GTC Life Sciences Center Dedicated
September 28, 2011 - The leadership and board of
Joining Gwinnett Tech President Sharon Bartels and these guests were students, alumni and faculty, plus many of the business, industry and private donors who contributed to the Life Sciences Center through Gwinnett Tech's Legacy of Lives campaign. The Legacy of Lives campaign is led by honorary chair Ed Bastian, president, Delta Air Lines, and campaign co-chairs Jim McGean, president (retired), Verizon Wireless, and Kim Ryan, chief executive officer,
"This is exciting day for everyone in the Gwinnett Tech family and for all those throughout the community who supported the development of the Life Sciences Center. Visionary leaders from multiple sectors – healthcare, technology, business and education – plus key private donors worked in concert to make this center a reality," said President Bartels. "Now, our community and our region will benefit from the healthcare and life sciences professionals who will train here."
"Healthcare ...life care... is the industry of expansion for the coming decades. If you want to develop quality of life in your community, it makes perfect sense that you prepare people for the health sciences positions that are going to be needed," added Bartels.
Gwinnett Tech's three-story, 78,000-square-foot Life Sciences Center is dedicated to educating and training those life sciences and healthcare professionals. Over the next four years, to serve residents, the region will need to add 27,000 healthcare jobs.
The Center, which opened for fall semester classes in August, will serve 3,000 students annually, enabling GTC to accept additional students and expand program offerings. The new Life Sciences Center is a LEED-construction building and anticipates LEED Silver certification.
With more than a dozen health sciences programs, Gwinnett Tech serves the state's highest number of health science students. Combined with its existing facilities, GTC now has more than 140,000 square feet in two buildings dedicated to health science education.
Among the Life Sciences Center's classroom and lab features are:
- T.E.A.L (Technology-Enhanced Active Learning) Classrooms which integrate technology and teaching to enhance student participation and collaborative learning. Round tables, multiple "white boards" and projection options, and power clusters for student laptop use enable group computer-based learning.
- Two lecture rooms that feature theater seating, white board and projection technology, and individual lap stations can accommodate 90 students when necessary.
- A Nursing Skills Suite that includes a host of "human simulators," hospital bedside environments and a nursing station that models today's clinical environments. The simulators can mimic an extraordinary range of medical situations – from birth to cardiac arrest.
- A Bioscience Lab Suite that includes a DNA lab, a protein analysis lab and several other lab and prep areas.
- A Medical Assisting Suite that replicates today's medical offices, including exam rooms and electronic records stations.
- Multiple anatomy and physiology, chemistry and microbiology labs.
Features of the
- Water-efficient landscaping is supported by a drip irrigation system that utilizes minimal water supplied by rainwater. Rain fall is collected into an onsite cistern and distributed thru a sophisticated computerized irrigation control system.
- Energy utilization was modeled during the building design and will be monitored by a series of meters connected to a computerized Energy Management System to track actual usage. This information will be displayed on an Energy Dashboard in the building's lobby.
- Extensive daylight is found throughout the building with lighting controls that allow for adjusting the lights depending upon time of day.
- Showers are available for those building users that bicycle to work and make use of the bike racks provided.
- Materials used in the Center's construction are made up of at least 20% recycled content and were manufactured in this area.
View a video about the new facility at the Gwinnett Tech Foundation.
Print this