The UH Cullen College of Engineering is several steps closer to landing a spot among the Top 50 engineering colleges in America.

The 2019 U.S. News and World Report rankings place the Cullen College on the list of the Best Engineering Schools of 2019. It moved up from #73 in the year before to #69. The ranking is shared by Clemson University, Colorado State University, Tufts University and the University of Iowa.

As a child in Lebanon, Abe Najjar (BSEE ’89, MSEE ’91) never dreamed he would one day be working in Houston as an engineer for one of the largest engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) companies in the U.S. Najjar’s parents encouraged him to strive for excellence in his studies, but the money for college just wasn’t there. 

In the early days of personal computing, Cullen College alumnus Rod Canion (bachelor’s in electrical engineering 1966, and master’s in electrical engineering 1968) left the security of his job at Texas Instruments and co-founded Compaq, which created the first IBM-compatible personal computer.

State leaders have paved the way for new construction at UH Sugar Land (UHSL), a campus of the University of Houston. UHSL received a $54 million allocation in HB100, which the governor recently signed, to construct a new 150,000-sq.-ft. classroom building.

The Engineering Alumni Association (EAA) held its annual Alumni Awards Gala on June 11 at the Houston Petroleum Club. The event is held every year in honor of distinguished Cullen College alumni and faculty who are awarded for their career achievements.

Over the course of his career as an engineer, Larry Snider (BSIE ’55) lived and worked all around the world. Larry and his wife, Gerri, have called many places “home,” from California and Iran, to Ohio and Pakistan. Yet no matter where his career took him, Larry said there was one place he always returned to: the University of Houston.

Brown & Gay Engineers, Inc. (www.browngay.com), an engineering consulting firm based in Houston, established an endowed scholarship in the UH Cullen College of Engineering’s civil and environmental engineering department. The gift totals $52,000 -- $50,000 to establish the endowment and $2,000 for use toward current scholarships for fall 2015.

Shell Oil Company is contributing $3.5 million to the University of Houston in support of the new Multidisciplinary Research and Engineering Building and other educational initiatives.

The University of Houston’s colleges of business and engineering have gained new support from one of the city’s energy leaders, which has donated money to a variety of programs and student support services.

Phillips 66, a Houston-based energy manufacturing and logistics company, was created in 2012 through a split with ConocoPhillips. It cracked the top 10 in the Fortune 500 last year, reaching No. 6 with revenue over $161 billion in 2013.