Brigham Young University will hold an upcoming groundbreaking ceremony for the newly planned, 200,000-square-foot Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering and Technology building. The groundbreaking is May 9.
“When this building is complete, we believe it will positively benefit students, faculty and, ultimately, the world,” BYU President Kevin J Worthen said.
The new $80 million engineering building has been completely funded by donations from more than 18,000 alumni and other supporters. Other contributions have been made by the College of Life Sciences, the Department of Continuing Education and BYU Print and Mail.
“We are pleased and profoundly grateful that, with the support of so many, the fundraising goal for the building was reached,” said Alan Parkinson, dean of the Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering and Technology. “Alumni and friends of the college have stepped up in major way and other BYU colleges and departments have generously helped.”
Parkinson explained that plans for the new building will offer engineering students unique learning opportunities that they didn’t have before.
“For one, we’ve grown a lot. When the Clyde building was completed, we had 1,400 students and we now have 4,000,” Parkinson said.
Because engineering is a hands-on discipline, students need more space to do projects and meet as teams, according to Parkinson. In order to meet this need, the designs for the building feature an innovation center, team rooms and research laboratories.
Once the construction is completed, the new building will connect to the Clyde building. The two buildings will function together as a system to support engineering students.
Construction is planned to be complete by Fall 2018. Groundbreaking ceremonies will be live-streamed at http://engineeringbuilding.byu.edu/livestream.
