Gaige Technology & Business Innovation Building Offers New Opportunities
The new building at Penn State Berks has been completed. This new facility means a quantum leap in terms of classroom space, faculty and staff offices, and most importantly, the creation of research space for our entire faculty. It is the largest building on campus.
The building is dedicated to our second Dean and Campus Executive Officer, Dr. Frederick Gaige. Under his leadership, Penn State Berks began to offer baccalaureate degrees and reinforced its research mission.
The Gaige Technology and Business Innovation Building was designed to house our Engineering; Business; Information Sciences and Technology (IST); and Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Management (HRIM) programs; as well as to provide general classroom space and faculty offices.
The vision for this new building is to provide “an interdisciplinary learning environment that fosters teamwork and collaboration among our students, as well as our faculty.” Part of that vision indicates that “the internal layout of the building should reflect a balance between in-class and out-of-class activities (undergraduate research, collaboration, group projects, and learning communities).” This vision is now a reality in the final construction.
The new building has sixteen laboratories, nine classrooms, fifty individual faculty offices, five shared part-time faculty offices, seven small conference rooms, one large conference room, two offices for administrators, and enough space for support staff and service needs. While it is very difficult to do justice to the wonderful teaching and research that will occur in the building in a short editorial like this one, let us describe three initiatives as a sample of the work that will be conducted within its walls.
The Emerging Technology and Business Intelligence Lab’s goal is to become the regional focal point for innovative research and education in the emerging information technology areas, including artificial intelligence, business intelligence and analytics, distributed-object computing, forensics, data acquisition, data mining technologies, geo-information systems, data visualization, ubiquitous computing, and human-computer interaction. The Lab is primarily dedicated to the use of student teams for inquiry-based learning, undergraduate research activities, and community-based projects.
The Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Management Laboratory and Simulation Room allows students to practice food preparation and
service for the college community and our visitors. The retail facility will be operated by University Housing and Food Services, and HRIM students will be able to observe operations as part of their formal course work. The Simulation Room will function as a part of the Cyber Café, and it will support laptop use through wireless and/or mobile computing.
The Center for Entrepreneurship and Economic Development seeks to engage with the local private, nonprofit, and public sectors. The Center will be used by faculty and students in the Engineering Entrepreneurship minor as a work and meeting space. Individuals from the community can also meet with faculty and students to develop and implement initiatives for the benefit of our greater service area. In addition, there will be a collection of entrepreneurship resources and personal computers available to students.
As the Engineering, Business, IST, and HRIM programs move to the new building, there will be plenty of space for research activities in the Division of Science (Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, and Kinesiology) to expand in the Luerssen Building. Needless to say, a large group of faculty in our Division of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences will also have a strong presence in our new facility.
Penn State Berks will definitely live up to the vision of the building, and of our campus as a whole as “an interdisciplinary learning environment that fosters teamwork and collaboration among our students, as well as our faculty.”
Paul D. Esqueda,
Ph.D. Professor of Engineering and Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
Penn State Berks