Engineering Our Future: FIU's New College of Engineering & Computing Building

ENGINEERING OUR FUTURE FIU’S NEW COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING & COMPUTING BUILDING

FIU COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING & COMPUTING

THE NEX T HORIZON OF ENGINEERING, CONSTRUCTION, COMPUTING, AND BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES Technology has transformed the work we do, the products we use, the solutions we seek, the therapies we innovate, the homes we live in, and how we do business. Its persistent advancement is driving our future workforces toward even greater disruption, as robots and artificial intelligence replace tasks performed by humans and as current and future challenges demand multifaceted, collaborative solutions.

Civil, environmental, electrical, mechanical and materials, construction, and biomedical engineers, along with computer scientists, are addressing the grand challenges that call for collaboration across previously siloed disciplines.

To prepare for the future, our educational institutions must equip students for jobs that do not yet exist.

Today, higher education must retrofit academic programs to meet industry demands, while readying graduates and new learners to better navigate unforeseen challenges in a fast-paced, everchanging workplace. As a research university, 1

FIU must remain at the forefront of discovery and enterprise, serving as a hub for collaborative problem-solving and innovation, industry engagement, and talent development, helping people, businesses, and communities thrive in this new age of disruption.

At the epicenter of these workforce changes are high-growth professional clusters, including jobs driven by new technologies, data and artificial intelligence, smart cities, storm-resistant and energy-efficient housing, biomedical innovations, and engineering and cloud computing.

As a twenty-first-century university, FIU forms future-ready professionals to lead the innovations of the future. Together with our donors, we will transform engineering, medicine, computer science, construction, and the ways we prepare our students for the future. Our new building will expand our College’s current footprint and will be a place where new collaboration and learning will converge to facilitate creativity, human ingenuity, and invention.

ENGINEERING THE FUTURE FOR THE FOURTH INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION As a top-tier, Carnegie-designated R1 research university, FIU must expand its engineering footprint to prepare the next generation of professionals to generate solutions at the interface of technology and human need.

At the Titan America Structures and Construction Testing Laboratory, students are developing innovative hurricane-resistant and durable construction materials, structural systems, and other components.

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FIU COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING & COMPUTING

A C C O M M O D AT I N G O U R GROW TH AND THE FUTURE O F S T E M E D U C AT I O N The current College of Engineering & Computing (CEC) has outgrown its campus. Originally designed to support approximately 2,500 students, it currently serves more than 7,000—and is located over a mile from our largest campus (the Modesto A. Maidique Campus, MMC). At the MMC, our undergraduate computer and information sciences program has seen a 43 percent increase in total enrollment and a nearly 120 percent increase in newly admitted students since 2017.

Our four-year graduation rate for first time in college (FTIC) students was 17 percent for the 2014-15 cohort and is expected to jump to nearly 50 percent for the 2017-18 cohort. Also, our six-year FTIC graduation rate was 47 percent for the 2014-15 cohort and is expected to jump to 64 percent for the 2017-18 cohort. By providing additional space that will support new pedagogical approaches, the new facility is expected to help the College achieve a four-year graduation rate that is sure to surpass our previous goals.

Built in two phases, the new building will allow FIU to embrace the future of STEM education, graduate 500+ more engineers annually, and hire faculty with expertise in areas that will fulfill our College’s vision of becoming a top public engineering and computing college.

Now more than ever, our classrooms and labs must facilitate state-of-the-art technologies and provide flexible workspaces for group collaboration and problem-based learning. The new building will make active, discussion-based, and collaborationbased learning the norm in engineering, computing, and construction education via active learning classrooms. The hiring of approximately 109 new full-time faculty to represent innovative areas not currently researched at FIU will additionally result in a lowered student-faculty ratio. This improvement translates into better learning and higher rankings for the College and the university.

We are the No. 1 producer of Hispanic engineers in the country, the No. 6 producer of African American and Black engineers in the country, the third-largest producer of engineers in Florida, 48th in the nation in engineering degrees awarded to women, and 32nd in the nation among institutions awarding the highest number of engineering bachelor’s degrees.

Engineering & Engineering Technology by the Numbers American Society for Engineering Education, 2019

The semi-annual Senior Design Project Showcase gathers more than 500 graduating students across disciplines to showcase their advanced designs and innovative solutions.

W I T H E N R O L L M E N T S K Y R O C K E T I N G A N D G R A D U AT I O N R AT E S I N C R E A S I N G , A P H Y S I C A L E X P A N S I O N I S T H E L O G I C A L A N D N E C E S S A R Y N E X T S T E P.

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FIU COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING & COMPUTING

INCREASED RESEARCH, C O L L A B O R AT I O N , A N D INVENTION The name of the game for twenty-first-century research is collaboration. It allows our students and faculty to flourish in new and unexpected directions that lead to innovation and invention.

