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10-06-06
REDC an Asset to Northwest Pennsylvania and Beyond
The new Research and Economic Development Center (REDC, pronounced and commonly referred to as the “Red C”) at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, has been touted as an asset that was necessary to economic development for years. Now Penn State Behrend and the Erie area are reaping the benefits of this building.
“This is a truly transformative facility that is almost 20 years in the making,” Jack Burke, chancellor of Penn State Behrend, said. “The REDC is the newest resource available at Penn State Behrend, and its impact on education, research and the local economy—by promoting a collaborative teaching and research environment—is just being realized.”
The $30 million, 160,000-square-foot Research and Economic Development Center houses the Sam and Irene Black School of Business and the School of Engineering at Penn State Behrend, making the college one of the first institutions of higher education in the country to house its business and engineering schools under a single roof.
The REDC was designed from its inception to create opportunity for collaboration—to encourage “connection, collision and interaction between students and faculty, between business and engineering, between academia and industry, between campus and community,” said architect Herman Weber of Weber Murphy Fox, Inc., who served as the architect of record for the project.
Weber Murphy Fox led the design of the REDC, which was a collaborative effort with associate architects NBBJ of Columbus, Ohio. The architects designed the structure not only to house the college’s business and engineering schools, but to “encourage a synergistic collaboration between them,” Weber noted. The firms also took care to keep the building’s size and appearance aligned with Penn State Behrend’s master plan for the 725-acre campus.
Impact: Collaboration
The REDC, which opened this fall, doubles the classroom space for the Black School of Business and the School of Engineering. It is the largest building on the Penn State Behrend campus and the largest Penn State building outside of University Park.
Burke said the facility helps to alleviate a long-time and major space shortage at the college.
“Historically, we’ve been able to make space accommodations for most of our academic programs, but we could not continue to do so,” he said. Approximately half of the REDC is engineering labs and support space, one-fourth is classrooms and computer classrooms, and one-fourth is offices, conference rooms and related space.
Colocating business and engineering is expected to increase interaction between faculty and students in the two schools. As a result, collaborative programs, such as the new technical sales minor, have been established and more are expected.
“The REDC improves the environment for our students and faculty tremendously,” Burke said. “It will enhance the college’s ability to meet its mission of teaching, research and outreach.”
Impact: Research
Featuring high-tech research facilities that often mirror specific industry standards, the REDC offers faculty and students access to 28 labs, including behavioral, electrical, mechanical, and plastics, and 11 computer labs and classrooms. Notably, plastics engineering technology students at Penn State Behrend will be educated in the new 10,500-square-foot plastics processing lab, which is the largest such lab in the country.
The REDC houses many of the applied research and outreach centers at Penn State Behrend, which now have room to host programs and to grow, including the following:
- Applied Energy Research Center
- Center for Credit and Consumer Research
- Center for Navigation, Communication and Information Systems
- Economic Research Institute of Erie (E.R.I.E.)
- Engineering Applied Research and Design Center
- Partnership Erie
- Plastics Computer-Aided Engineering Center
- Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Center of Excellence
Dedicated research space in the REDC will allow Penn State Behrend and collaborating institutions of higher education to increase support of industry-sponsored research.
“Much of the research conducted at Penn State Behrend serves the educational and economic interests of the tri-state region,” Burke explained. “With the new classrooms and labs at the REDC, Penn State Behrend will be able to expand its efforts to support specific industries, such as plastics, metals, foundry, and information technology.”
Impact: Economic Development
The REDC serves as a physical and academic link between the Penn State Behrend campus and Knowledge Park, and it will enable the college to support future park tenants. As Knowledge Park grows, walkways from the REDC will carry students and faculty to Knowledge Park for internships, technology transfer projects, faculty consultation and research.
Jointly developed by Penn State Behrend and the Greater Erie Industrial Development Corporation (GEIDC), Knowledge Park offers a superior technological infrastructure and close ties to Penn State Behrend’s strengths in applied research and technology transfer.
In an atmosphere that promotes innovation, the park is accelerating the creation, recruitment and expansion of knowledge-based organizations that focus on engineering, information management and science. Currently, there are 11 tenants in Knowledge Park employing a total of 500 people.
Collaborations with Knowledge Park are expected to expand new high-technology employment opportunities for graduates of local colleges and universities—to help decrease brain drain and attract new scientists, engineers and business professionals to the area.
Impact: Brain drain
Responding to the brain drain trend by attracting and retaining students is one principle upon which the concept of the REDC was founded.
At a Knowledge Park news conference on December 28, 2000, then Gov. Tom Ridge committed $30 million to the REDC.
“Today we make a powerful pledge to our talented young Pennsylvanians: Stay here. There’s work here,” Ridge told the audience. “For too long, we’ve watched as our best and brightest have left Pennsylvania for opportunities that didn’t exist here. But, today, those opportunities—those good-paying jobs—can be found right here at home.”
Burke echoes Ridge’s sentiments of retention and how the REDC factors into that plan. “In the past, 80 percent of Penn State Behrend students would leave to attend the University Park campus after two years,” he said. “The remaining 20 percent would stay.
“Now it’s the other way around,” Burke continued. “Investments like the REDC continue to help ensure that we have premiere facilities to educate our students and an economy to support them after graduation.”
Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, offers 31 baccalaureate, five associate, four pre-professional and two graduate degree programs with 21 minors to 4,000 students. The Sam and Irene Black School of Business is accredited by AACSB International—The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, which is the leading accrediting agency for bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs in business administration and accounting. The School of Engineering offers three associate and seven baccalaureate degree programs that are each accredited by either the Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC) or the Technology Accreditation Commission (TAC) of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET).
For more information about the Research and Economic Development Center at Penn State Behrend, visit www.pserie.psu.edu/redc online. |
