Enrollment at Prairie View A&M University’s Roy G. Perry College of Engineering grew from 960 students in 2010 to 1,635 students in 2018, and the number of graduate students has almost tripled. The college now has 85 faculty members and researchers, and four research centers have been added.

Since 2009, construction at Prairie View A&M has included new classroom buildings, a fabrication center, a new early childhood learning academy, and new athletic facilities.

Recently, the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents announced it had approved the construction of a $70 million engineering and classroom building at Prairie View. Construction will begin in June and should be completed by August of 2023.

“Prairie View is resurgent under President Ruth Simmons,” said John Sharp, Chancellor of The Texas A&M University System in a statement. “This new engineering building is the latest evidence of the investment in Prairie View A&M and its students.”

The engineering building, which is expected to be about 106,000 gross square feet, will balance student spaces with research spaces. New lab spaces will be designed to support multidisciplinary research. There will be space for 3-D manufacturing, space exploration, data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, structural analysis, and more.

A maker space area will promote the collaboration of students across engineering disciplines. Almost two-thirds of the square footage will be for direct instruction, with six generalized instructional spaces and 14 specialized labs. The remaining third of the facility will be comprised of research lab space for faculty and graduate students.

“This new building will allow us to increase undergraduate and graduate degrees, hire more faculty and create more African American engineers,” said Prairie View A&M University President Ruth J. Simmons. “This purpose-built facility for engineering and research will transform teaching and research output at Prairie View A&M University.”

President Simmons has announced a groundbreaking ceremony of the Engineering Classroom and Research Building will take place Tuesday, June 8.