UTC Engineering Professor Dr. Jim Hiestand lays a brick in UTC's $29 million Engineering, Computer Science, and Mathematics Building, which will open in fall 2003.

UTC Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Builds a Strong Foundation

There were happy faces and good natured jokes around the construction site of the new UTC Engineering, Mathematics, and Computer Science Building as dozens of faculty members wore hard hats, walked through mud and took turns using a trowel to coat bricks with mortar.

Dr. Phil Kazemersky, interim dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science called it "a great day for the faculty."

"Our faculty members, especially those who have been with us for a long time, have been patiently waiting to use this new facility. We are all delighted to be a part of history by helping to lay the foundation for this wonderful building," Kazemersky said.

According to chief engineer and project manager Doug Thigpen, over 800,000 bricks are being used in the construction of the facility, which will hold two buildings. The East Building will be used for office space, and the West Building will house computational laboratory facilities, with some of them being on-line labs operational on the Internet, state of the art classrooms and auditoriums.

By early summer 2003, the building is expected to be completed, according to Thigpen. It will be the largest facility on campus. Construction was funded by the state of Tennessee at $28.8 million.