College Opens First All-Student Makerspace

WWHILE FUNDRAISING FOR the upcoming Student Design and Innovation Center ramps up, college leaders have opened an Engineering Design Center to meet immediate needs for student workspace.

Within the next few years, the 100,000-square-foot SDIC – 50% bigger than the Bear Down Building and with half the assignable footage of McKale Memorial Center – will become the public face of the College of Engineering.

The SDIC, prominently located on Speedway Boulevard, will provide collaborative classrooms and a student advising center. It also will be home for student clubs and organizations, with building and design spaces for student projects in direct support of the UA’s commitment to experiential learning.

In the meantime, engineering leaders opened a collegewide makerspace on Feb. 1 near the university’s Main Gate at Park Avenue and University Boulevard. The 5,000-square-foot Engineering Design Center is available to all engineering students.

“All engineering students now have 24hour access to a spacious, well-equipped, safe place to collaborate and build. The Engineering Design Center is advancing the college’s goals to provide the facilities our students need to succeed in and out of the classroom,” said David W. Hahn, the Craig M. Berge Dean.

The biggest need is for seniors doing Interdisciplinary Capstone projects, said Larry Head, director of the Craig M. Berge Engineering Design Program.

“We are creating a culture of students being practical and able to build their designs, do testing, fail and try again. A lot is learned from iterating on designs,” he said.

Funding for the EDC’s equipment and three-year lease came from the Technology and Research Initiative Fund, which is overseen by Research, Innovation and Impact at the University of Arizona.

THE NATIONAL INSTITUTES of Health awarded University of Arizona researchers a $2 million grant to help purchase an advanced 3-Tesla MRI instrument for studying the human brain. The UA will be among the first institutions in the country to receive the new model, which is manufactured by Siemens Healthineers and scheduled for delivery in fall 2023. The system’s advanced hardware will produce clearer and more comprehensive images of the brain with greater speed. The UA Office of Research, Innovation and Impact is contributing $1.14 million to cover the costs above the NIH cap of $2 million.

“The new instrument will be the most powerful FDA-approved 3T MRI instrument in the world, allowing researchers to obtain the most detailed images possible,” said Ted Trouard, professor emeritus of biomedical engineering, professor of medical imaging, and principal investigator of the grant. “It will dramatically enhance current research projects and enable new research directions and discoveries.”

MRI machines have become essential in brain science research because they provide a noninvasive, safe way to obtain detailed images of the brain. But there is currently only one MRI facility on the UA campus dedicated solely to research purposes, and it’s booked for use every day from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Thus, in addition to allowing for faster scanning, higher resolution and higher fidelity, the new MRI machine will help research teams in fields including health sciences, psychology and engineering expedite their research. Eighteen investigators working on nearly two dozen projects already have plans for how to use the instrument.

“This machine will enable faculty to create new knowledge and diagnostics, as well as helping develop therapies for neurological and cognitive disorders,” said Jennifer Barton, director of the BIO5 and professor of biomedical engineering.