Oakland University breaks ground on new engineering center

Responding to increased demand for the world-class engineering instruction it offers, Oakland University will break ground today on a $74.6 million engineering center scheduled to open in August 2014.

This 127,000-square-foot facility will house Oakland's School of Engineering and Computer Science, which this fall alone has seen a 20 percent jump in undergraduate enrollment and an 18 percent jump in graduate student enrollment.

The Engineering Center will include state-of-the-art instructional, research and development space designed to foster student learning and creativity that will ultimately boost U.S. global competitiveness in alternative energy, health care, biomedical, automotive, defense and other high-tech industries.

The groundbreaking comes on the heels of the recent grand opening of Oakland’s 172,000-square foot Human Health Building. The Human Health Building is the new home of OU's highly acclaimed School of Nursing and School of Health Sciences, and marks the fourth completed academic building the university has added in the last 13 years.