The University of Michigan Board of Regents approved the most recent project plans, schematic designs, and architectural renderings of a next-generation mechanical engineering research complex.
This new three-story complex is an approximately 63,000-square-foot addition to the G.G. Brown Laboratories on Hayward Street on North Campus. It will be a state-of-the-art facility dedicated to a wide spectrum of research activities where mechanical engineering intersects with emerging technologies. Example activities include nanoscale metrology, single-molecule bioengineering, nanoscale energy conversion, nanomanufacturing and nano/micro electromechanical systems (NEMS/MEMS) for medical research and diagnostics. This $46-million facility is made possible in part by a $9.5 million grant from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
The building, including one level below grade to house special ultra-low vibration (ULV) laboratories, will include shared laboratory space together with faculty and graduate student offices. The special ULV facility will include eight specialized laboratory chambers designed to meet NIST specifications for ultra-low vibration laboratories with temperature and humidity control as well as low-particulate, filtered air. In addition to the ULV labs, the facility will have laboratories dedicated to imaging and optics; biosystems; nanoengineering; micro-bioengineering; materials, mechanics and mechanical testing; microdynamics and nanostructures.
Construction is expected to start in 2011 and finish in 2013.
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The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by the U-M Mechanical Engineering Department) from materials provided by Michigan Engineering.
