For more than 150 years, Auburn Engineering has helped shape and build our state, region and country through innovative research and graduates driven by solving problems and improving the quality of life for all.
But, perhaps, the past 25 years have been the most transformative in our history. In this issue, you’ll read about two occurrences from 25 years ago that changed the trajectory of this college.
Sam Ginn, ’59 industrial engineering, built a career by revolutionizing the telecommunications industry through wireless and cellular technology. When he needed engineers in this field, there wasn’t enough supply to meet his demand, not even at Auburn.
Sam felt Auburn needed a spark, and that spark ignited a rocket.
Sam’s $25 million gift has boosted Auburn Engineering in every way — record student enrollment, research funding, faculty size, alumni giving, you name it.
At the same time, our National Center for Asphalt Technology (NCAT) also needed a boost. While the research coming out of the center was impactful, it lacked the tangible application that we needed.
So, we built a track.
The NCAT Test Track is a 1.7-mile oval located on a 309-acre site where research is conducted on experimental asphalt pavements. The track consists of 46 test sections, each 200 feet long, funded through a cooperative effort between highway agencies and industry sponsors. Research experiments help agencies — including more than 30 state departments of transportation — confidently implement new technologies, ultimately saving millions of dollars in transportation infrastructure.
While we celebrate these amazing milestones this year, it’s humbling to see how far we’ve come. Auburn Engineering has always been great, but through the belief of alumni such as Sam Ginn and so many others, we are claiming our rightful place as one of the premier engineering institutions in America. When we say the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering is “the best student-centered engineering experience in America,” that’s not just a slogan, that’s a fact.
War Eagle!
Mario R. Eden
