Cogswell Polytechnical College

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Cogswell Polytechnical College is a private, non-profit college located in Sunnyvale, California. It holds accreditation through the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC)^[1], but its engineering programs are not ABET accredited. Cogswell had a small student body of approximately 145 full-time and 141 part-time students in 2006.^[2]

Along with several other non-profit organizations^[3], Cogswell College is under the umbrella of the Foundation For Educational Achievement ^[4], as was the similarly-named Henry Cogswell College, which has since ceased operations.^[5]

History

Cogswell College was founded as Cogswell Polytechnical College on March 19, 1887 by Dr. and Mrs. Henry Cogswell. The college opened in August 1888 as a high school offering technical classes for boys and business classes for girls. It changed its status to technical college on June 30, 1930. Cogswell College is fully accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges^[6], but does not have professional (ABET) accreditation for its Electrical Engineering degree programs.

The original campus building, located in the Mission District in San Francisco, was occupied in 1888. When the 1906 earthquake partially destroyed the campus, the College relocated across the street to an existing home on the property. After the City of San Francisco purchased some of the land by eminent domain in 1917, a new building was constructed at Folsom and 26th Streets to house the school. In 1974, having outgrown the existing campus, the College moved to a location at Stockton and California Streets. In 1985, the College moved to Cupertino, where it remained until 1994 (its old San Francisco building became a Ritz Carlton hotel^[7]). The College purchased its present Sunnyvale campus in 1993.^[8]

Among the college's current programs are animation and video game development.^[9]

Facts

• About 15% of the student population are women.^[10]
• The student to faculty ratio is approximately 12:1^[10] or possibly 9:1^[11]
• Cogswell currently offers the following degrees (note: as discussed above, the engineering programs are not ABET Accredited):

• • B.A. Digital Art and Animation
  • B.S. Digital Audio Technology
  • B.S. Computer Engineering
  • B.S. Software Engineering
  • B.S. Digital Arts Engineering
  • B.S. Fire Science

• Additionally, in November 2007 Cogswell announced the addition of a minor in business management.^[12]
• Cogswell students won first place in the 2007 SIGGRAPH SPACE-TIME Student Animation competition in the category of Storytelling/Narrative^[13][14]
• A Cogswell student won for “Best Editing” at Columbia University's National Undergraduate Film Festival.^[15][16]

Notable Alumni

• Zachary Todd Cox, Senior Concept Artist at Activision/Underground Development
• Allen Stetson, Lead Technical Director at Dreamworks
• Nathan Vegdahl, Character Rigger and Animator for Big Buck Bunny
• Eric Erbes, Freelance Artist at VIZ Media
• Michael Hunter, Senior UI Design Engineer at Sony Pictures
• Sean Kraft, Level Artist (The Sims)at Electronic Arts (EA)
• Jared Kuharski, Environment Artist at Electronic Arts (EA)
• Marc Miller, Lighting Artist at Dreamworks Animation
• David Olesky, Senior Design Engineer (Software) at Dolby Labs
• Tuan Phan, Quality Assurance(QA)Game Tester Analyst at Namco Bandai Games
• Nicholas Spier, Previz Artist at Buckheimer Films
• Greg Stewart, Scientific Graphics and Visualization Developer at Stanford University Linear Accelerator
• Ben Taylor, Render I/O Coordinator at Rhythm & Hues (The Mummy 3 and The Incredible Hulk)
• Marika Timmerman, Modeler/ Texture Artist at Electronic Arts (EA)
• Randy Wilburn, Senior Black Box Engineer at Netflix
• Albert Wong, Software Architect at Intel

Notable Cogswell Faculty

• Thomas Applegate, Assistant Professor (Digital Arts), studied at Art Center College of Design, where he was feted with Ninth Term Honors
• Albert Chen, Assistant Professor (Game Design and Development), studied at UC Davis, and has worked for at Electronic Arts (EA), Factor 5, The 3DO Company, and LucasArts
• Susan Harby, Associate Professor (Digital Arts), studied at Boston University (BFA) and Stanford University (MFA)
• Michael Zachary Huber, Assistant Professor (Digital Arts), has worked on The Matrix Revolutions, Minority Report, Godzilla, and Fifth Element, among other films
• Reid Winfrey, Associate Professor (Digital Arts), studied at UC Davis (B.A. with Honors) and San Jose State (MFA)
• Timothy Duncan, studied at University of Tennessee and completed a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Composition at the College Conservatory of Music of the University of Cincinnati
• Dr. Hadi Aggoune holds a Ph. D. Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington. He taught graduate and undergraduate courses in Electrical Engineering at the University of Washington; King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia; The National Polytechnic School, Algiers, Algeria; and Henry Cogswell College, Everett, Washington, USA. He is a Professional Engineer (PE) registered in the State of Washington, Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Evaluator with the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU), and Affiliate Faculty in Electrical Engineering at the University of Washington.
• Vihn Phat, Associate Professor of Electrical, Software and Digital Arts Engineering.
• Max Sims, Assistant Professor (Digital Arts), studied Transportation Design at the Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, California and Industrial Design at University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois. He is the principal of the design and strategy consulting firm Technolution. Technolution's clients rangefrom ILM, PDI, EA and Pixar, on the entertainment design front to frogdesign, Inline Audio, Interbrand Schecter, Fitch, and Lunar design in the ID sector. He is also the lead author of the critically acclaimed of Inside Maya5 by New Riders Press. Max Sims has worked for Alias and then think3 where he was the product manager for thinkreal and thinkshape. He was 3d production manager for luuluu.com.

External links

• Cogswell College official web site
• Cogswell College Official Alumni site
• IGN Magazine article about Cogswell

References