30The FIU College of Engineering and Computing celebrated 30 years of engineering excellence in 2014. To commemorate the history and achievements of the college, a variety of special events and lectures took place throughout the year to bring together faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends to celebrate the college’s legacy of quality, innovation and diversity.

The first event was a proclamation issued by the mayor of Miami-Dade County announcing February 21, 2014 as FIU Engineering Day. This coincided with the college’s 13th annual Engineering Expo, a community outreach event organized by the college welcoming more than 1,400 students from Miami Dade and Broward County elementary, middle and high schools.

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Dean Amir Mirmiran with the evening’s emcee, author and humorist Dave Barry and his wife Michelle Kaufman.

The signature event of the year was a 30th Anniversary Celebration which took place at Jungle Island on October 30, 2014 to celebrate the history and future of the college. Nearly 300 alumni, industry partners, faculty and friends of the college came together for the dinner featuring several special guests, including inaugural poet Richard Blanco, an alumnus of the college, and Miami Herald columnist and book author Dave Barry, who served as emcee.

The year culminated on November 20, 2014 with a Distinguished Lecture by National Academy of Engineering (NAE) President C. D. Mote Jr. A mechanical engineering graduate of Berkeley, Mote served as the vice chancellor at the University of California-Berkeley, and president at the University of Maryland before joining the NAE. Mote addressed students, alumni and faculty with a lecture entitled, “What’s Coming, Whether We Like It or Not.”

Mote meets with university and college leadership at the Ronald W. Reagan Presidential House

National Academy of Engineering President C. D. Mote Jr. met with university and college leadership at the Ronald W. Reagan Presidential House

Originally the College of Technology, and then officially the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences in 1984, the Florida International University College of Engineering and Computing, supported by exponential growth, has much to celebrate. Although regarded as a young college, the college’s tradition of quality and innovation is intertwined with a culture of diversity.

“Thirty years ago, our college was established with the promise of public access to the best public engineering education in South Florida, the dream of serving as the engine for economic development of Miami-Dade, and the hope of engineering a better future for our community,” said Amir Mirmiran, dean of the college and Vasant H. Surti Professor of Civil Engineering. “Our faculty came to FIU because they believed in that dream and shared that hope. With their sweat and hard work, with every new program, every new lab, every new graduate, every new patent, every new grant, and every new center, our faculty turned that dream into a reality.”