Tennessee University Starts Construction on New Engineering Facility
Middle Tennessee State University recently announced that construction of a new Applied Engineering Building has begun on its campus in Murfreesboro, Tenn., according to a news release. The facility will play home to the university’s Engineering Technology and Mechatronics Engineering programs, and it will also include space for future programs as industry needs develop and change. The university partnered with Wold Architects and Engineers and Cooper Carry for the project’s design.
The new facility will stand three stories and cover 90,000 square feet. It will include amenities like flexible learning and lab spaces; lobbies that will feature student projects and technology displays; gathering areas; and lecture space for academic instruction, guest speakers, student organizations, and special events, the news release reports. It will also offer research laboratory space to both students and faculty to support emerging technologies as well as experiential and integrative learning.
“[The Applied Engineering Building] represents a new phase in the life of the department—a progression into a new era of possibilities for our faculty and students,” said Greg Van Patten, Dean of the College of Basic and Applied Sciences. “It will completely alter how the faculty in the Engineering Technology Department will teach and how our students will learn. The cutting-edge facilities and new equipment will provide opportunities for our faculty to pursue research projects that are not possible at MTSU today which will, in turn, help us continue to attract and retain the very top-talented students and faculty.”
According to local news, the project comes with a budget of $74.8 million and is scheduled for completion during summer or fall of 2025. University President Sidney A. McPhee said that the project “will be the finishing touch to what we’ve named the Science Corridor of Innovation that began in 2014 that began with the opening of our $147-million Science Building, the single largest investment by the state of Tennessee for an academic facility.”
The new facility will also contain at least $1.2-million in new or donated technology, according to McPhee and Engineering Technology Chair Ken Currie. Equipment will include the Dexcom/Automation Nth FlexBases, the Gould Mechatronics Robotics lab, and the Co-Bot Workplace Development Center, according to local news.
A groundbreaking ceremony took place on June 20 to celebrate the beginning of construction.
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Matt Jones is senior editor of Spaces4Learning. He can be reached at [email protected].