The Chicago-based James Dyson Foundation has announced an $18 million gift to Imperial College London to create its first new engineering department in two decades.

The gift will establish the Dyson School of Design Engineering, which will offer a four-year Master of Engineering degree starting in October 2015. Developed in partnership with Dyson engineers, the school's curriculum will challenge students to develop tangible and compelling products, and will provide the business training needed to make those products commercially viable. The school also will be outfitted with state-of-the-art equipment and studio space, enabling four hundred students to design, prototype, and test their inventions.

The school, which began accepting applications in October 2014, aims to attract a higher percentage of women than other engineering programs by focusing on creativity as well as theory. On average, only 12.9 percent of applicants to engineering programs are female. To date, 40 percent of Dyson School applications for 2015 have been from women. By 2017, when it moves into a new building purchased from London's Science Museum in South Kensington, the school program is expected to increase its enrollment to ninety students.