Professor William Henry Warren delivered the first lecture in engineering at the University of Sydney on 27 March 1883. Earlier that month he was appointed the inaugural lecturer in Engineering in the University’s School of Natural Philosophy and the following year was appointed the first Professor of Engineering. He remained Head of the University’s Department of Engineering for 42 years and, in 1919, became the first President of the Institution of Engineers, Australia.

The Warren Centre for Advanced Engineering was opened in 1983 to mark the centenary of Warren’s first engineering lecture, a landmark in engineering education in Australia. It was established to foster excellence and innovation in all fields of Australian engineering.

The concept of The Warren Centre was first discussed at a luncheon on 20 September 1979, convened by the then Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sydney Professor Sir Bruce Williams, Associate Professor Phil Jones (then Dean of Engineering) and Professor Bob Bilger invited several eminent engineers from industry and the Faculty to discuss how to mark the centenary of Professor Warren’s first engineering lecture. This group concluded that, rather than setting up a ‘monument to the past’, the centenary should be celebrated by establishing a forward-looking institute with a ‘need to concentrate on excellence’ and the knowledge that ‘the involvement and close liaison with industry was important’. Over the next several months, the Centenary Committee was formed to develop the concept of the proposed institute, launch a fundraising appeal and plan the 1983 celebration.

Over 30 years later, we are proud of a long list of achievements in many fields as diverse as high-performance computing, building fire and safety engineering, chemical storage, surface mining, underground space, energy management, smart cars, managing the hi-tech enterprise, telecommunications, CAD, value-adding in manufactured products, and the Medical Device Network. These contributions have only been possible because The Warren Centre has responded to real-world issues and needs, and thereby gained the active involvement and support of our diverse constituency from industry, commerce and the professions.