Facilities
In the past, the College of Engineering had facilities that looked like many others around the country. Recently, however, we've made great strides in creating a laboratory environment that enables us to fulfill one of our goals - to create a "Design-Build-Test" environment for our students. Many universities around the country concentrate on the design and theory side, whereas we believe in creating the whole student. A student needs theory, computational tools, and experimentation embedded within design. The Design-Build-Test philosophy does two things, it enables theory, computation, design, fabrication, and experimentation in the classroom, but it also mimics industrial practice to make our students ready to hit the ground running as they enter the workforce.
With a Design-Build-Test philosophy students need facilities to put it into practice. Over the last few years we have added infrastructure to make this happen. The King Engineering and Technology Center has been remodeled to incorporate more computing and the freshman engineering classes, which are based around design.
The Wind Tunnel facility has been modernized and a propulsion lab and fluid/thermo lab have been added. Academic Complex I was recently added, which is focused around design space and Computer Aided Design for our engineering students. In the Fall of 2006 the AXFAB complex opened. The acronym stands for "Aerospace Experimentation and Fabrication Building", which describes the intent of the building. Its focus is on providing an environment for students to build and test aerospace components.
Since the College of Engineering at the Prescott Campus offers only a bachelor's degree, our laboratories are used solely by the undergraduate students. This liberal access to the lab facilities is a great advantage for our students.
