Media Contacts:
Kathi McBlief, College of Engineering, 919/515-2283
Mick Kulikowski, News Services, 919/515-3470

Oct. 23, 2003

NC State to Break Ground on Bond-Funded Engineering Building

North Carolina State University officials will break ground at 3 p.m. Friday, Oct. 24 on a new building that marks the second phase of relocating the College of Engineering to Centennial Campus.

The $35 million new facility – Engineering Building II – will house the Department of Computer Science and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Chancellor Marye Anne Fox and Dr. Nino A. Masnari, dean of the College of Engineering, will speak at the groundbreaking ceremony, to be held on the top level of the parking deck adjacent to the Red Hat building on Varsity Drive, overlooking the construction site.

Thomas McPherson, former president and CEO of Hatteras Networks and a recipient of bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from NC State, will be the keynote speaker. Following the ceremony, officials will walk to the construction site for a photo session. Other dignitaries, including members of the North Carolina General Assembly, are also expected to attend. Examples of faculty and student research will be on display at a reception on the first floor of the Red Hat building following the ceremony.

Media coverage is invited.

The project is funded by the University of North Carolina Higher Education Bond Referendum, passed in 2000, which provides $3.1 billion to North Carolina institutes of higher education. Construction is scheduled for completion in 2005.

The new building will have about 210,000 gross square feet of space, providing modern classrooms, state-of-the-art laboratories and offices. An oval green space will front the building.

The Department of Computer Science is one of the nation’s largest and fastest-growing computer science departments, with about 1,300 students. Its faculty includes 11 current
National Science Foundation (NSF) Career Award winners. The department focuses on emerging technologies such as optical networking, agent technology, e-commerce and information assurance.

The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering has about 1,500 students and has seven current NSF Career Award winners on its faculty. The department focuses on communications and signal processing, computer architecture and systems, intelligent systems and bioengineering, and nanoelectronics.

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