By Alicia A. Caldwell
Arizona Daily Wildcat
January 16, 1997

New building and facilities an inspiration to AME Department

Joseph Humphrey, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering department head, said the entire faculty now has a new outlook and improved attitude because of the enhancements in equipment and facilities.

"I think it (the new building) will affect students' education profoundly," Humphrey said.

Some of this sentiment was also shared by students who were attending classes in the new building yesterday morning.

"We were way overdue for a new building. The last one was really run down and the equipment was ancient," said Mike Muccilli, mechanical engineering junior.

The new building, composed of two structures connected by a bridge, also contains an enclosed area complete with food facilities.

Humphrey said that with the new facilities, the department will be able to conduct new and different experiments which could not be accomplished with the department's previous facilities.

An example of this is a possible project with the Art Department in which both AME and Art could work together to create new bus stops or something else that would be useful in the community, Humphrey said. He said these types of projects would be along the lines of socio-engineering.

The department also is looking forward to input from the students with regards to what they would like to see from their education, Humphrey said.

He said he looks for these types of projects to be beneficial to the community and better equip students when looking for jobs within the engineering industry.

"We owe a lot to the community, and we want to pay them back," Humphrey said.

Humphrey said he is hoping the new building will be more available to other departments across campus.

"We would like to become cross-cultural and cross-departmental," he said.