Duke University Pratt School of Engineering


The Pratt School of Engineering is located at Duke University in the United States. The school's associated research, education, alumni and service-to-society efforts are collectively known as Duke Engineering.
The Pratt School of Engineering is ranked No. 26 in the United States for graduate study and No. 20 for undergraduate study by U.S. News and World Report. With research expenditures over $85 million per year, its faculty is ranked No. 10 in overall research productivity among U.S. engineering schools by Academic Analytics. Nine members of the Duke Engineering faculty are members of the prestigious National Academy of Engineering.
The school was among the first to create an academic Department of Biomedical Engineering. Duke BME is ranked #3 in the United States. The Pratt School of Engineering also maintains departments of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Electrical & Computer Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science.
Its faculty and alumni have contributed to a number of important high-impact technologies, including clinical ultrasound imaging, restoration of hearing by cochlear implant, mega-pixel photography and metamaterials.
The school was created by Duke's Board of Trustees in 1939. It was named in 1999 following a $35 million gift by Edmund T. Pratt Jr., a 1947 graduate and former chief executive of Pfizer. The Duke University Pratt School of Engineering celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2014–2015.
Duke Engineering is led by Vinik Dean of Engineering Ravi V. Bellamkonda.

Education

Undergraduate

Duke awards the Bachelor of Science in Engineering in biomedical, civil, environmental, electrical & computer, and mechanical engineering.

Master's

Duke awards Master of Science and Master of Engineering degrees in the following disciplines:
A Master of Engineering Management degree, which combines engineering training with law and business courses, and an industry internship, is offered through campus and online programs.

Doctorate

are awarded in biomedical, civil & environmental, and electrical & computer engineering, and in mechanical engineering & materials science.

Student Body

As of the fall 2019 semester, Pratt's student body consists of 1,257 undergraduates and 1,281 master's and doctoral students.

Research and Innovation

Faculty

The school's faculty research laboratories have played major roles in the development of many high-impact technologies, including:
Duke Engineering faculty research is grouped into four signature themes:
Since July 2018, Duke Engineering students have held the Guinness World Record for inventing the world's most fuel-efficient vehicle—powered by a fuel cell, it achieved 14,573 miles per gallon equivalent. In 2019, Duke Engineering students earned a second Guinness World Record for the world's most efficient all-electric vehicle—797 miles per kilowatt-hour.

Leadership

, became the Vinik Dean of Engineering on August 1, 2016.

Former Deans

The precursor to the school of engineering dates back to 1851, when Duke was known as Normal College and located in Randolph County, North Carolina. At that time, engineering was included in a classical course for seniors. A course in engineering was introduced in 1887, eventually becoming a regular course offering in 1903. At that time, engineering courses were limited to such fields as architecture and surveying until 1924, when Trinity College was renamed Duke University. Engineering was taught in the new separate departments of civil and electrical engineering. In 1931, a mechanical engineering department was created. Duke's Board of Trustees created the College of Engineering in 1939, with William H. Hall its first dean.
The College of Engineering graduated its first female graduates in 1946. The next year, the three departments moved from East Campus to West Campus. It became the Duke School of Engineering in 1966. Two years later the school's first black students graduated. The Division of Biomedical Engineering was created in 1967 — the first accredited biomedical engineering department at a U.S. university — in September 1972.
In 1997, the Master of Engineering Management was established.
The school was renamed the Edmund T. Pratt Jr. School of Engineering in 1999, in honor of the 1947 graduate and former CEO of Pfizer.

Facilities

Duke Engineering occupies more than 300,000 net square feet of educational, administrative and research space on and near the Duke campus in Durham, North Carolina.
The Duke Engineering campus is adjacent to Duke University Medical Center and 10 miles from Research Triangle Park.
Pratt's faculty, labs, and courses can be found in Hudson Hall, the Nello L. Teer Engineering Building, the Fitzpatrick Center for Interdisciplinary Engineering, Medicine and Applied Sciences, Gross Hall, the North Building, the Levine Science Research Center and in The Chesterfield, a former cigarette factory near downtown Durham that has been redeveloped into academic and industry research space.

Hudson Hall

Hudson Hall is the oldest engineering building at Duke, constructed in 1948. It was renamed to honor Fitzgerald S. "Jerry" Hudson in 1992.

Nello L. Teer Building

The Nello L. Teer Library Building opened in 1984. Located adjacent to Hudson Hall, it is now called the Nello L. Teer Building, and houses the Dean's offices, a computing lab, a circuits lab, an auditorium and a student lounge. The building's name honors Teer, its donor and a Durham, North Carolina-based builder and philanthropist.

Fitzpatrick Center

The Fitzpatrick Center for Interdisciplinary Engineering, Medicine and Applied Sciences opened in August 2004. Research facilities focus on the fields of photonics, bioengineering, communications, and materials science and materials engineering. The aim of the building was to emphasize interdisciplinary activities and encourage cross-departmental interactions. The building houses numerous wet bench laboratories, offices, teaching spaces, and a café. FCIEMAS is also home to the Master of Engineering Management Program offices. The construction of FCIEMAS took more than three years and cost more than $97 million.

Levine Science Research Center

The Levine Science Research Center is a facility. When it was opened in 1994, the LSRC was the largest single-site interdisciplinary research facility in the U.S.. Its classrooms are shared by several departments, but the majority of its offices and laboratories are utilized by the Nicholas School of the Environment, the Pratt School of Engineering, the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience and Developmental and the departments of Computer Science, Pharmacology and Cancer Biology and Cell and Molecular Biology. The building was named for Leon Levine, the CEO of Family Dollar Stores.

New Engineering Building

A 150,000-square-foot building will open during 2020 with new spaces for education and research related to interdisciplinary themes of improving human health, advancing computing and intelligent systems, and sustainability.
The building, located at Research Drive and Telcom Drive next to Bostock Library, will also house Duke Engineering's entrepreneurship initiatives.

Notable alumni