George Washington University School of Engineering and Applied Science

The School of Engineering and Applied Science

Motto	Deus Nobis Fiducia (In God Our Trust)
Type	Private
Established	1884
Parent institution	George Washington University
Dean	David S. Dolling
Academic staff	200
Undergraduates	786
Postgraduates	1220
Doctoral students	469
Address	800 22nd St. NW, Washington, D.C., 20052
Campus	Urban — Foggy Bottom
Nickname	SEAS, GWU SEAS
Website	www.seas.gwu.edu, www.graduate.seas.gwu.edu

The School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. is a technical school which specializes in engineering, technology, communications, and transportation. The school is located on the main campus of the George Washington University and offers both undergraduate and graduate programs.

In 1884, William Corcoran Eustis transformed science and engineering education in the District of Columbia when he founded the Corcoran Scientific School, now known as the George Washington University's School of Engineering and Applied Science. Corcoran was neither an engineer nor a scientist. He was a retired banker who saw the world's growing confidence in scientific discovery in the late 1800s and marveled at the impact of technological advances in his own lifetime. Not wanting the District to be without such a center of scientific discovery—at a time when the first steel frame skyscraper was constructed, when gas-powered automobiles were first being designed and built, when electric lighting was becoming commercially available—Corcoran paved the way for future discoveries and transformation by providing the founding gift for the school.

During World War II, the school’s research program was greatly aided by the Office of Scientific Research and Development, the organization that was created to provide the military with research support. In 1943, the school won the contract to manage rocket and ordnance research at the Cumberland Arsenal in Maryland. In this work, university faculty developed the recoilless anti-tank rifle (popularly known as the Bazooka), a variety of short range mortars, and a number of elements of small rockets. By the end of the war, the Engineering school was the 8th largest university contractor with the Office of Scientific Research and Development, following only MIT, Caltech, Harvard, Columbia, the University or California Berkeley, Johns Hopkins and the University of Chicago.

After the end of the second world war, the Engineering School acquired a building of its own. In 1947, Charles Hook Tompkins, an alumnus of the school, offered $22,500 to build a new facility. Tompkins had built a number of buildings for the university, including the hospital and Lisner Auditorium. Construction began in 1954 and finished two years later. In 1962, it acquired its current name, the School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS).