New Home for Innovation

Building will be center for engineering program and information technology

Pitt-Bradford plans to break ground this year on a new academic building this year that will be the center of technology and innovation on campus and across the region, chock-full of rapid prototyping machines, oscilloscopes, engineering lab stations and more to provide hands-on technical learning for students.

The new engineering and technology building – the first academic building built in nearly 20 years – will be home to the campus’s technology services, growing computer information and systems technology major and two new engineering technology programs – mechanical engineering technology and energy engineering technology.

Engineering technology students will have hands-on labs and study applied mathematics. They will create on their own in a maker space full of milling machines, lathes, welding equipment, metal-cutting technology and 3-D printers and scanners.

They will test their products – building them, destroying them, and building them again stronger.

They will learn all of these steps in brand new labs for fluid dynamics, thermodynamics, strength of materials, electrical circuits and exacting measurements.

Students in mechanical engineering technology will be able to design and build a prototype for an industrial process.

Energy engineering technology students will add to their knowledge about geology, combustion, automation and sensors, biofuels, wood chemistry, wind and solar power, and the chemistry of petroleum and natural gas.

Graduates with engineering technology degrees can apply to the same jobs as those with engineering degrees. They take similar classes in math and engineering, but everything is focused toward practical applications. It is similar to a current successful program at Pitt-Bradford that will exist alongside the new fouryear engineering programs, computer information systems and technology.

In the project lab and glassenclosed spaces, students from various tech-based majors will spend energy drink-fueled hours collaborating on projects and learning skills, both hard and soft.

“We are so excited about this project and what it will do for our students, for regional employers and for our communities,” said Dr. Catherine Koverola, Pitt-Bradford’s president. “Students in this new building will use state-of-the-art equipment to work on amazing projects in unique spaces that will spark their creativity. When they graduate, they’ll infuse into our region an influx of innovation.”

A new virtual reality lab on the round floor will be a showcase for the computer information systems and technology program.

Jason Jones

To create the vision for this environment, HED architects met extensively with campus leadership, technology staff and faculty in the information systems and engineering programs to design the 40,000-square foot, $22 million building.

The new building will be located on the lawn of the Hanley Library, parallel to West Washington Street and Lester and Barbara Rice House residence hall built in 2014.

On the first floor, the new building will feature laboratories for the new engineering programs, student study and project rooms, and a virtual reality lab for the information systems program.

The second floor will be home to the university’s technology services and its information systems program and feature much-improved spaces for each, as well as a second-floor balcony overlooking the first-floor common space.

The cantilevered second floor will provide a porch space below it.

The whole project has been decades in the making, said Dr. Ron Mattis, director of the engineering program. Currently, the university has a twoyear, pre-engineering program that requires students to transfer to another school to complete their degrees.

The new, four-year programs will require much more in the way of lab and testing equipment to continue engineering students’ hands-on experience.

Those labs include the following:

• A strength and materials lab

• A fluid dynamics lab with small hydro tunnel to test designs

• A circuit lab with bench space for soldering, generators and analog/ digital trainer desktop kits

• A measurements lab for the energy engineering and energy science and technology programs where students will be able to work with sensors and automation

• A machine shop for freshmen engineering students with computer-controlled cutters and plasma cutters used to cut through electrically conducive materials

• A maker space with 3-D printing for rapid prototyping to be shared with the information technology program.

The content of a final lab is yet to be determined, but it will be a place where students can work on projects for competitions such as robotics, drones, recreational or solar cars. The labs where students will be creating and fabricating are connected to each other to make working on projects easier.

Information technology faculty and students are excited for not only new facilities, but facilities in a single

building with campus technology services. Currently, the program’s labs and offices are spread out among three different buildings.

“The spaces are going to be so much more accommodating, and we hope that they will promote campuswide collaborations,” said Don Lewicki, associate professor and founder of the computer information systems and technology program.

Faculty from both areas look forward to collaborations – such as competitive teams – that would benefit both programs. The maker space will also be an attraction for prospective students in both areas.

“The energy between computer information systems students and engineering is important for students,” said Dr. Ken Wang, associate professor and director of the computer information systems and technology program. “They are complementary programs.”

On the first floor, the information technology will have a virtual reality lab where students can use a presentation platform and huge screen to present projects. A rack in the 18 foot-high ceiling will allow for space to hang sensors and cameras.

“It’s going to be really, really cool. We’re really excited about that,” Lewicki said. “This should be a space where science as well as non-science majors can use the latest VR technologies and engage in many different creative learning opportunities.” He added that possibilities exist with the university’s esports team or broadcast communications program.

Many of the downstairs labs will have large windows into the hallways and common areas to draw in prospective students and encourage collaboration.

“This will be an exciting opportunity for high school students to see,” Wang said.

On the second floor, the IT program will have a new systems, network and projects lab (known as the SNAP Lab) with twice as many networked “stacks” of computers as the current, closet-like lab. The lab allows students to practice setting up small computer and data operation centers.

Upstairs will have a new teaching computer lab, general-use computer lab and four classrooms along with the office space and workshop of the university’s technology services.

William Kline ’86, director of Computing, Telecommunications and Media Services, has been as involved as the faculty in designing the new home for his work unit.

“It’s an awesome space,” he said. CTM’s seven employees will each have their own office, plus a new central area for the department’s four to six student workers to work on machines. A separate reception area will allow students to staff an after-hours IT help desk.

The proximity to the CIST program is a boon since nearly all of CTM’s student workers are in the information technology program, and several of the staff members teach in the program as well.

For more information about the engineering and technology building, visit upb.pitt.edu/stembuilding.

“It’s going to be a fabulous new space for CTM to set up operations and serve the university the way it should be served,” Kline said.

For more information about the engineering and information technologies building, visit upb.pitt.edu/stembuilding.