Faculty and other researchers must be able to interface with their colleagues in medicine, nursing, public health, public policy, finance, construction— all areas undergoing rapid technological change.

Engineers and scientists are collaborating to create scientific breakthroughs, from wearable digital devices and improved cybersecurity to automation, artificial intelligence, and modern construction that produces safer, as well as less expensive, more resilient structures. The art of invention is increasingly determined less by subject knowledge and more by critical research, effective communication, and collaborations at the intersection of humans and machines.

Faculty and researchers at the College of Engineering & Computing work on emerging lithium battery technologies to boost energy storage, which will increase battery efficiency and improve rechargeability to power future electronics, vehicles, and smart electrical grids.

“Among other areas, engineering applications to medicine will flourish in this new, larger, and ultra-modern facility. Biomedical devices and sensors, engineeringinspired diagnostics and therapeutics and also bioinformatics, along with machine learning, artificial intelligence, and IoT, are among the fastest-growing research and technology areas in engineering and computer science. With more than 50 percent of the faculty in our College engaged in biomedical-related research, the added collaborative research space will propel our leadership in this important area of technology and in building a stronger workforce and economy for the state and the nation as a whole.” ― —John L. Volakis, Dean, College of Engineering & Computing

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THE NEW BUILDING WILL PROVIDE A HUB WHERE VA R I O U S D I S C I P L I N E S C A N C O L L A B O R AT E O N RESEARCH NOT OTHERWISE POSSIBLE VIA REMOTE O R V I R T U A L I N T E R A C T I O N , O R E V E N P H Y S I C A L LY AT F I U D U E T O E N G I N E E R I N G’ S C U R R E N T L O C AT I O N .

Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work

Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs

Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine

College of Communication, Architecture + The Arts

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING & COMPUTING

Outside collaborators from industry and government and other university partners

College of Arts, Sciences & Education

Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing & Health Sciences College of Business

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FIU COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING & COMPUTING

ENGINEERING LEADS T H E W AY I N P AT E N T S Using our current facilities, seventy patent applications were filed by FIU faculty and researchers in fiscal year 2020, with forty-four originating from the College of Engineering & Computing. The new facility will increase this number by twenty additional patent applications per year. Greater R&D expenditures will raise FIU’s rankings, generate new businesses and commercial spinoffs, create hundreds of new jobs, and fuel economic growth in South Florida—while creating an atmosphere attractive to the best faculty from around the world and enabling our top students to take part in innovative, novel research otherwise unavailable to them.

“Growth is instrumental in understanding and utilizing the methodologies and technologies that shape our future. FIU understands this and is investing in this growth to ensure that the generations to come have a stronger foundation and access to the necessary resources, to build and shape and change our path ahead.”

—Christa Petros, Vice President of Product Development for SiriusXM Radio and CEC Dean’s Advisory Council Member

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At the Transforming Antennas Center (TAC), graduate students test advanced and innovative origami antennas using state-of-the-art equipment for a wide range of applications, including 5G and deep-space communications.

R E C E N T F A C U LT Y I N N O VAT I O N : Anuradha Godavarty, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Undergraduate Program Director, Certified Hybrid Instructor Near-Infrared Optical Imaging System (NIROS), a portable, non-invasive optical imaging system that allows physicians to monitor changes in patients’ blood flow and/or pulse in many areas of the body. The invention is designed to help patients suffering from sports injuries, ulcers, wounds, artery buildup, and peripheral vascular diseases.

Jessica Ramella-Roman, Ph.D., Associate Professor A non-invasive way to measure temperature distribution in the eye, allowing medical professionals to best decide how to treat a condition that can lead to irreversible retina damage.

John Volakis, Ph.D., Dean and Professor Jorge Riera, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director The first-ever batteryless and wireless brain implant that collects and studies neural signals in live animals, with applications in neuropathology research for epilepsy, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s disease. The study explores the possibility of using brain-computer interfacing and brain-machine interfacing to promote greater prosthesis control.

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FIU COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING & COMPUTING

F E AT U R E S A N D BENEFITS OF THE N E W L O C AT I O N The College’s building expansion will unite our engineering and computing assets with resources at the MMC to intensify interdisciplinary collaborations.

ENHANCING THE STUDENT EXPERIENCE The nearly 90,000 square feet of Phase 1 will house:

B U I LT I N T W O P H A S E S , T H E N E W S P A C E W I L L V A S T LY I M P R O V E T H E S T U D E N T EXPERIENCE AND OPPORTUNITIES, MODERNIZE AND PERSONALIZE E N G I N E E R I N G E D U C AT I O N , A L L O W F O R UNPRECEDENTED NOVEL RESEARCH AND INVENTION, AND INCREASE RESEARCH E X P E N D I T U R E S B Y A P P R O X I M A T E LY $ 3 0 M A N N U A L LY, A D D I N G A N E S T I M A T E D 5 5 0 N E W W E L L- P AY I N G J O B S I N S O U T H F L O R I D A .

