Tomorrow’s STEM leaders get a state-of-the-art research complex

In February, North Carolina Agriculture and Technical State University (NC A&T) opened its new Engineering Research & Innovation Complex (ERIC). After over three years of construction, the $90 million project will serve as a driver of research, innovation, and economic impact. A public, historically Black land-grant research university in Greensboro, N.C., NC A&T is the nation’s top producer of undergraduate-level engineering degrees for African Americans.

EYP—a design firm specializing in higher education, government, healthcare, and science and technology—steered the design of the open, airy, glass-paneled facility. The four-story, 130,000-square-foot space boasts state-of-the art features that provide the technology and amenities to help transfer knowledge from academia to industry and government. In addition to classrooms, conference rooms, and offices, ERIC includes wet and dry labs; biomechanical, cybersecurity, and systems engineering labs; and maker and fabrication spaces. ERIC also has modern learning spaces both indoors and outdoors.

ERIC will accommodate a growing number of students at NC A&T’s College of Engineering. Fostering creative collaboration across disciplines and within the community, ERIC will serve as an interdisciplinary and multifunctional center for academics, research, and community engagement that will help form a pipeline of STEM leaders. The complex also will help create new job opportunities while serving as a catalyst for short- and long-term economic growth and development throughout North Carolina.

“ERIC is a hot space for innovation where faculty, staff, and students form industry partnerships and apply speed-to-market principles with new projects, prototypes, and job opportunities that impact the community,” Dan Fields, EYP’s project executive principal, says in a statement.

Owner: North Carolina A&T State University

Design architect and architect of record: EYP

MEP engineer: RMF Engineering

Structural engineer: SKA

General contractor/construction manager: Balfour Beatty