Ribbon Cutting at Southern Polytechnic State University

April 26, 2011 – Southern Polytechnic State University officially unveiled its new $30 million EngineeringTechnologyCenter today. Completed in January, the ribbon-cutting ceremonies were postponed due to the record ice storm earlier this year.

The three-story, 123,000-square-foot building now houses many of the university's engineering and engineering technology students and faculty under one roof.

Shan Cooper, the new vice president of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics and general manager of Lockheed's Marietta plant, delivered the official remarks at the ceremony.

SPSU is the only public university in  Georgia  offering a degree in mechatronics engineering – the integration of mechanical and electrical engineering disciplines with an infusion of computer science and software engineering. The EngineeringTechnologyCenter houses this program, in addition to all of the other engineering and engineering technology programs in SPSU's School of Engineering Technology & Management and Division of Engineering. All told, SPSU offers a total of 13 undergraduate engineering and engineering technology degree programs, and three graduate engineering and engineering technology programs.

In addition to classrooms, faculty offices, computer labs and an auditorium, the building features a large number of highly specialized spaces: an energy/HVAC lab, a fluid mechanics lab, a strength-of-materials lab, a metrology lab, an electromagnetics lab, a computer-integrated manufacturing lab, an automotive lab, engineering graphics labs, a biomedical lab and a machine shop.

The campus' newest facility is on track to receive silver-level LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, as are all recent additions to the SPSU campus.

Students began attending classes and labs in the new facility
on Jan. 10.

Quick Facts

• Design professional: Cooper Carry & Associates
• Construction Professional: DPR Construction
• GSFIC Project Manager: Anja Mathews, SPSU graduate
• GSFIC Contract Compliance Specialist: Van Taylor