INNOVATION AT STEVENS: CENTURIES OF INSPIRATION AND PROGRESS

Stevens Institute of Technology has played a vital role in driving innovation and progress since it was established in 1870 by New Jersey’s “first family of inventors” and engineers, cementing the university’s place in the history of technological and scientific advances in America. This exhibit explores inventions, impactful tools and developments in the arts, physics, engineering, technology and humanities.

1804

The Little Juliana and early steamboat innovation

The Little Juliana, the first steamboat propelled by a twin-screw engine, was successfully tested on the Hudson River by John Stevens, three years before Robert Fulton’s Clermont ushered in a new age of stream travel on water.

1825

John Stevens’ 1825 steam locomotive and the dawn of railroads in the United States

John Stevens designed the first American-built steam locomotive on his estate in Hoboken in an age where waterways and horse-drawn carriages were the most common form of transportation.

1870

STEVENS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY ESTABLISHED

Stevens Institute of Technology, the first university dedicated to mechanical engineering, was founded in Hoboken, NJ on February 15, 1870, in accordance with a bequest left by its founder, Edwin A. Stevens, in 1868 and brought to fruition with the ingenuity of his widow, Martha B. Stevens

1903

Gantt’s invention creates a project management revolution

Henry L. Gantt (Stevens Class of 1884) created the first iteration of the Gantt Chart, a project management tool still in use today that helps managers and workers visualize how much work needs to be done and when it could be completed.

1911

Frederick Winslow Taylor publishes The Principles of Scientific Management

Frederick W. Taylor (Stevens Class of 1883) published his seminal work, The Principles of Scientific Management, which influenced everyone from Henry Ford to Vladimir Lenin with its idea that engineering concepts of standardization and efficiency could be applied to manual labor and replace rules of thumb with accurate, scientific measurements.

1922

Louis Hazeltine creates the Neutrodyne radio receiver

While chair of the Electrical Engineering Department at Stevens in the 1920s, Louis Hazeltine (Stevens Class of 1909) invented the Neutrodyne radio receiver which “neutralized” unwanted sonic interference that plagued terrestrial broadcasts at the time and helped usher in the golden age of commercial radio broadcasting.

1931

Calder invents the ‘mobile’ sculpture form

Before he revolutionized the art world in 1931 with his first “mobile” kinetic sculpture, Alexander Calder studied mechanical engineering at Stevens as a member of the class of 1919. Although he didn’t go on to become an engineer in the traditional sense, Calder combined his engineering background with his playful, artistic imagination to form a new vocabulary of color, shape, movement and space.

1957

Fielding and the co-invention of bubble wrap

Alfred Fielding (Stevens Class of 1940) co-invented the widely used shipping material bubble wrap, which could be applied to several uses including negating harmful static charges inside electronic circuitry, stabilizing temperatures inside greenhouses, and most notably, in packing containers to reduce damage with shipped goods.

1986

James Braxton: Building a more equitable world through affordable housing systems

James Braxton (Stevens Class of 1937) patented an innovative pre-manufactured masonry housing system known as “lok-in” blocks, which used the best professional engineering standards and were easily assembled by unskilled labor forces. This was a cutting-edge solution that not only addressed the affordable housing shortage, but also targeted areas of unemployment, which was often a barrier to more equitable living conditions.

1995

Frederick Reines awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics

The 1995 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Frederick Reines (Stevens Class of 1939) for his decades-long quest to detect the neutrino particle, a discovery that forever changed our understanding of matter, energy and the origins of our universe. Reines became the first, and so far, the only, Stevens alumnus to win the prestigious award.

1997-PRESENT

FIRST INNOVATION EXPO

The precursor to the Stevens Innovation Expo, Engineering Design Day, was first held April 30, 1997. From 2009-2011, the event was called the Senior Projects Expo. It became the Innovation Expo in 2012. Today, the annual Expo is a campus-wide showcase for student design, innovation and entrepreneurship, molding future innovators. It includes Senior Projects; the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences Concert; and the Thomas H. Scholl Lecture by Visiting Entrepreneurs. The Expo culminates in the Ansary Entrepreneurship Competition, now marking its tenth anniversary, which features select project teams in an exciting pitch competition.

Learn more about The History of Innovation at Stevens highlighting the inventions of the university’s founders and some of Stevens' significant alumni and faculty.