STORRS -- The heavy machinery was in motion on Discovery Drive on the UConn campus Tuesday as a celebration was held in honor of the progress made on the Innovation Partnership Building that is under construction.
The school held a "topping off ceremony," which signifies the symbolic completion of the structural phase of the building. The new addition to campus will be 115,000 square feet and largely focus on STEM-based learning and research.
"This is such an exciting day," said Mun Choi, the former dean of the UConn Engineering School and now the provost. "This will enable our students to seek more opportunities right here in Connecticut."
The building is a $132 million project, $85 million of which was kicked in by corporate partners like UTC, Pratt and Whitney, Comcast and Eversource. The companies hope that investing in local engineers will help grow the aerospace and engineering fields right here in Connecticut.
Susan Herbst, UConn's president said, "It is definitely the future of innovation in the U.S., getting corporate partners to work with academics and share their knowledge."
Herbst greeted dozens of faculty, state leaders, and the construction workers to recognize what is a milestone in the construction of the building. "We graduate all these wonderful students in the STEM field and we'd like them to have jobs here and that will take innovation, leadership, and research."
The new Innovation Building will offer more programs in cyber security, material science, and bioscience. The building is set for completion sometime in the spring of 2017.
