Engineering Education and Research Center Moves Closer to Reality
Students, Projects and Groundbreaking Discoveries
Not only will the EERC change the skyline of the UT Austin campus, it will transform the academic experience for engineering students and faculty, as well as others across the university.
Students, faculty, leadership and the school’s Engineering Advisory Board have contributed to every facet of the building’s design and programming. And driving each EERC decision was the idea of improving the learning experience for future students.
Among the first differences students can expect is curriculum changes. The EERC will give undergraduates the opportunity to engage in one hands-on research project each year. By the time they graduate, students will have collaborated on at least four projects alongside graduate students and world-class faculty members in areas such as aerospace, mobile technologies and energy. In comparison, some engineering students today receive only one opportunity in their four years to work on a hands-on project — the senior-year capstone project.
“The EERC will help ensure that our students get invaluable experience working on projects that solve global problems, so that when they graduate, they are prepared to enter the workforce,” said Sharon L. Wood, chair of the Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering and incoming interim dean of the Cockrell School.
Beyond classrooms, study areas and labs, the EERC will house the Center for Innovation — the school’s first dedicated space for entrepreneurship and commercialization programming. Professor of innovation Bob Metcalfe’s Longhorn Startup Program, a two-year-old program that has nurtured dozens of student- and faculty-led startups, will be housed in the Center for Innovation.
The EERC’s state-of-the-art facilities are also anticipated to strengthen partnerships with industry, which have been vital to the success of the school. Sponsored research allows faculty and students to work closely with industry to find solutions to pressing problems, identify promising research and spin out technologies to the benefit of society.
While the detailed planning efforts for the EERC began three years ago, the vision was set in motion about a decade ago. During that time, the Engineering Advisory Board saw the need to keep up with changes in modern learning and to plan ahead. To that end, the school’s leadership and EAB put together a sweeping Master Plan for Facilities, of which the EERC will be the first building in a multiphase plan.
“The EAB has been instrumental in the success of this project so far,” Fenves said. “While we are all proud of reaching this milestone, we know there is more work to be done. I look forward to seeing the progress that Dr. Wood and the EAB make in the coming months.”