The new addition to the College of Aeronautics and Engineering building will be honoring its new two-story atrium to the Timken Foundation of Canton. 

Christina Bloebaum, the dean of the College of Aeronautics and Engineering, said the 42,000-square-foot addition is 80% of the size of the existing 55,000-square-foot building.

“It’s essentially a whole new building,” she said. 

The total cost for the building was $19.6 million and the groundbreaking ceremony, which was held on Oct. 1, was able to advance thanks to a $1.5 million gift from the Timken Foundation of Canton. 

Bloebaum said that the College of Aeronautics and Engineering has seen a growth increase of almost 54% in freshman enrollment since 2018 and 6% of the growth took place during the pandemic. 

“Our enrollment continues to climb, and it will continue because we have very unique programs that are in demand,” Bloebaum said. “And so, this facility will allow us to serve our students in the way they need to be served, with the kind of facilities they need to complete their work.” 

The Addition 

The first floor contains a 49-seat reconfigurable pod classroom, a 120-seat auditorium, the new fabrication lab, a two-story atrium, maker space featuring 3D printers, an innovation lab and a snack bar. 

The top floor includes faculty and staff offices, along with a new dean suite, but the main feature of this floor is the cyber domain. The cyber domain will include a virtual reality and cyber research lab. It will also include a networking lab, a server lab and a space dedicated to e-sports. 

Bloebaum said the bottom floor is called the “bot bunker” because everything on the bottom floor is about mechatronics, robotics and autonomous systems. 

The building should be finished in the spring of 2023 and open for students in the fall of 2023.

 Liam Morrison is a reporter. Contact him at [email protected].