Major renovations to historic building provide enhanced student experience and foster cutting-edge, interdisciplinary research
Liam Jackson
September 26, 2016 [Read the article on Penn State News]
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A complete renovation to Steidle Building, one of the most iconic buildings on Penn State’s University Park campus, is helping researchers advance the field of materials science and engineering and is providing enhanced learning experiences for undergraduate and graduate students.
On Sept. 30, the Department of Materials Science and Engineering will be hosting tours of the renovated building throughout the day, as well as a dedication ceremony at 2 p.m. that will feature remarks from Eric Barron, Penn State president; Ira Lubert, chairman of Penn State’s Board of Trustees; William Easterling, dean of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences; and Susan Sinnott, head of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.
The ‘camouflaged’ touches of materials science and engineering
The unit that will benefit the most from this renovation is the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, which is a leader in a field that widely impacts society but is generally not well known to the public, said John Hellmann, associate dean for graduate education and research in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences.
"Materials science and engineering is a highly camouflaged field," he said. "To a certain degree, we know what an electrical engineer does, what a civil engineer does, and what other engineers do. But very few people know what a materials engineer does. The fact of the matter is that nearly every one of our engineering fields and our manufacturing entities today rely on materials scientists to not only create the materials for them but to investigate how to use the materials and how to make new materials in the future."
Historically, Penn State researchers have helped to revolutionize areas of the discipline such as polymers, ceramics, metallurgy, electronic materials, 2D materials, 3D printing, medicine and computational design.
"Our department has historically been ranked in the top 10 for both our undergraduate and graduate programs, and we believe that having wonderful facilities such as Steidle Building will allow us to maintain and exceed our ranking," Sinnott said.
The renovated Steidle Building, said Sinnott, will ensure that Penn State maintains its status as a leader.
A home for undergraduate students
The rapid growth of the department's undergraduate program — it has grown more than 150 percent since 2007 — played a significant role in the design of the renovated Steidle Building. The majority of the building's first floor was designed exclusively for undergraduate students and includes:
Seven laboratories where they can use cutting-edge equipment for sample processing and preparation for analysis (advanced materials processing lab, furnace lab, metallography and undergraduate research lab), as well as analysis (optical and scanning electron microscopes, thermal analysis, x-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy and rheology)
Three student lounges, a genius bar, gathering spaces and a 48-seat computer lab, many of which have white board walls that encourage and facilitate group study
All of these spaces enhance the quality of MatSE lab courses, undergraduate research facilities, as well as individual and group study experiences.
"This equipment and this space really helps undergraduate students," said Sinnott. "Having that hands-on experience is critical and provides a much richer learning experience than just watching someone else make measurements and have the students only analyze the data."
In addition, students can visit with staff and faculty devoted to providing undergraduate student support. This was all designed to help students "feel at home in Steidle Building," said Sinnott.
Science on display
Part of the renovation included demolishing Steidle's central wing and in-filling that space with more building space. This use of space allowed the department to maximize a type of space it needed most: shared laboratories.
"We couldn't just rearrange the laboratories — we needed to come up with a new concept," said Gary Messing, former head of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, who played a major role in leading the design of the building. "Working with EYP Architecture and Engineering, we came up with a concept that allowed us to build laboratories across the whole width of the building. Doing this, we were able to increase the amount of laboratory space roughly 25 percent."