NEW PALTZ – SUNY New Paltz formally took the wraps off its new 19,500-square-foot Engineering Innovation Hub during a ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday near the center of the campus. Inside the two-story building will be classrooms, labs, faculty offices and conference rooms, and it will help with collaborative efforts between the campus and the community.
“It provides additional space for our mechanical engineering program, which is proving to be wildly popular in its third or fourth year. We have exceeded our enrollment targets,” said College President Donald Christian. “It builds on our growing initiative in STEM fields, our long tradition of the arts, brings that creativity to the arts to interplay with technology in really exciting ways to help address longstanding problems in new ways with design thinking and new ways of approaching issues and that is the kind of educational environment that we are trying to spur here.”
The Hudson Valley Additive Manufacturing Center, which is home to the campus’ 3D design and printing program, will also be housed in the building.
“It has served the region and the campus incredibly well. It’s kind of blending science, technology, engineering and mathematics with the arts,” said Christian. “We’re really excited about that collaboration.”
Christian said the new facility is expected to help with design thinking, new ways to approach issues and to solve problems.
“That’s the kind of educational environment we are trying to spur here.”
