Iowa State University of Science and Technology, more commonly known as Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU, a flagship university of the Iowa university system, is a public land-grant and space-grant research university located in Ames, Iowa, United States. Until 1959 it was known as the Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts.Founded in 1858 and coeducational from its start, Iowa State became the nation’s first designated land-grant institution when the Iowa Legislature accepted the provisions of the 1862 Morrill Act on September 11, 1862, making Iowa the first state in the nation to do so.