Southern Polytechnic State University

Southern Polytechnic State University (also called Southern Poly; abbreviated SPSU) is a public, co-educational, state university in Marietta, Georgia, United States approximately 20 miles (32 km) northwest of downtown Atlanta. It is part of the University System of Georgia and calls itself "Georgia's Technology University."

The university was established in 1948 as The Technical Institute in Chamblee, Georgia. The first classes were held with 116 students. It was renamed the Southern Technical Institute in 1949 and moved to its present campus in Marietta, Georgia in 1962. It went through another name change in 1987 and became the Southern College of Technology. In the summer of 1996, the university adopted its current name. It is one among a small group of polytechnic universities in the United States that tend to be primarily devoted to the instruction of technical arts and applied sciences.

Today, the university's campus encompasses more than 230 acres (93 ha) of land and owns 65 buildings. It is divided into five academic schools: Architecture and Construction Management, Computing and Software Engineering, Engineering Technology and Management, Arts and Sciences, and Engineering. It is unique in the region in that its bachelor degrees in Mechatronics Engineering, Surveying and Mapping, Construction Engineering, Technical Communication and its nationally accredited Bachelor of Architecture degree are the first and currently the only degrees of their kind in the University System of Georgia.

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