The Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Georgia Tech, Tech, or GT) is a public research university in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States. It is a part of the University System of Georgia and has satellite campuses in Savannah, Georgia; Metz, France; Athlone, Ireland; Shanghai, China; and Singapore.
The educational institution was founded in 1885 as the Georgia School of Technology as part of Reconstruction plans to build an industrial economy in the post-Civil War Southern United States. Initially, it offered only a degree in mechanical engineering. By 1901, its curriculum had expanded to include electrical, civil, and chemical engineering. In 1948, the school changed its name to reflect its evolution from a trade school to a larger and more capable technical institute and research university.
Today, Georgia Tech is organized into six colleges and contains about 31 departments/units, with emphasis on science and technology. It is well recognized for its degree programs in engineering, computing, business administration, the sciences, architecture, and liberal arts.
Georgia Tech's main campus occupies part of Midtown Atlanta, bordered by 10th Street to the north and by North Avenue to the south, placing it well in sight of the Atlanta skyline. The campus was the site of the athletes' village and a venue for a number of athletic events for the 1996 Summer Olympics. The construction of the Olympic village, along with subsequent gentrification of the surrounding areas, enhanced the campus.
Student athletics, both organized and intramural, are a part of student and alumni life. The school's intercollegiate competitive sports teams, the four-time football national champion Yellow Jackets, and the nationally recognized fight song "Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech", have helped keep Georgia Tech in the national spotlight. Georgia Tech fields eight men's and seven women's teams that compete in the NCAA Division I athletics and the Football Bowl Subdivision. Georgia Tech is a member of the Coastal Division in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Contents
1 History
1.1 Establishment
1.2 Early years
History
Main article: History of Georgia Tech
Establishment
About a dozen one- and two-story buildings, several of which are damaged, line a dirt road that intersects with three railroad tracks in the foreground
Atlanta during the Civil War (c. 1864)
The idea of a technology school in Georgia was introduced in 1865 during the Reconstruction period. Two former Confederate officers, Major John Fletcher Hanson (an industrialist) and Nathaniel Edwin Harris (a politician and eventually Governor of Georgia), who had become prominent citizens in the town of Macon, Georgia after the Civil War, strongly believed that the South needed to improve its technology to compete with the industrial revolution that was occurring throughout the North. However, because the American South of that era was mainly populated by agricultural workers and few technical developments were occurring, a technology school was needed.
In 1882, the Georgia State Legislature authorized a committee, led by Harris, to visit the Northeast to see firsthand how technology schools worked. They were impressed by the polytechnic educational models developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Worcester County Free Institute of Industrial Science (now Worcester Polytechnic Institute). The committee recommended adapting the Worcester model, which stressed a combination of "theory and practice", the "practice" component including student employment and production of consumer items to generate revenue for the school.
On October 13, 1885, Georgia Governor Henry D. McDaniel signed the bill to create and fund the new school. In 1887, Atlanta pioneer Richard Peters donated to the state 4 acres (1.6 ha) of the site of a failed garden suburb called Peters Park. The site was bounded on the south by North Avenue, and on the west by Cherry Street.[1] He then sold five adjoining acres of land to the state for US$10,000, equivalent to about US$262,481.48 now. This land was located near the northern city limits of Atlanta at the time of its founding, although the city has now expanded several miles beyond it. A historical marker on the large hill in Central Campus notes that the site occupied by the school's first buildings once held fortifications built to protect Atlanta during the Atlanta Campaign of the American Civil War. The surrender of the city took place on the southwestern boundary of the modern Georgia Tech campus in 1864.
Early years
Two buildings stand side-by-side on a hill. The one on the left is two stories, with two smokestacks behind it. The one on the right is the larger, taller Tech Tower building.
An early picture of Georgia Tech
The Georgia School of Technology opened its doors in the fall of 1888 with two buildings. One building (now Tech Tower, an administrative headquarters) had classrooms to teach students; The second building featured a shop and had a foundry, forge, boiler room, and engine room. It was designed specifically for students to work and produce goods to sell and fund the school. The two buildings were equal in size to show the importance of teaching both the mind and the hands; though, at the time, there was some disagreement to whether the machine shop should have been used to turn a profit.
On October 20, 1905, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt visited the Georgia Tech campus. On the steps of Tech Tower, Roosevelt delivered a speech about the importance of technological education. He then shook hands with every student.
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