USU to get new engineering lab
Utah State University engineering students will soon have a state-of-the-art engineering lab experience thanks to the generosity of a USU alum. David G. Sant, a graduate from USU’s electrical engineering program, donated $500,000 for a new engineering laboratory building on the USU campus. The building will be named the David G. Sant Engineering Innovation Building.
“Having state-of-the-art facilities plays a very important role in attracting top-notch students and staff to USU’s College of Engineering,” said Sant. “Funded research adds to the image and the creative environment in the engineering school, and I believe that funding scholarships is important in making sure qualified students can attend and achieve their goals. The College of Engineering has been very aggressive in becoming a world-class engineering school, and I am very pleased that it has chosen to honor me with this new building naming.”
The new engineering lab will consist of three floors totaling 34,000 square feet. The building will be 135 feet long by 84 feet wide. Each floor will have engineering laboratories of various sizes, with modular bays, allowing labs to grow as needed.
The cost of the lab building totals $13 million. The state of Utah has provided $6 million, and the remaining $7 million is being raised from private sources, including alumni, corporations and friends. Sant has been a leader in encouraging alums to donate to the cause, and by spring 2006, $5.4 million of the $7 million had been raised. Other major donors will be recognized with names on labs, classrooms and other prominent components in the building.
“We continually strive to provide better engineering laboratory opportunities for our students and faculty,” said H. Scott Hinton, dean of the College of Engineering. “Dave’s gift will help us provide lab space to meet the needs of new faculty and the opportunity to enhance all engineering programs to match industry expectations. The lab will also provide space for faculty and students to develop technology prototypes that can be used to stimulate the technology transfer process from the university to the marketplace.”
Sant, along with his wife, Diann, have donated more than $1 million to USU’s College of Engineering. Explaining his motivation, Sant said he was looking for a substantial way to give back to the community that shaped his life.
“There is no better way to do that than to support the institutions that equipped me for my career,” said Sant.
Sant earned his bachelor’s and master’s in electrical engineering at USU in ’62 and ’64. He then went on to earn an MBA from Santa Clara University.
For more information on USU’s College of Engineering, visit www.engineering.usu.edu.
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June 8, 2006
Contact: Val Potter, (435) 797-8012, val.potter@usu.edu
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