ALL THESE ASSETS BRING FIU CLOSER T O B E I N G A T O P - 5 0 , T R U LY T W E N T Y- F I R S TC E N T U R Y U N I V E R S I T Y.

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MAKERSPACES Various makerspace locations on the first floor will form the heart of FIU’s innovation ecosystem, facilitating collaboration and entrepreneurial activity between industry and FIU’s many colleges and schools, planting seeds for new inventions and businesses where ideas are literally made into reality.

ACTIVE LEARNING CLASSROOMS The second floor will house a STEM teaching environment with interactive, state-of-the-art classrooms where faculty and students tackle scientific challenges with hands-on, team-based, and peer-to-peer learning approaches.

COLLABORATIVE SPACES Flexible “collision” spaces will facilitate interdisciplinary and industry collaboration on graduate research, capstone and senior design projects, broadening students’ abilities to work within cross-functional teams, practice communication skills, and gain cutting-edge research experience.

KNIGHT FOUNDATION TRANSFORMS THE SCHOOL OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION SCIENCES Recognizing South Florida’s growth as a technology hub, the increasing demand for computer science and computer engineering graduates, and FIU’s dedication to STEM, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation invested $10M in FIU’s School of Computing and Information Sciences to spur faculty growth.

The philanthropic gift will increase the faculty at the Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences by twenty over seven years, more than double research expenditures, and increase the number of Ph.D.s by eighty.

The expanded faculty will be charged with modernizing the undergraduate curriculum and boosting the School’s four-year graduation rate, thus raising the stature and the rankings of the School and the College.

Of the Knight Foundation’s investment, $3.5M will outfit 20,000 square feet of interactive research and teaching space with best-in-class computing and prototyping equipment within the new engineering building. The funding will also support reconfiguring the College of Engineering & Computing’s career advising programs to be more student- and industry-centric.

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FIU COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING & COMPUTING

AT F I U , WE DON’T WA I T FOR THE FUTURE TO HAPPEN. W E I N V E N T I T. We seek the shared vision and passion of FIU alumni, family, and friends to invest in FIU’s goal of engineering our future. With your partnership and our expansion into a new building, we will bridge the need for innovative solutions, prepare talent for industry, provide a space for collaborative thinking, and enable FIU’s top researchers and scholars to translate big ideas into real-world applications.

“South Florida has been one of the hottest construction and engineering markets in the country. FIU is in the unique position of collaborating with this local industry through research and by providing high-demand talent to this market.”

— Chad Moss ’94, Executive Vice President of Moss Construction, FIU Foundation Board Member, and Chair of the College of Engineering & Computing Dean’s Advisory Council

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Doctoral student Dieff Vital designs wearable antennas and uses conductive threads to embroider electronic circuits onto clothing to facilitate biosensing and health monitoring among members of underserved communities.

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FIU COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING & COMPUTING

THE COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING & COMPUTING OUR R&D ENTERPRISE

OUR ASSETS

FIU is a top U.S. research university, Carnegiedesignated as R1 for Very High Research Activity, a distinction that only 3 percent of the nation’s universities can claim.

#1

Over the last twenty years, the College of Engineering & Computing has grown its research portfolio by more than 190 percent.

FIU boasts nearly $237M in annual research expenditures, $34.5M of which originates from the College of Engineering & Computing (FY 2020).

FIU is 15th among U.S. universities and 40 th in the world for patent production (National Academy of Inventors and the Intellectual Property Owners Association Report, 2020).

We host StartUP FIU, a university initiative that works with entrepreneurs to develop new technologies and create companies that will generate the jobs of tomorrow.

Largest producer of Hispanic engineers in the country*

#6 Largest producer of African American and Black engineers in the country*

#3 Largest producer of engineers in Florida*

#41 Best graduate degree program in biomedical engineering in the country (U.S. News & World Report, 2021)

1st We are the first in the nation to offer a Bachelor of Science degree in the Internet of Things (IoT).

JOHN L. VOLAKIS Dean, College of Engineering & Computing

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We cross educational boundaries by offering a Bachelor of Science in Interdisciplinary Engineering degree, teaching engineering fundamentals simultaneously with business principles, stressing teamwork, entrepreneurship, and project management, with students guided to steer their own course. *Engineering & Engineering Technology by the Numbers American Society for Engineering Education, 2019

Researchers working at the Wall of Wind (WOW), a large-scale hurricane simulator capable of generating 157 mph wind speeds with rain intrusion.

Ph.D. student Matthew Nichols is designing various antennas, antenna arrays, and electrical circuits on a range of flexible substrates for use in both the medical field and satellite communications.

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For more information on supporting the construction of this new, collaborative space, please contact:

JAMIE DIPTEE-BAY Executive Director of Development College of Engineering & Computing 305-348-0230 JDiptee@fiu.edu

Inside view of an origami antenna at the College of Engineering & Computing’s Transforming Antennas Center

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