California Institute of Technology

The California Institute of Technology, commonly known as Caltech, located in Pasadena, California, is one of the premier schools of science and engineering in the United States. Founded in 1891 as Throop University with just 31 students, Caltech now has a student body of about 900 undergraduate and 1,000 graduate students.

Caltech operates the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA.

Caltech's school teams are called the Beavers. They participate in the NCAA's Division III Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

Table of contents 1 Student (Undergraduate) Life 2 Well-known Caltech alumni 3 Well-known Caltech faculty 4 External link

Student (Undergraduate) Life During the early 20th century, a Caltech committee visited several universities and decided to transform the undergraduate housing system from regular fraternities to a unique House (http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/houses) System, combining the qualities of regular university dormitory[?] and the college system similar to that of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Four (south) houses (or hovses, so named for the inscription on the gates thereof) were built: Fleming, Dabney, Ricketts, and Blacker. In the late 20th century, three north houses were built: Lloyd, Ruddock, and Page. During the 1990s, an additional house, Avery, was built to accommodate those who feel the original seven houses were not suitable for them. Some students jocularly refer to the Undergraduate Computer Science Laboratory as another house, as a few often spend most of their times there.

Another unique feature of the Caltech community is the Honor Code, which states simply: "No member of the Caltech community shall take unfair advantage of any other member of the Caltech community." This is enforced by a Board of Control, consisting of members of the community.

Well-known Caltech alumni

• Linus Pauling (PhD 1925)
• Edwin Mattison McMillan (MS 1929)
• William Lipscomb (PhD 1946)
• Gordon E. Moore, founder of Intel Corp. (PhD 1954)
• Donald Knuth (PhD 1963)
• Stephen Wolfram (PhD 1979)

Well-known Caltech faculty

• David Baltimore
• Richard Feynman
• Ahmed H. Zewail

External link

• Official site (http://www.caltech.edu/)
• Crippling Depression, satirical comic strip serialized in the Caltech student newspaper the California Tech (http://www.cripplingdepression.com/)
• Undergraduate Computer Science Laboratory (http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu)
• Honor Code (http://www.admissions.caltech.edu/techer/honor.htm)