A formal program in engineering was introduced in 1894 when the president of the University, Richard W. Silvester, requested that the secretary of the Navy detail Lieutenant John D. Ford of the U.S. Navy Engineering Corps to organize the Department of Mechanical Engineering. The first faculty member appointed to teach in the department was Harry Gwinner, and John Hanson Mitchell was the first student awarded a B.S. in mechanical engineering in 1898. The Department of Mechanical Engineering was housed in what is now Taliaferro Hall.