ECE News Spring 2012:
Rice Hall Brings Positive Changes to the Undergraduate Experience
Although the School of Engineering and Applied Science’s Rice Hall
Information Technology Engineering Building has been open only
since last August, faculty and students already are exploring new and
creative uses for its 100,000 square-feet of teaching, research and study
space. The six-story building was made possible by a lead gift from
Paul (EE ’75) and Gina Rice through the Rice Family Foundation.
Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Joanne Bechta
Dugan directs the Computer Engineering Program, one of many
programs located in the building. Dugan welcomes the increase in the
number and size of lab spaces. While the increased space will enable
the program to accommodate more students, she points to the revised
curriculum as the most significant change the program has been
able to make. Consolidating and ensuring the effective delivery of
programs help prepare graduates for leadership, an important goal for
the Engineering School.
“The program has been able to add a class in embedded systems,
something we’ve wanted to do for years,” said Dugan. “Previously,
we didn’t have the space or the resources.” Dugan is grateful to Dean
James H. Aylor for providing the necessary funding for what will
become a three-course sequence conducted in an innovative Rice Hall
education laboratory. Associate Professor John Lach, one of the course
instructors, describes the sequence as the “culminating experience for
computer engineering students.”
Lach also noted the increased collaboration across research groups.
“In the past there was no natural way to stumble across each other’s
work and projects,” he said. “Rice encourages collaboration between
electrical engineering and computer science, getting people together to
solve the IT challenges of the future.”
Dugan said students seem genuinely excited about the new classes the program is able to offer. Students also are applying their engineering skills to the building’s study areas by putting sensors into each space to check availability before climbing “all those stairs.” Dugan also noted one other feature that is driving a great deal of student enthusiasm: “the basement bagel shop!”