Facilities - Department of Engineering

The Projects Laboratory is a 9000 square foot multi-use space that serves as the home for most of the Engineering-Collaboratory projects. Students have access to the space 24/7 for study groups and project groups to convene, as needed. The space is maintained by a full-time technician responsible to support the project teams.

Video tour of lab

First year Engineering students have a focused design experience in the Intro. to Engineering course, and a home base in a lab area reserved for them. Students complete several small design projects intended to coach them through the engineering design process and expose them to various engineering disciplines.

Biomedical engineering wet lab outfitted with state of the art equipment for DNA analysis, fluorescent microscopy, sterile sample handling, cell culture, and protein engineering. Biomedical engineering students use this space to perform tissue engineering experiments, bacterial growth dynamics analysis, mammalian cell imaging, and novel protein development as part of their classroom and Collaboratory experience.

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In this laboratory students focus on environmental water treatment processes and the analysis of water and wastewater.

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This newly renovated lab and collaboration space gives ready access to the electrical equipment, Arduino microprocessors and LEGO Mindstorm kits used in the department’s Controls course taken by upper-level Biomedical/Computer/Electrical/Mechanical students. When not in use for Controls labs, the room provides students doing project work a place to meet for planning and discussion in a collaborative environment.

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These two similar and adjacent labs serve the introductory Circuits course for all Engineering students and upper-level Electrical Engineering courses. Students have access to power supplies, oscilloscopes, function generators, and proto-boards. The electrical components storage area is adjacent to the labs for easy access. Engineering students frequent these rooms after hours as convenient and comfortable work spaces for collaborative assignments.

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The Civil Engineering Laboratory supports study of commonly used construction materials, soil mechanics, and surveying. Students have access to concrete mixing and testing equipment, and the tools often used for testing and classification of soils. Students also complete a unit of study on surveying using industry-standard total station equipment.

All Engineering students take a first course in Materials Engineering, with introductory treatment on ceramics and polymers with primary focus on metallurgy. Students in the laboratory experiment with testing methods to determine material properties and treatment processes that can be used to achieve desired performance.

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The Engineering Shop is a departmental and campus-wide support facility with metal-working, wood-working, and welding capabilities. All Engineering students get basic training on much of the shop equipment through the Intro. to Engineering course. Mechanical Engineering students use the shop as part of their curriculum, and the shop is available to support any student project on an as-needed basis. Training and oversight is provided by a full-time machine shop specialist. Shop equipment includes several welders, a CNC milling machine, a plasma cutter, a laser cutter, and several lathes.

Machine Shop Overview Video

Spread throughout the lab spaces are various tools used for rapid prototyping. Students have access to a laser cutter, 3D printers, and a PCB (printed circuit board) milling machine to support project design work.

Rapid Prototyping Overview Video

The Biomechanics Lab is a multi-purpose space that facilitates classroom, seminar-style, and laboratory layouts. The space is equipped with a treadmill and several force plates, as well as a state-of-the-art 10-camera OptiTrack Motion Capture system. We use the system to study human movement in contexts such as clinical gait analysis, prosthetics testing, and assessment of athletic activities. Project teams use the room for client meetings and web conferences, and it also serves as home base for regular Collaboratory Project Review meetings.

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Students in our Medical Devices lab operate within a simulated med tech start-up that provides an opportunity to work through the entire engineering design process necessary to bring new medical devices to the marketplace.

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The Robotics Lab is designed to facilitate learning and exploration of principles associated with robotics systems.

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In the Structural Design course sequence students learn to engineer several common structure types, including steel and concrete-framed buildings, steel roof trusses, prestressed concrete bridges, and steel plate girder bridges. They learn to apply industry standard software and design codes.

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