College of Engineering (University of Nebraska–Lincoln)

The University of Nebraska established the Industrial College in 1872 and five years later offered its first engineering course, though only one student was enrolled.

In response to rapidly increasing enrollment in engineering courses, the university constructed Mechanical Arts Hall (later renamed Stout Hall after Oscar Van Pelt Stout, dean of the college from 1912 to 1920) in 1898 to serve as the home of its engineering and mathematics departments.

[3] The same year, the College of Engineering purchased a warehouse from the Elgin National Watch Company off the northeast corner of City Campus and remodeled it as Nebraska Hall.

[7] The College of Engineering operates seven research centers it describes as "core facilities": the Design and Fabrication Laboratory, Engineering & Science Research Support Facility, Holland Computing Center, Nano-Engineering Research Core Facility, Nebraska Manufacturing Extension Partnership, Nebraska Innovation Studio, and Water Sciences Laboratory.

Since its establishment in 1974, the facility has evaluated existing barriers and frequently developed new design concepts and technologies for use on public roadways.

The facility is headquartered at the Prem S. Paul Research Center just east of NU's City Campus and uses an approximately quarter-mile stretch of runway at the Lincoln Airport to conduct its crash tests.

[12] MwRSF engineers designed and tested the SAFER barrier, an energy-absorbing "soft wall" system installed at all high-speed oval race tracks used by NASCAR and IndyCar.

It was founded in 1996 in partnership with private-sector companies (notably the Kiewit Corporation) with a stated goal of "helping meet the needs of the nation's technology and engineering firms by providing a top-flight education to students interested in pursuing careers in information science, technology and engineering.