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The Tennessee Tech University College of Engineering is making major leaps forward in serving the next generation of engineers and computer scientists. Fueled by dramatic growth in research and enrollment and driven forward by new facilities and investments by the state of Tennessee, the college offers its students a bold future filled with promise as they fulfill their purpose.

The 100,000-sq.-ft. Ashraf Islam Engineering Building opened in fall 2024 with more than 1,000 people attending the grand opening ceremonies. The college will soon construct a companion building, the Advanced Construction and Manufacturing Engineering (ACME) building, creating a two-fold, innovative learning ecosystem that spans engineering and computer science education, research and industry projects to equip students to solve tomorrow’s challenges.

Ashraf Islam Engineering Building Grand Opening Ceremonies

› Ashraf Islam Engineering Building

› Advanced Construction and Manufacturing (ACME) Building


MAJOR LEAPS IN 2024

Record-setting research: The College of Engineering toppled its previous research record in 2024, garnering $42.7 million in new external awards for the fiscal year ending in June – a 650 percent increase since 2019.

The record-breaking year for research also saw a dramatic increase in average awards per tenured and tenure-track faculty, leaping 690 percent in the last five years to $577,000 per faculty. Research expenditures have tripled in that time period to $11.8 million, nearly doubling in the last year alone.

Record-breaking enrollment: The college set an all-time enrollment record in fall 2024, with 3,121 total students –representing an increase of nearly 10 percent over the previous fall. Enrollment of first-time freshmen grew 25.6 percent this year, to 760 students. .

New programs: The college launched a new Bachelor of Science in Nuclear Engineering beginning Fall 2024 to address a looming national shortage of nuclear engineers.

Ashraf Islam Engineering Building

Designed to reflect the interdisciplinary disciplinary nature of the modern engineering workplace, the 100,000-sq. ft. Ashraf Islam Engineering Building (AIEB) bridges engineering and computer science disciplines to offer students the opportunity to apply their skills outside of the classroom to solve complex engineering problems. The three-story structure with labs and classrooms surrounds a central atrium adjoined by a two-story student project space.

Instructional labs in the Ashraf Islam Engineering Building include:

  • Electric Vehicle Lab

  • Chem/Bio Lab

  • Vehicle Systems Lab

  • Cybersecurity Center

  • Mechatronics Lab

  • Agile Programming Lab

  • Vehicle Projects Lab: Baja, Formula SAE, Electric Formula, Lunar Rover, Intelligent Machines + Autonomous Systems

  • Measurements Lab

  • Computational Design Studio

  • Hydraulics Lab

  • Small Group Collaboration Rooms

Get a glimpse of the building with 3D architectural views:

 

Enjoy the architectural animation!

VIEW CONSTRUCTION WEBCAM PHOTOS

Advanced Construction and Manufacturing (ACME) Building

The 81,000-sq. ft. ACME Building will be devoted to “making” on a grand scale, featuring industry-grade instructional labs that include a smart foundry, manufacturing equipment, and construction facilities and equipment to provide students with experience in real-world practices in advanced manufacturing and construction, fabrication, machine learning and cyber-physical systems, industrial robotics, mechatronics, and concrete and steel manufacturing and testing.

Labs planned for the building include:

  • Advanced Foundry in a separately housed, 7,152-square-foot space for state-of-the-art metal casting and materials research, nearly doubling the size of the current foundry. 

  • Metallurgical Lab (within Foundry)

  • Casting Lab (within Foundry)

  • Advanced Manufacturing Lab for instruction and research in advanced manufacturing processes and techniques.

  • State-of-the-art PLC Lab and Robotics Lab for learning to automate and protect cyber-physical systems.

  • Machine Shop (10,303-sq. ft.) and Fabrication Lab (4,368-sq. ft.) to consolidate Tech's current machine and prototyping shops into one, open space with supporting equipment, such as welders, CNC mills, lathes, metal presses, metal tube benders, band saws, drill presses, 3D printers, water jets, laser engravers, and injection molding.

  • Computer Lab to support CAD/CAM 3D modeling work for manufacturing.

  • Material Formulation and Characterization Labs (4,000-square-foot interior plus exterior demonstration yard) for students and faculty to learn and research construction materials (concrete and soils) from the nano- to macro-scale using a wide variety of instrumentation to enable the next generation of construction materials and practices.

  • Load Frame Tensile Testing Lab (2,286-square-foot) is a user facility and learning space to investigate material behavior under a wide range of testing conditions, housing equipment such as multiple electromechanical and servo hydraulic universal testing machines, mechanical analyzers, and torsion and impact testers.

  • Structural Testing Lab will be a 4,000-square-foot open space for the testing of large structures, facilitated by a 28-foot tall, L-shaped reaction wall for horizontal testing (e.g., building walls) and a 15x15’ strong floor, which will allow horizontal testing of bridge elements up to 53 feet long.

  • Fabrication Lab

  • Flexible Research Lab

  • Metals – Plating and Coating labs

  • Center for Manufacturing Research Suite

  • Department of Manufacturing and Engineering Technology Suite

Tentative Project Timeline: Construction begins Summer 2026; construction completion TBD.

  • Breaking New Ground in Engineering Innovation

    Tennessee Tech University broke ground on its first new engineering facility in 50 years in September 2021. The 100,000-square-foot, $62 million Ashraf Islam Engineering Building will anchor Tennessee Tech’s engineering corridor and fuse innovation, smart building technology and a living water laboratory to foster interdisciplinary and collaborative learning while inspiring new generations of engineers.

    Designed to reflect the cross-disciplinary nature of the modern engineering workplace, the building will bridge artificial boundaries between disciplines to offer students the opportunity to apply their skills outside of the classroom to solve complex engineering problems.

    The Tech community kicked off construction with a groundbreaking ceremony to celebrate the history, legacy and future of the university’s flagship engineering programs and showing appreciation for donors and state support.

    Rendering image of Ashraf Islam Engineering Building

    Read details about the building and its groundbreaking in our newsroom:

     COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING BREAKS GROUND ON NEW $62M ENGINEERING BUILDING

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