The Tau Beta Pi Association is the national engineering honor society. It was founded in 1885 at Lehigh University by Dr. Edward H. Williams for the purpose of recognizing superior scholarship and exemplary character in engineers. The Maryland Alpha Chapter of Tau Beta Pi, at The Johns Hopkins University, was formed in 1919 by Dr. Alexander G. Christie, Professor and then acting head of the Mechanical Engineering Department. Christie, himself a member of Tau Beta Pi in Wisconsin, put forward the proposal to create a Maryland chapter of Tau Beta Pi at a meeting of the entire senior class of the engineering school. His proposal was enthusiastically supported both by the engineering students at Hopkins and the national executive council of the Tau Beta Pi Association. After nearly two years of communication and organization with the national executive council, the charter of the Maryland Alpha Chapter was ratified by the national convention of the Tau Beta Pi Association on April 9, 1921.

Tau Beta Pi holds elections twice a year to elect to membership those students and alumni who have demonstrated their engineering ability as well as their appreciation of standards of character. Usually, engineering students whose academic standing is in the upper eighth of the junior class or the upper fifth of the senior class are eligible for membership. Within each chapter, Tau Beta Pi is administrated by a group of student officers elected by chapter members. The first group of Hopkins students to receive membership in the Maryland Alpha Chapter were eighteen engineering students selected from the Classes of 1920 and 1921. Since then, with the exception of during the Second World War, when all attention was directed toward war-related activities, Tau Beta Pi has been active in the engineering community of The Johns Hopkins University. Outstanding students continue to be honored with membership and the corresponding privileges of taking part in the activities of the association, such as the essay contest and the election of representatives to the national convention of the Tau Beta Pi Association.