costabile.
“Their work is informing a more sustainable future and helping to expand the diversity of the engineering workforce. We celebrate our long history of collaboration with Stevens and look forward to continuing our work together to advance engineering for the benefit of humanity."
