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The University of Windsor’s Board of Governors approved budget and design plans for the new $112-million Centre for Engineering Innovation (CEI), to be located at the corner of Wyandotte St. and California Ave. The Board also approved immediate tendering for construction of a service tunnel to support the project.
President Alan Wildeman said “the CEI will provide our students with an extraordinary facility within which to learn and to see engineering in action. It will provide laboratories and research facilities where emerging priorities such as environmental sustainability, alternative energy, nanostructure, lighter materials, and more efficient manufacturing systems can be addressed. The Windsor-Essex region will benefit from the immediate economic stimulus of the construction, and the vital long-term stimulus of graduates, research, and industrial partnerships that can help translate new ideas into economic value.”
The 300,000 sq. ft. CEI facility will focus on research and development and will include an Industrial Courtyard that will team the University, business and other partners in an environment to facilitate a direct connection between education, research, and industrial innovation.
“Engineering students will have a unique opportunity to work with companies and researchers to test ideas, solve problems, and develop strategies for translating ideas into commercially viable processes,” said Graham Reader, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering. “Work at the CEI will also ensure that employers have a steady flow of highly qualified, locally educated graduates with practical technological and leadership skills.”
As well, the CEI will provide opportunities for local entrepreneurs in the machine tool, die and mould industries to access qualified people and research to enlarge and develop their businesses to address future needs of industry. Work at the CEI is expected to create spin-off industries and lead to an increased number of industrial research partnerships, while attracting greater levels of research funding.
The project is expected to have a total direct and indirect economic stimulus impact in Ontario and Canada of $270 million over three years, in addition to the creation of 1,632 construction jobs. As well, the CEI will help Ontario maintain its position as one of the leading global intellectual centres in the environmental and automotive sectors for research, design, development and testing of systems, vehicles and technology.
The CEI will be the largest Gold Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) building in the region. LEED is a nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings. Designed by B+H Architects, the CEI will be constructed of recycled materials where possible, and will feature a green roof, water recycling, low-energy heating and other sustainability systems. It will be a living building, where students can learn from the electrical, mechanical, civil and environmental engineering systems displayed throughout the structure. B+H Architects have hired JPT Management as project managers and Windsor’s Mike D’Maio as local architect.
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