Latest Reports

While the drive to revamp engineering education continues to gather steam, the bold approach pioneered by the U.K.’s first new university in four decades is more revolutionary than evolutionary. Describing itself as “an unprecedented opportunity to inspire and teach a new generation of engineering talent,” New Model in Technology & Education (NMiTE) will debut with innovations such as a three-year degree program, unconventional admissions criteria, a mandate for gender balance, and a facilities design that won’t be finalized until students give it a trial run.

Eli Lilly and Company embarked on a year-long process to create a new collaborative and flexible space model dubbed CoLAB. In order to achieve the flexibility they aim for, Lilly is employing the use of ceiling infrastructure and innovative fume hoods, the design of which ultimately saved hundreds of thousands of dollars. CoLAB’s purpose is to collocate previously separated groups into a new research campus, specifically stressing collaboration, innovation, and speed-to-market of new therapies. The initiative is designed to address constraints caused by both geographic separation and aging facilities in the Small Molecule Design and Development (SMDD) organization, the group that is responsible for the scale-up work that acts as the bridge between research and manufacturing.

Vanderbilt University’s new Engineering and Science Building (ESB) brings the physical sciences and engineering together to expand interdisciplinary research in biomedical engineering, energy, and materials; recruit faculty in areas of nanotechnology and environmental engineering; and create a new undergraduate research-focused culture on campus.

The visually stunning, environmentally sustainable Cornell Tech graduate school opened this September on New York’s Roosevelt Island—a 12-acre stretch of land in the middle of the East River between Manhattan and Queens—creating what is intended to be a leading hub for technology education and business innovation in the center of the city. The new school was developed in response to a competition announced in 2010 by former mayor Michael Bloomberg to develop an applied-sciences and technology campus that could diversify the city’s economy beyond its traditional finance, advertising, and media sectors. Ideally, this new institution will transform NYC into the Silicon Valley of the east.

The Don & Cathy Jacobs Science Building at the University of Kentucky integrates multiple disciplines under one roof, for both teaching and research. The facility is designed to encourage discovery and support problem-based learning, with state-of-the-art undergraduate chemistry, biology, and neuroscience facilities; 12 technology-enhanced active learning (TEAL) environments; large tiered lecture halls; classrooms; and learning center spaces.