The Penn State Board of Trustees Committee on Finance and Investment approved a proposal today (Sept. 5) to complete a 13,000-square-foot addition and renovation at the Lidia Manson Building at CATO Park to expand the Steady Thermal Aero Research Turbine (START) Lab. The new facility will be named START+, as an indicator of the expanded capabilities for the lab. 

The START Lab was founded at Penn State in 2012 through a partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy–National Energy Technology Lab and Pratt & Whitney. The turbine research facility was designed to perform turbine aerodynamic and heat transfer studies, along with instrumentation development and integration of additive manufacturing to increase research agility while advancing turbine technologies.