Long-standing partnership between the Schweitzers, SEL, and WSU forged by a belief in the future

Dr. Edmund O. Schweitzer, III built a company out of an invention and a basement workbench. Beginning this fall, a few thousand Cougs will have a chance to do the same-albeit with a much bigger "workbench."

On Friday, Sept. 18, Washington State University celebrates the grand opening of Schweitzer Engineering Hall (SEH), the new front door to the Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture and home to academic advising, tutoring, career development, and open space for collaboration and building.

That focus on students is deliberate. "When people are free to pursue their dreams, I am convinced folks invent things," Schweitzer has said. Now, thanks to Schweitzer and others, SEH exists to give students room to do just that-pursue their dreams and invent things.

In April 2022, WSU announced a $20 million gift toward the new facility from Ed and Beatriz Schweitzer and Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories (SEL), with the couple and the company each contributing $10 million. It was their largest single-gift in a history of giving that stretches back more than four decades.

Investing in people

Dr. Schweitzer first began giving to WSU in the 1980s during the early days of SEL. As the company grew, so did the giving-a $1.5 million gift to the Voiland College arrived in 2017 that now funds engineering scholarships, along with gifts to scholarships across the university, because helping students finish their degrees matters.

The commitment of Ed and Beatriz Schweitzer and SEL to student success reaches well beyond engineering. In fact, their philanthropy has empowered Cougs across almost every college and campus at WSU and is visible throughout the Pullman community. From WSU's Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine and the Carson College of Business, to the Palouse Discovery Science Center and the Pullman Aquatic & Fitness Center, and from the Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport to Pullman Regional Hospital, they have invested heavily in ensuring WSU and the surrounding area remain a vibrant, welcoming home to Cougs and a launchpad for innovation.

Schweitzer describes philanthropy as an investment in people. Hundreds of WSU graduates have joined SEL, an employee-owned company and the county's second-largest employer, with thousands of employees at its headquarters and around the world. The company hires engineers, but also project managers, data analysts, marketers, communicators, accountants, programmers, and cybersecurity specialists.

"And good ideas come from all of them," Schweitzer says.

Where it started

After earning bachelor's and master's degrees from Purdue University, Schweitzer came to WSU, where he completed his doctorate in power system protection in 1977.

Dr. Schweitzer came to WSU as a faculty member after two years teaching at Ohio University. In 1982, working at a bench in his basement, he built the first microprocessor-based protective relay, the SEL-21. He founded SEL that year with $2,000 and soon left teaching to run it.

The relay was one-eighth the size, one-tenth the weight, and one-third the cost of the electromechanical relays then in use, and it could locate faults, test itself, and report line conditions remotely. Dr. Schweitzer has since earned more than 200 patents, been elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2002, received the Regents' Distinguished Alumnus Award, WSU's highest alumni honor, in 2014, and been inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2019.

Looking ahead

David Whitehead, SEL president, sees the new hall as an extension of Dr. Schweitzer's work.

"We hope that Schweitzer Engineering Hall will not only inspire young people to pursue careers in engineering but also empower future innovators to make the kind of impact Ed Schweitzer has had," Whitehead said.