Timeline for the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
From Derek
1874 The University of Adelaide is established by an act of parliament
1884 Sir Horace Lamb delivers a discourse on "The history of electromagnetism"
1885 William H. Bragg appointed as Professor of Mathematics & Physics
1889 Bragg recruits Robert W. Chapman as a lecturer
1901 New science & engineering building opened by HRH Duke of Cornwall & York
1903 Courses in Electrical Engineering begin
1903 Electrical lectures were first given by John P.V. Masden out of the Physics Dept.
1904 Ernest Chapple is our first graduate with a Diploma in Electrical Engineering
1907 Robert W. Chapman becomes the first Professor of Engineering at this university
1910 Electrical Engineering Diploma recognised by IEE (UK)
1910 Edward "Bubbles" V. Clarke appointed lecturer in Electrical Engineering to replace Masden. (Bubbles remains the sole EE lecturer for the next 34 years!)
1924 First electrical Masters thesis in this University
1946 EE Dept. formed and Eric O. Willoughby appointed in May as Chair
1947 Honours degree in EE established
c.1950 Control system ("Servo") course established - believed to be the first in Australia.
1954 Stephen Kaneff produces first PhD thesis in our Dept. (conferred 1956)
1960-1966 "Cirrus" - first mulitprogramming digital computer designed and built in Australia. Built by Gordon Rose and Murray Allen.
c.1969 Epitaxial gallium arsenide microwave device processing facility established (Griffin)
1974-1977 ULOS Colour raster scan display system - believed to be the first colour CAD system for IC layout in the world. (Peter H. Cole Doug A. Pucknell, Neil H.E. Weste, Andrew L. Davis, and John S. Bell).
1974-1979 General Arithmetic Processor (GASP) designed and built - the first floating point Harvard signal processor in Australia. Was used for acoustical analysis of speech. (Bob Bogner & John Rogers, with David Fensom, Neil Smith et. al.)
1976 First microprocessor programming course in Australia (Doug A. Pucknell, Bryan D. Ackland, John A.V. Rogers, Neil H.E. Weste et. al.)
c.1980 The Department changes its name from "Electrical" to "Electrical & Electronic"
c.1981 Adelaide Consortium for Telecommunication Study (ACTS) formed
1981 First VLSI course in Australia given (Eshraghian & Pucknell)
1982 Email gateway to the USA - believed to be the first in South Australia.
1984 Spin-off companies ISD and Transponder formed
1987 Centre for Gallium Arsenide VLSI Technology (now called CHiPTec) established
1992 Cooperative Centre for Sensor Signal and Information Processing (CSSIP) established with this Department as a founding member
1999 The Dept. establishes Australia's first T-ray imaging program
2000 New biomedical engineering lab opened by Hon. Rob Lucas MLC on Oct. 17th
2001 RFID chair established with funding by Gemplus Tag Australia
2002 Auto-ID Lab established with funding from MIT Auto-ID Center.
2002 Adelaide node of the national teletest facility opened by Hon. Jane Lomax-Smith
2005 World's first laser-based T-ray user facility
