When it is not being used for classes, the room is available to students who wish to explore self-paced computer learning modules. In the Design Center, students apply what they learn in the classroom by making real products, just as students did generations ago in the Washburn Shops. Two new rooms answer the department's need for dedicated space for student project work. On the third floor is a laboratory for work on smaller projects that do not require extensive space or specialized support facilities. Occupying more than 2,000 square feet on the lower level of the building is a general-purpose lab for work on larger Major Qualifying Projects.
Room is available for assembling, testing and storing large machines and devices.
The lab has ready access to the department's machine shop, with its team of technicians and instructors. A New Home for Fire Protection, Too N early 130 years ago, WPI's first Mechanical Engineering Department head and the first superintendent of the Washburn Shops pioneered a novel approach to engineering education, one that balanced the formulas and theories students learned in the classroom with the grit and elbow grease of real manufacturing. The model George Alden and Milton Higgins established has served WPI well ever since, and continues today in the innovative WPI Plan. Now WPI's Mechanical Engineering Department stands at the brink of a new century. Like all engineering educators, the mechanical engineering faculty must look ahead to the challenges and opportunities the new millennium will bring.