Wichita State’s new engineering building opens on Innovation Campus

Wichita State University President John Bardo sees the new engineering building on campus as a metaphorical billboard — or, for those in Gen Z, a metaphorical promoted post in their Facebook feed.

The Experiential Engineering Building is an ad, in a way, for the university, its engineering program and for Bardo’s efforts to make the university an economic development engine for Wichita.

And those efforts are progressing nicely. The building — already dubbed the EEB — is now done and students and classes are in the process of moving in.

At 143,000 square feet, it’s big and – with a spacious see-through lobby, brand-new equipment and lots of windows – it’s nice. It has three floors, 25 laboratories and a whole wing devoted to Go Create, an open-to-the-public space full of wood, metal and textile crafting machines.

The building and equipment cost $32 million, which includes the Go Create space. The building was paid for with a state grant to promote engineering education and with bonds repaid by WSU’s local property tax levy.

No general student tuition money was used in constructing or equipping the building, although engineering student fees were used to fund equipment. Koch Industries is funding scholarships and operation and safety classes at Go Create.

The building is different from the university’s other engineering building, Bardo said. It fronts on 17th Street, rather than internally to the campus, to show that it serves both the college and the community.

On Tuesday, the building was open for students and faculty to drop by. Amid the WSU-iced doughnuts, sandwiches and coffee, there were plenty of congratulations and wondering comments.

“There’s some really impressive technology around; I can’t wait to spend some time in the virtual reality lab,” said Andrew Stuewe, who was munching on a sandwich in the lobby.

Spacious labs

A tour of the building shows spacious room after spacious room, although spacious, perhaps, because they aren’t yet fully equipped.

The labs are for technical engineering stuff: metrology, manufacturing processes, controls, aerospace propulsion, aeronautics, virtual instrumentation, thermal and fluids engineering, mechanobiology and biomedicine, biodevices and imaging, and more.

There’s a Vehicle Design Lab for WSU’s two SAE design and build race teams: SAE Baja and SAE Formula. This lab houses a machine shop and a state-of-the-art engine test stand.

There are several “hubs,” labs with a more general function that can’t be reserved for a class. The plan is that a range of people will drop in to use the computers or metal milling machines for projects.

The hope, said Engineering Dean Royce Bowden, is that the hubs will encourage people in different programs, or even adventurous non-engineers, to work together.

For instance, in the Project Innovation Hub, students can use state-of-the-art manufacturing machinery to create any kind of engineering project. Another is the gaming and flight simulation hub, filled with computers from Cybertron International made in Wichita.

Cybertron supplied $2.5 million worth of computers and equipment in the building, and it shows: Cool-looking yellow and black WSU-branded computers can be seen throughout the building.

Go Create

The public piece of the building is the Go Create makerspace. This is a wing of the building filled with machines that will cut and shape metal, wood, plastics and foam for a serious hobby or a side business. There’s also welding, textiles and vinyl graphics shops, a 3-D printer and rooms to rent. There is help in learning how to use the machines.

The intent is to give people the tools to let their skills and imagination run. The ultimate hope, said school officials, is to provide a place where entrepreneurs can build prototypes, allow people to work in a small side business or allow artists to create.

For the $125-a-month fee, members have access to all of those machines seven days a week. For the right person, it’s a terrific deal, said facility manager Ken Wiseman. Scholarships will also be available, he said.

“For $125 a month, they get access to more than $1 million worth of equipment and software,” Wiseman said. “It’s a great value.”

Go Create will have a soft opening in about a month and a formal opening in early April. There will be marketing efforts closer to that time, he said.

Innovative zone

The Experiential Engineering Building is one of just two university-owned academic buildings planned for the Innovation Campus.

The only other building completed and open now is the Airbus building, which is owned by private investors. All of the land is owned by the university.

The streets and utilities are nearing completion. A privately owned apartment building with 112 units and the city/county law enforcement training center is under construction. WSU will contribute toward the law enforcement building’s operating cost.

Airbus is the first of what plans say are perhaps nine privately developed corporate offices, plus more hotels, apartments or other uses. A privately owned retail and restaurant development at 21st and Oliver is planned.

Other than developing the master plan, Bardo said WSU isn’t building or paying for any of that.

The school does plan to build a new business school on the campus at some point.

Bardo said the university is trying to develop a zone of innovative companies that want to connect to the university’s faculty and students, to encourage business expansion in Wichita. Ultimately, he said, there could be 2,000 to 3,000 private-sector workers on campus.

That would drive new housing and amenities, and create new internship and job opportunities that attract students. It’s a virtuous cycle.

“We’re trying to create a university zone that causes students that want to be here, and this is part of it,” Bardo said.

“As we get more people around, there will be more restaurants that want to open here and make a profit, and our students get better service, which means they go home and tell their friends that Wichita State is a cool place to be, and that increases the number of students.”

This story was originally published January 18, 2017 at 7:07 PM with the headline "Wichita State’s new engineering building opens on Innovation Campus."