Ashraf Islam Engineering Building

The Ashraf Islam Engineering Building already under construction is slated to open to students, faculty, and staff in Fall 2024.

Designed to reflect the interdisciplinary 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 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, Moon Buggy, Intelligent Machines + Autonomous Systems

• Measurements Lab

• Computational Design Studio

• Hydraulics Lab

• Small Group Collaboration Rooms

Tentative Project Timeline: Construction completion Spring 2027; open Fall 2024.

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

• Foyer

• Atrium

• Project wing 1st floor

• Project wing 2nd floor

• Main building 2nd floor main hall

• Main building 2nd floor balcony

• 2nd floor 12-person collaboration room

• Main building 3rd floor main hall/hydraulics lab

• Main building 3rd floor balcony

• Dean's suite conference room

Enjoy the architectural animation!

VIEW LIVE CONSTRUCTION WEBCAM

Advanced Construction and Manufacturing (ACME) Building

The State of Tennessee has approved the construction of an advanced construction and manufacturing engineering facility at Tennessee Tech and has provided capital funding of $57.4 million in Tennessee’s fiscal year 2022-2023 state budget toward project costs estimated .

The 81,000-sq. ft. ACME Building will be devoted to “making” on a grand scale, featuring industry-grade instructional labs that include a technologically advanced 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.

By paralleling the equipment requirements of industry in learning laboratories, ACME will exceed the capabilities typical in an academic setting and create a rare opportunity for industry-sponsored student and faculty projects while equipping students with current skills to create a career-ready workforce for the manufacturing and construction industry. The ACME Building’s industry-grade manufacturing spaces will also enrich and expand industry partnerships.

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 start Spring 2025; construction completion Spring 2027.