May 9, 2006

NC State Celebrates New Engineering Building on Centennial Campus

Engineering Building II houses the departments of Computer Science and Electrical and Computer Engineering. (Photo: Jennifer Weston)

Approximately 300 people attended the Engineering Building II dedication ceremony held April 28. (Photo: Jennifer Weston)

The College of Engineering at North Carolina State University held a dedication ceremony to celebrate the occupation of Engineering Building II (EBII) April 28. Construction of EBII was made possible through the passing of the NC Higher Education Bond Referendum in 2000 by the citizens of North Carolina.

The keynote speaker for the event was Robert “Bob” McGehee, chairman and CEO of Progress Energy. Other speakers included Wendell Murphy, chairman of the NC State University Board of Trustees, Dr. James L. Oblinger, chancellor of the university, and Dr. Nino A. Masnari, dean of the College of Engineering.

Following the ceremony, Progress Energy representatives McGehee and Fred Day presented a check for $1.2 million to Oblinger and Masnari. The funds will support three endowments in the College of Engineering. This gift is the largest ever given to the college or to any other institution by Progress Energy. In honor of the long history of support from the company and its employees, Masnari announced that the bridge, conferences rooms and terrace in EBII will bear Progress Energy’s name.

Engineering Building II represents the second phase of the plan to move the College of Engineering to Centennial Campus. The building, which houses the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Department of Computer Science, has 210,000 square feet of classroom, laboratory and office space. The project cost $46.5 million. Perkins & Will was the architect for the building, and Clancy & Theys was the general contractor.

Currently in the planning stage is Engineering Building III (EBIII), which will house the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

“The completion of Engineering Building II is a landmark event in the history of the College of Engineering at NC State,” said Masnari. “This investment by the people of North Carolina will provide much-needed space for these departments to conduct important research and educate future leaders in engineering.”

The event was hosted by the College of Engineering and the NC State Engineering Foundation Inc. Sponsors of the dedication ceremony were Cisco Systems, EMC, IBM, Network Appliance, Progress Energy, Red Hat, and Tekelec.

— weston —

Note: A panoramic view of EBI, EBII and courtyard is available at the following website: http://www.csc.ncsu.edu/faculty/doyle/ccquad/.

Technical contact:
Ken Tate, (919) 513-4292, tate@csc.ncsu.edu

Media contact:
Jennifer Weston, (919) 515-3848, weston@ncsu.edu

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