Tau Beta Pi is the oldest national engineering honor society in the country. TBP recognizes exceptional engineers and individuals who are scholastically accomplished and have exemplary character from all engineering disciplines.
When the academic honor society Phi Beta Kapp restricted its membership to students of the liberal arts and sciences in the late 19th century, Edward H. Williams Jr., the founder of Phi Beta Kappa and head of the mining department at Lehigh university, formulated the idea of an honor society for those studying technical subjects. On June 15th, 1885, he realized this idea with the initiation of Andrew Heikes, a valedictorian of Lehigh University and thereby formally activating the Tau Beta Pi Honors Society. The TBP CA Eta Chapter (San Jose State University), was founded on March 14, 1964. Tau Beta Pi currently consists of 251 collegiate chapters & 46 active alumni chapters, with over 600,000 lifetime members.