50 Years of Engineering: 1973-2023

We're Celebrating All Year Long!

PSU represents both academic resilience and the willingness to fight the establishment and offer an educational path to non-traditional students.  Even though there have been engineering studies at PSU since its inception (they in fact were originally the most popular courses), the state of Oregon and the impressive lobbying power of more established schools had decreed that “duplicate” programs were not allowed.  Since Oregon State University had engineering, the logic went; PSU couldn’t.  After years of lobbying and political pressure, in 1973, the State Board of Higher Education approved changing the name of PSU’s Department of Applied Science in the College of Science to the Department of Applied Science and Engineering. This was a key step in our journey to becoming first the School of Engineering and Applied Science (1982) and to transforming ultimately into the Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science (2004). Learn more about our history as "The College That Would Not Die."

We want to transform our future, not revisit our past.

Since our scrappy beginnings, we have firmly established Maseeh College as an institution offering a world-class education that is accessible, affordable, and inclusive. At Maseeh College, we're driven by student innovation and the power of diversity. Our commitment to supporting underrepresented students is rooted in the belief that an inclusive ecosystem fosters groundbreaking solutions to engineering challenges and societal issues. With over $11 million in annual research expenditures, our engineering and computer science faculty are on the cutting edge in their fields, including seven National Science Foundation (NSF) Early Career Faculty and two members of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), more than any other school in Oregon.  Our next steps involve our new and evolutionary FUTURES Initiative, a series of student support and outreach programs, and an newly launched Native and Indigenous STEAM landing page.

In addition, 2024 marks the 20th anniversary of our becoming a named school, thanks to generosity of our donor, Dr. Fariborz Maseeh. We have fun events lined up this year to celebrate our past and look to our future; keep checking back to learn more about the schedule and ways to celebrate both the past and future of Maseeh College. Grab a commemorative sticker and a copy of our Maseeh Pocket History (available in Advising or in the Dean's Office), and follow us on social media to check out and comment on some vintage images and memories from our history.  

While we are justly proud of our first 50 years of engineering, we are even more eagerly looking to what the next half century will bring. In all its incarnations, PSU and Maseeh have stood as a beacon of innovation, committed to providing an inclusive and diverse learning environment that has been unwavering, ensuring that every individual with a passion for engineering and computer science has a place to thrive and contribute. At the heart of our success lies the spirit of opportunity that pervades every corner of our campus. Maseeh has not just been a place of learning; it is where ambitious dreams have taken root, where ground-breaking ideas have blossomed, and where the seeds of innovation have been sown by our incredible students and faculty.