Giving to Engineering Labs at Gordon

Equipping the next generation of engineers to pair technical excellence with wisdom, character and a heart for service.

Preparing engineers for meaningful impact begins with environments designed for exploration, iteration, and collaboration. Hands-on learning is central to how students grow to think like engineers, moving ideas from concept to prototype to refined solutions. As Gordon launches its new Mechanical Engineering (B.S.) and General Engineering (B.S.) degrees, creating spaces that support this full design process becomes essential to delivering a rigorous, contemporary engineering education.

Gordon’s current machine shop and maker spaces have served students well, but they were not built to support the scale or technical sophistication required for our new programs. The creation of a modern Fabrication Suite will provide the expanded capacity and resources our students need for more ambitious and technically complex engineering work. This unified environment will bring together design, prototyping, electronics, and precision machining in one integrated space at the heart of the engineering program.

Located in the lower level of the Ken Olsen Science Center, this three-zone suite will: 

• Double the size of the existing machine shop 
• Triple the total engineering footprint 
• Serve 40–60 engineering majors across all four years 
• Support hundreds of students in physics, engineering, applied science, and interdisciplinary coursework  

Imagining the future fabrication suite

Expanded Machine Shop

A professional-grade machining space for advanced component production and senior design projects.

Research & Collaboration Zone

A flexible space designed for team-based planning, modeling, and early-stage experimentation.

Maker Space & Prototyping Lab

A creative environment for rapid iteration and experimentation with materials, electronics, and small-scale manufacturing.

Across the country, demand for engineers continues to rise rapidly. STEM roles are projected to grow nearly three times faster than the average for all occupations over the next decade, driven by rapid advances in clean energy, medical technology, robotics, infrastructure, and modern manufacturing. The field needs graduates who pair technical strength with ethical judgment, creativity, and collaborative skill.