Bright Future


[Dean Paul S. Peercy, College of Engineering] 

Improving the quality of life 
is something that is very important in the College of Engineering  
and is part of our culture.

[Professor Nicola J. Ferrier, Mechanical Engineering Department]

Well, some of the things that really excite us about the future,
especially being mechanical engineers, 
is that a lot of these applications require really rethinking 
some of the ways we do robots.

[Professor Tim Shedd, Mechanical Engineering Department]

I really like the physics that we are studying, 
the research topics.  
This is a very difficult problem with very real applications to society.  
I get excited about that.

[Dean Paul S. Peercy]

We've seen a lot of changes in engineering, in all disciplines, 
and especially in mechanical engineering and industrial engineering 
in the last twenty years.  
But I think the rate of change is accelerating.  
We can expect to see many more changes in the next twenty years as we go forward.

[Professor Neil A. Duffie, Chair, Mechanical Engineering Department]

Our students, who in the past would be just beginning users of computers, 
perhaps twenty or thirty years ago, 
now computers are involved in every aspect 
of the mechanical engineer's professional life.

[Professor Nicola J. Ferrier]

It's very important that students understand 
that the answers that you may have this year 
may be very different in ten years 
because technology is advancing at rates that shock most of us.

[Professor Neil A. Duffie]

And one of the things that we're so excited about 
is the new faculty that we brought on.  
We brought on ten new faculty in the last few years, 
all of whom are in absolutely critical and 
exciting areas that will be leading our department into the future.

[Dean Paul S. Peercy]

They bring to this campus a lot of excitement, enthusiasm, 
but an extremely powerful toolkit that 
tends to be much more interdisciplinary 
than the toolkit that a traditional mechanical engineer 
or industrial engineering faculty might have brought thirty years ago.

[Professor Tim Shedd]

If you took all the air conditioning and refrigeration systems 
in households in the United States, 
combined them and added up all that energy, 
and then saved just ten percent of that, 
that would be equivalent to all the energy generated 
in the state of Wisconsin every year.  
So our work is specifically aimed at cutting that energy cost.

[Professor Nicola J. Ferrier]

We're looking at the fuel systems that could be used to power robots, 
especially if we want to mount robots on a wheel chair,  
say, the robots have to be lighter
and their power source has to be a lot more reliable 
than, say, the current battery power.  
So these are things that engineers can really 
contribute to, particularly mechanical engineers.

[Professor Ben-Tzion Karsh, Industrial and Systems Engineering Department]

The Institute of Medicine, 
which is the equivalent of the National Academy of Engineering, 
in a recent report has actually called on industrial engineers 
and specifically human factors engineers, 
which is my specialty, 
to help solve the safety problem within healthcare 
because the people inside of healthcare don't understand how to redesign systems
and that is the industrial engineering specialty.

[Professor Harold J. Steudel, Chair, Industrial and Systems Engineering Department]

When we hire, or try to hire faculty, 
the two things that are most important to them are research opportunities 
and also the ability to communicate and interact with their fellow colleagues 
and having the space to do their research and work with their students.  
This is critically important to us.

[Dean Paul S. Peercy]

So major changes have happened between 1930 and 2003 or 2005, 
when we will occupy the rebuilt mechanical and industrial engineering space.  
And those changes require us to prepare the laboratory 
and classroom with state-of-the-art information technology infrastructure, 
research infrastructure, and teaching infrastructure 
to meet the needs of the students today 
and the research of tomorrow.  

[Professor Ben-Tzion Karsh]

Right now there are a lot of things, 
and there always will be in the field, 
that pop up that may have been unexpected. 
If we had modern research facilities 
to bring people in to do control trials in the beginning, 
many of those factors would be uncovered 
and it would allow us to do better science out in the field.

[Professor Nicola J. Ferrier]

From a teaching point of view 
I still think our classrooms also need to keep up.  
Right now, you know, we have very few classrooms that are 
equipped with all the computer networking equipment that we need.  
It will make it a lot easier for us to bring in demonstrations, 
a lot easier for us to demonstrate current software 
or current technical pieces of equipment that are usually hooked up to a computer, 
if we could just do it in the classroom easily.

[Professor Neil A. Duffie]

I am very impressed with how the design team has merged the essence 
and the history of the "old building" with a new addition 
and the renovation of the older parts of the building in such a way 
that it's going to be energy efficient 
and it's going to be so functional for supporting us as we 
move forward into the future over the next ten to twenty years, and beyond.

[Dean Paul S. Peercy]

One of the reasons that I took the design team to Georgia Tech 
to look at their buildings 
is, Georgia Tech has built five mechanical engineering 
and industrial engineering buildings 
in the last fifteen or so years 
and they seem to learn from their previous buildings 
and each one is a little better than the one before.  
And their most recent building is a model of flexible, 
reconfigurable space that can be reconfigured at low cost 
to meet the changing needs of mechanical engineering 
and industrial engineering.  
And we are very much modeling our building 
and new facilities on that concept.

The first phase of the construction 
will to be to demolish the "saw tooth" area 
and build a four-story structure 
in the courtyard area of the Mechanical Engineering Building.  
We will begin by building a full basement 
where we can put the heavy-duty laboratories for vibration, isolation, 
for temperature control, for engine research work on the ground floor, 
on the basement floor where it will be solid, stable 
and capable of holding the very heavy loads 
that we will need in that research.
After we complete the four-story courtyard structure 
we will then move the people from mechanical engineering 
and industrial engineering departments into that new facility 
and gut the Mechanical Engineering Building 
and rebuild it with state-of-the-art infrastructure 
and classroom and laboratory space.

[Professor Neil A. Duffie]

In order to attract the best students, researchers, and instructors, 
we need the kind of 21st century facility that will support their work 
and support their excellence.  

[Professor Tim Shedd]

That will require flexible lab space, 
access to the latest in computer technology, 
and other facilities infrastructure, 
and our current structure just doesn't really allow that.  
That's why this building program is so important for the future 
as well as the present of this department.

[Professor Nicola J. Ferrier]

Well, I think the mechanical engineering effort is gonna, you know, 
have to evolve with the times, 
and this building would be part of that evolution.  
I think in order for us to continue to grow 
and for our research to continue to grow 
the facilities have to keep up with technology 
and a modern building is certainly going to help us do that.

[Dean Paul S. Peercy]

We have a once in a lifetime opportunity 
to renovate the Mechanical Engineering Building 
because we have the new Engineering Centers Building 
that will serve as surge space 
that we can move faculty from mechanical engineering 
and industrial engineering 
as well as the students into, 
while we are building the building.  
So we have a once in a lifetime opportunity 
and we want to make sure that we do it right.

[Professor Neil A. Duffie]

The young faculty of today, 
we don't know what directions they are going to take 
and what the new technologies are going to be.  
But what we are confident of is that this building will serve them.

[Dean Paul S. Peercy]

I am very excited about this project 
because mechanical engineering has been a traditionally strong, 
key part of engineering 
and it is a very important part of the College of Engineering 
at the University of Wisconsin.
Industrial engineering is a growing area.  
Both these programs are very strong programs
and we want to provide them quality of space 
and the amount of space that they need to continue to be successful
as they engineer solutions to society's problems 
and educate the next generation of engineers.

Copyright 2004 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System