PRAIRIE VIEW A&M OPENS $70 MILLION ENGINEERING & RESEARCH BUILDING

  

Prairie View A&M University has opened a new, $70 million engineering classroom and research building.

The university held a grand opening on Thursday for the new facility, which is the sixth building to be added to the Roy G. Perry College of Engineering complex. 

A majority of the 106,000-square-foot building is dedicated to classroom instruction with six generalized classrooms and 14 specialized labs.  The lab spaces support multidisciplinary research in fields such as space exploration, data analytics and artificial intelligence, robotics, structural analysis and 3-D manufacturing. 

The facility also houses research lab space for faculty and graduate students.  In addition, it is one of few in the nation to have a microgravity drop tower for research in space-related conditions. 

Dr. Pamela Obiomon, Dean of the College of Engineering, said the building “provides state-of-the-art technical spaces that support hands-on learning and research activities that are critical to the field of engineering.” 

The building is the College of Engineering’s first new facility in nearly two decades, during which time enrollment has nearly doubled to over 1,100 students and more than 100 faculty members, researchers and staff.

Prairie View A&M University President Dr. Tomikia LeGrande said the university is “among the top in the nation to produce the highest number of some of the brightest people in the world.”  She said its commitment to discovery, innovation and new knowledge is “how you improve society.”