Bedrock for a Bright Future

The Centre for Engineering Innovation (CEI), planned for the southwest corner of Wyandotte Street and California Avenue, is the largest capital investment ever made by the University of Windsor. 

When the CEI opens in the fall of 2012, it will transform the Faculty of Engineering.  Designed for the 21st-Century - with more classrooms and meeting rooms, expanded laboratory facilities, and the latest technological tools - the centre will greatly enhance the student experience at UWindsor.

The CEI will give the Faculty of Engineering a world-class facility to call home:

• 300,000 sq. feet (over 91,000 sq. m.) of dedicated space targeting LEED Gold certification – bringing the entire Faculty of Engineering under the same roof for the first time in decades
   
• An Industrial Courtyard for joint industry/university research projects – creating a direct connection between education, research, and industrial innovation
   
• More than 80 teaching and/or research laboratories, some with features never seen before in North America – allowing us to explore new areas of research and involve more students
   
• Eight classrooms, more than a dozen student meeting rooms, and over 300 computer workstations – giving students the collaborative meeting and study spaces they need
   
• A “living building” that is wired for student study – bringing engineering to life through real-time monitoring of the expansive green roof, cross-atrium bridges and HVAC performance

The CEI will empower our students and researchers to define Canada’s future.

The building is designed to promote creativity, collaboration, and an inventive spirit in addition to practical know-how.  Our students and graduates will be equipped with all of the elements necessary to compete – and thrive – in the global market.  And, the CEI will allow us to increase student enrollment and offer new coursework, like the new Aerospace Option within Mechanical Engineering.

But, the CEI isn’t just for students.  It’s for faculty researchers and industry too.  This facility will enhance our current research areas of excellence and allow us to develop new ones by offering more space, new technologies, and expanded human capital.  We will also be able to cross-transfer knowledge, technology and expertise with industry in the many labs and in the Industrial Courtyard.

"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."

We would like to thank our many supporters, including the Government of Canada and the Ontario Government, for making the Centre for Engineering Innovation possible.