The University of Connecticut has broken ground on its Storrs campus on a $95 million, 118,000-square-foot engineering and science building.
The university says the five-story facility will provide dedicated laboratory space for the genomics, biomedical, chemical engineering, and cyber system research programs. It is expected to be ready for occupancy in 2017.
“Having this state-of-the-art engineering and science building in the heart of our campus will allow UConn to do more than ever to spark innovation, catalyze research advances, and build on the momentum we’ve already gained as a source for new and groundbreaking research," says university president Susan Herbst.
The facility will have an open-floor layout designed to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration and to enable scientists to share knowledge and equipment in the labs.
The building will free up much-needed classroom, lab, and office space in other areas of the campus to help UConn meet a surge in undergraduate and graduate student enrollment in the engineering school. Over the past decade, undergraduate enrollment in the engineering school has quadrupled. Graduate enrollment has doubled.
