NC State's Centennial Campus Unveils Latest Academic Building for Engineering Students

RALEIGH, NC, September 18, 2010 (Press-News.org) The latest building to open on NC State's Centennial Campus is an engineering student's dream. With state-of-the-art laboratories and equipment, the 248,000-square-foot building features two wind tunnels and Centennial's first green roof.

"This is just one more indication of the importance of engineering on Centennial Campus," said Dennis Kekas, associate vice chancellor of the Centennial Campus Partnership Office. "The collaboration opportunities this provides our corporate, governmental and non-profit partners is enormous."

This is the third building to be constructed on Centennial specifically for NC State's College of Engineering. About two-thirds of the College is now located on campus. Engineering Building III will house two departments: the joint NC State-UNC Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Both programs offer undergraduate and graduate degrees.

The building was designed by Perkins+Will, Inc. architects and built by SKANSKA USA Building. It sits on the north side of campus and will eventually be flanked by the James B. Hunt, Jr. Library, currently under construction and expected to be completed by 2012.

About NC State's College of Engineering
The College of Engineering is the largest college at the university with more than 8,000 students. It ranks fourth in the country in the number of undergraduate engineering students (6,000) and sixth in the number of bachelor degrees awarded. The College has ore than 250 tenured or tenure-track faculty members, 10 of which are members of the National Academy of Engineering. Annually, the annual research expenditures of the College exceed $128 million. http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/

About Centennial Campus and NC State University
Centennial Campus is an internationally recognized 1,314-acre research park and technology campus owned and operated by North Carolina University. Home to more than 60 corporate, government and non-profit partners, such as Red Hat, ABB, and the USDA, collaborative research projects vary from nanofibers and secure open systems technology to serious gaming and biomedical engineering. Four university college programs also have a significant presence on campus - College of Engineering, College of Veterinary Medicine, College of Textiles and the College of Education. NC State is one of the top research universities in the country, with expenditures in research approaching more than $325 million annually. The university ranks third among all public universities (without medical schools) in industry-sponsored research expenditures. http://www.centennial.ncsu.edu

Centennial Campus is a 1,314-acre technology research park and campus owned and operated by NC State University. For more information, contact Gene Pinder, director of marketing, at (91) 515-7036.