To further enhance collaboration, extensive renovations in Acopian Engineering Center are designed to bring people together and encourage intellectual unions.
A highly collaborative organization or team is more than just the sum of its parts; it can respond better to changing opportunities and challenges, is able to leverage talent more effectively by incorporating more varied perspectives, uses resources more effectively, and is more able to meet stakeholder needs. These benefits are every bit as applicable in engineering education as they are in a business or nonprofit environment.
Lafayette’s engineering programs are advancing the concepts of enhanced collaboration in a variety of ways. At the course level, students are working on cross-functional teams from first-year courses through senior-year capstone design projects, ranging from electric cars to biotechnology.
Lafayette has recently made a major step in collaborative education through its new interdisciplinary engineering degree by focusing on the intersections of traditional disciplines. Students may choose among bioengineering, robotics, environmental engineering, and energy where each of these topics spans multiple traditional fields and only through collaboration can they be thoroughly explored. The new Bachelor of Science (B.S.) of Engineering will use a systems analysis approach as the foundation for the program across all of the focus areas.
To further enhance collaboration, extensive renovations are taking place and are planned in Acopian Engineering Center. New spaces are designed to organically bring people together. They are inviting and inclusive to encourage intellectual unions and foster community building.
The first phase of the renovation project, completed during summer 2019, includes three new computer labs, three collaboration spaces, and two multidisciplinary laboratories. This phase serves as the prototype for future phases and incorporates energy-efficient LED lighting, modern aesthetics, and improved restroom facilities.
Phase two will bring a dramatic change to Acopian Engineering Center with the expansion of the fifth floor. Currently, the fifth floor does not extend to the east side of the facility. Through a generous donor gift, a 4,000-square-foot addition will be constructed that will add three high-tech classrooms and a glass collaboration center.
Along with the fifth-floor expansion, future phases will include a remodeled entryway equipped with a digital information wall and leading-edge laboratories in robotics and bioengineering. Casual study areas with natural light will be built throughout the facility to create inviting and open areas for students to learn and collaborate. The renovation and expansion represent the first facility-wide construction project since the 2002 renovation made possible by the Acopian family. The gift from Sarkis Acopian ’51 and Bobbye Acopian significantly upgraded the facility to a modern engineering education center and positioned Lafayette engineering to make these next steps in engineering education.