NPU Campus

Northwestern Polytechnic University is ideally located in Fremont, California, the 4th largest city in the San Francisco Bay Area. Within easy reach of San Jose, the high-tech capital of the world, Fremont is also not far from the cities of San Francisco, Berkeley, and Palo Alto (Stanford University). The NPU campus is situated in a high-technology park in Fremont and is surrounded by international corporations and leaders in the information technology industry. The campus buildings house the administrative offices, campus library and reading rooms, several electronics, communications, database, and simulation laboratories, assembly rooms, classrooms, computer workstation rooms, a student assembly hall, recreation center, game room, student association club offices, several break and dining rooms, and several other functional facilities such as faculty offices and workrooms. The NPU dormitories are located just off campus in the neighboring residential community. For more information on campus housing, please view the Housing pages.

The City of Fremont, California, is truly one of the best-kept secrets of the Bay Area. It is a safe, clean, modern, and relatively new community, well funded and well planned, and has one of the highest qualities of life ratings of any city in the U.S. According to the City of Fremont's official government website, Fremont has a population of 214,000 people and over 1,200 high-tech firms. It has a convenient BART system (local train) and an extensive network of bus services. Residents can enjoy over 50 community parks within the city including beautiful Lake Elizabeth and scenic Central Park. Fremont is also very proud of the quality of its citizenry and has the lowest crime rate in the U.S. for cities with more than 200,000 people. Fremont's citizens are a diverse mix from all corners of the world: African Americans 3%, American Indians 0.3%, Asian 36.8%, Hispanic 13.5%, Pacific Islander 0.4%, White 41.4%, and Other 4.7%.

History of NPU

Seeing the dearth of accessible high-quality engineering schools in the Bay area, Dr. Ramsey Carter and Dr. Barbara Brown started Northwestern Polytechnic University (NPU) on January 2, 1984, and soon thereafter incorporated as a California nonprofit public benefit institution. Because of her knowledge of education administration, Dr. Brown was appointed NPU's first president in June, 1984.

While Dr. Brown managed the office, Dr. George Hsieh and Dr. Young You taught classes, recruited instructors, and developed the graduate and the undergraduate degree programs. Because of the strong demand in Silicon Valley for qualified engineers, the School of Engineering began granting bachelor of science degrees in electrical engineering in November, 1984, followed by the master of science in electrical engineering in 1985.

As Silicon Valley's high-tech industries grew, so did NPU. Seeing the lack of engineers in the computer industry, NPU opened the Computer Systems Engineering programs at both the bachelor's and master's levels in 1987. Under high-spirited teamwork, NPU grew quickly from a budding school of a few students and faculty in 1984 to a well-established one by 1989. February 23, 1989, marked a milestone for the University as NPU attained full institutional approval from the California Department of Education. After seven devoted years to the University, Dr. Brown and Dr. Carter retired on March 31, 1991. The Board then nominated and appointed Dr. George Hsieh, then the incumbent Dean of Academic Affairs and former Graduate Division Chair, the new president of NPU on April 1, 1991. Since Dr. Hsieh's tenure, the school has continued to grow and now attracts students from over 30 countries.

When the entrepreneurial spirit in Silicon Valley demanded students with business training, NPU established the School of Business and began to offer the master of business administration and bachelor of business administration and information sciences degrees in 1995. At the same time, the School of Engineering continued to expand its programs by offering bachelor's and master's degrees in computer science. In January, 1998, the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS) accredited NPU to award bachelor's and master's degrees. In 2005, NPU was approved by ACICS to offer two doctorate degree programs: Doctor of Business Administration and Doctor of Computer Engineering.