“This Innovation Annex,” said University President Mark R. Nemec, PhD, just before he cut the ribbon to the new facility, “is another stake in the ground on our path towards national prominence. If you’re going to be a great, modern, Jesuit Catholic university, you need to have a great, modern, Jesuit Catholic engineering school. This is a massive step forward for the School of Engineering, and for the University as well.”

The opening ceremony for the Annex, hosted by School of Engineering Dean Andres Leonardo Carrano PhD, and President Nemec, included alumni from the former Bridgeport Engineering Institute, as well as faculty and friends of the school. “May it be a place where students work, study, collaborate, recreate, experiment, and innovate,” intoned Rev. Gerry Blaszczak, S.J., in his consecration prayer. “In this space, replace ego with the joy of collaboration.”

Dr. Carrano echoed these sentiments when he talked about the principles guiding the formation of the new space. “The first principle was that it had to be student-centric. Every space in the facility was designed with a student activity in mind and with input from our students,” he said, adding that the space is also to be monitored and managed by students. “This somewhat unique model is proven to lower barriers for access and increases belonging. The last principle is that since there are no boundaries to creativity and innovation, we should not limit this facility to classroom homework and projects, but rather open it to the design, incubation, and prototyping of just about any idea our students can come up with.”

The newly refurbished annex includes a makerspace lab housing resin-based, filament-based, and composite-based 3D printers, lathes, and milling machines, plus a design studio where students can collaborate on projects. Another area is for student clubs and professional societies including the Stags Racing team, Engineers Without Borders, the Society of Women in Engineering (SWE), the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), and many others.

In the advanced biomechanics lab, John Drazan, PhD, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, and two of his graduate research students exhibited some of the equipment they have been developing, including a custom instrumented walking pole.

Naser Haghbin, PhD, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and director of the Innovation Annex, said his main focus is to make sure the students are safe and can use the equipment properly, but stressed that the site is their own. “The beauty of this space is that we can have both students and teaching assistants here. Students working on a senior design project, or those working on a master’s level project, can collaborate,” he said, adding that he hopes to bring in outside speakers as well.

Among other events, the Innovation Annex recently hosted StagHack — an annual healthcare “hackathon,” the SOE’s “Walk on Water” flagship design competition, and vehicle building activities.