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prawled out in chairs
in Grand Canyon
University’s newly
expanded Lopes Lab, a
group of students jotted
ideas on a floor-to-
ceiling whiteboard with
red and blue markers as
they brainstormed intently.
Across the lab, Brock Nelson, a senior
Entrepreneurial Studies major, peered table-
level at his skateboard as he carefully fitted it
with Legos, pipe cleaners and clay. His goal, he
said, is to build a model for a skateboard lock.
“If he attaches the (wheel assembly) truck and
the board together, they can’t be taken apart,”
said Ben Encinas, engineering lab coordinator.
Though at different stages of the creative
process, Nelson and the brainstorming bunch
were taking steps toward a similar goal:
making products that solve problems and can
be engineered on campus.
With the much anticipated opening of GCU’s
new engineering wing, models like Nelson’s can
be transformed into larger-scale prototypes in
engineering machine shops and labs.
After years of planning and construction,
the College of Science, Engineering and
Technology is prepared to officially unveil the
engineering wing of Building 1, adding an
important piece to the academic environment
of the campus. The east-west
section of the enormous
L-shaped building will welcome
students in January for the start
of spring semester.
“We are championing a very
intensive, hands-on experience
with new shops and labs that
correspond to our teaching
technique,” said CSET Associate
Dean Dr. Michael Sheller, the
head of GCU’s two-year-old
engineering program.
He is also on the team of
faculty, staff, industry, architect
and laboratory consultants who
helped develop and nurture
the new engineering building from concept to
reality.
The four-story, 170,000-square-foot
structure is a giant, not only in sheer size
but also in the cutting-edge nature of the
sophisticated shops and labs in which
engineering majors and others can apply their
learning and create products as massive and
complex as they can imagine.
The engineering building is integral to
GCU’s goal to rise as an Arizona mecca for
science, technology, engineering and math
(STEM), a University whose top-notch faculty
prepare highly trained students to help fill a
void in STEM jobs and attract more top-tier
businesses to the state.
“It will be exciting to see the labs and
the machine shops come alive,” CSET Dean
Mark Wooden said. “It’s also exciting that our
engineering students are at the phase that they
are taking lab courses.”
Thriving Lopes Lab
Formerly part of the Colangelo College of
Business (CCOB), the Lopes Lab has been
integrated into the engineering department
while maintaining its entrepreneurial core. It’s
a place where students collaborate, tinker with
ideas and create concept models.
1 8 • GCU MAGAZ I NE
Sharp
and
cutting
edge
New engineering building gives students
the tools to build on their ideas
B Y L A U R I E M E R R I L L
The new 170,000-square-
foot engineering building,
scheduled to be fully open
in January, is an important
step in GCU's continuing
push in STEM education.