Centre for Engineering Innovation

The Centre for Engineering Innovation will house the University of Windsor's Faculty of Engineering, with an impact that will reverberate off campus.

The 300,000-sq. ft. facility, slated for the southwest corner of Wyandotte Street and California Avenue at a cost estimated at $112 million, will focus on research and development and will include an Industrial Courtyard that will team the University, business and other partners in an environment to facilitate a direct connection between education, research, and industrial innovation.

"This is a major step for the University of Windsor and for the Windsor-Essex region," says UWindsor President Alan Wildeman. "The Centre for Engineering Innovation will provide our students with an extraordinary facility within which to learn and to see engineering in action. It will provide laboratories and research facilities where emerging priorities such as environmental sustainability, alternative energy, nanostructure, lighter materials, and more efficient manufacturing systems can be addressed."

The project is expected to have a total direct and indirect economic stimulus impact in Ontario and Canada of $270 million over three years, in addition to the creation of 1,632 construction jobs. As well, the CEI will help Ontario maintain its position as one of the leading global intellectual centres in the environmental and automotive sectors for research, design, development and testing of systems, vehicles and technology.

Funding for the project is being provided by the Government of Canada's Knowledge Infrastructure Program and through the Ontario Government's 2009 budget. Each has contributed $40 million to the project.

The CEI will be the largest Gold Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) building in the region. LEED is a nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings.

Designed by B+H Architects, the CEI will be constructed of recycled materials where possible, and will incorporate a green roof, water recycling, low-energy heating and other sustainability systems. It will be a living building, where students can learn from the electrical, mechanical, civil and environmental engineering systems displayed throughout the structure.