From the Dean’s Office

The College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology (CEAT) is continuing its transformation as a leading innovator in education. Expanding to high-tech, hands-on lab facilities, increasing enrollment and growing programs all contribute to the changing face of the college.

Over the past year, the college has seen significant developments and continued opportunities for innovative education. Mechanical and aerospace engineers now have an opportunity for hands-on application in an MD-80 aircraft donated by American Airlines. The aircraft has been retrofitted into a lab for students and teachers of all ages and disciplines to explore and understand how engineering and technology affect everyday life.

CEAT has made a global impact by hosting the National Engineering Forum’s Council on Competiveness, bringing thought leaders from industry, academia and legislature together to discuss the importance of engineering’s future in the economy. The region’s leading CEOs, presidents and elected officials joined national leaders in Stillwater to establish the next steps toward maintaining the United States’ competitive advantage in energy and manufacturing.

Our student population continues to grow with enrollment reaching record numbers — 4,158 undergraduates this fall. Top talent consistently finds its way to OSU, and the increase in scholastic achievement has allowed CEAT to expand its scholarship programs to meet the demands of such a talented pool of students.

The college’s top priority is the CEAT Undergraduate Laboratory Building. OSU President Burns Hargis and the OSU Regents are demonstrating the university’s dedication to the future of CEAT through support for the new lab, with a matching commitment of nearly $20 million. The new 72,000-squarefoot lab will include 14 testing, prototyping and experimental labs, multidisciplinary senior design space and a two-story test arena. Construction is set to begin at the end of 2016 with a groundbreaking ceremony on Oct.22 at the building’s future site, between the Advanced Technology Research Center and the Architecture Building, adjacent to Boone Pickens Stadium. The lab spaces are designed to foster interdisciplinary projects through flexible spaces that can adapt to a broad range of experiments. The building itself will also serve as a learning laboratory with exposed building systems, energy monitoring, a solar balcony lab, renewable energy charging stations and student access to the inner workings of the facility.

Alumni support for the building has been good. Several leadership gifts have been established. Alumni leaders like Mark and Beth Brewer have provided a major gift to name an electrical engineering lab.

That gift was matched by OSU funds to create a world-class teaching and innovation lab for OSU students and high school summer programs. The estate of Blair Stone has done the same for a mechanical engineering laboratory with the matching OSU investment. An energy company has added an even larger gift to facilitate student success in the new lab. You can read more about this pivotal project and ways to impact tomorrow’s engineers, architects and technologists in the pages that follow.

The OSU Foundation and I have recently established the CEAT Dean’s Club, which is made up of a distinguished group of CEAT supporters who have made significant investments in the college’s priority projects. Those who have given more than $250,000 in their lifetime to the college or $5,000 annually to either the CEAT Fund or Engineering Building Fund receive membership and exclusive benefits — including a $2,500 scholarship in their name funded by a generous CEAT benefactor awarded to a CEAT student in the upcoming academic school year. The support of the group is vital our success and makes a significant impact on every aspect of the college.

On behalf of OSU and CEAT, I thank you for your support. The college could not be at the forefront of innovation without the investment of alumni, friends, industry partners and people like you.

Go Pokes!