Giving Opportunities

Building for the future

To meet the immense challenges before us, we must have the facilities and resources that will allow our faculty and students to do their best work. With the completion of the Science and Engineering Quad and the renovation of the Panama Mall Corridor, Stanford faculty and students will enjoy 21st Century research and teaching facilities across all engineering disciplines. The new facilities will be designed for today’s science and technology, but also to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration, new teaching methodologies, and shared equipment facilities. This combination will maintain and strengthen our ability to recruit and retain the best and brightest faculty and students.

Science and Engineering Quad (SEQ)

A new science and engineering quad, known as SEQ, is a key component of the larger Science, Engineering, and Medical Campus (SEMC)—the university’s master plan for redeveloped facilities on the west of campus. SEQ will provide innovative facilities that advance world-changing research and teaching at the intersection of disciplines. The programs that drive these facilities are interdisciplinary efforts in environment and energy, bioengineering, and nanoscience and nanotechnology. The buildings are critically aligned with engineering priorities and university priorities. Accordingly, they will each house faculty from multiple schools and disciplines, and provide innovative spaces that encourage collaboration.

The model for these facilities is the James H. Clark Center, which has transformed the landscape for research and teaching at the intersection of engineering, life sciences, and medicine. In addition, the Jen-Hsun Huang School of Engineering Center will provide the home for programs in entrepreneurship, the Department of Management Science and Engineering, the Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering, an innovative library, collaborative spaces for students, and the dean’s office.

SEQ will be located adjacent to the Packard Electrical Engineering Building, the Hewlett Teaching Center, the Gates Computer Science Building, and the Allen Center for Integrated Systems. Shared facilities and shared programs will bring colleagues from across campus to collaborate.

Panama Corridor

A comprehensive plan is under way to optimize working groups in the departments of mechanical engineering, materials science and engineering, and aeronautics and astronautics, and to renovate facilities located along the Panama Corridor that will house their research and teaching. A key component of the project is the renovation of a facility that will be home to the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design. The Plattner Institute requires an innovative and flexible space that facilitates collaboration and teamwork. A separate facility is planned for mechanical engineering faculty focused on the aging process and new technologies to accommodate a population that is living much longer than previous generations.

An Experimental Green Dorm | View»

Spearheaded by students and faculty from the School of Engineering, the Experimental Green Dorm will be a sustainable student residence and research building that will provide living spaces and an interactive test bed for sustainable water- and energy-saving technologies. Initial plans call for a 21,000-square-foot, 3-story building that contains 47 dormitory rooms, social spaces, an engineering lab, and an information and teaching center. The goal is to reduce energy consumption 20 percent below the most energy-efficient row house on campus without sacrificing livability. The plan is for the dormitory to be off the Stanford energy and water grids. The dorm will give students the chance to engage in hands-on learning. The university seeks support for the planning and construction of the facility as well as the ongoing research opportunities.

Shared equipment facilities

Experimental research provides fundamental understanding of science and engineering, which in turn leads to radical leaps in technology. Providing the tools and equipment to conduct this kind of research is critical to the work and to attracting the best faculty and students. However, experimental research equipment is costly to purchase and maintain—frequently beyond the resources of single investigators—and it quickly becomes obsolete. A key Stanford strategy for addressing this issue is to create shared equipment facilities across a range of experimental capabilities. In addition to reducing costs, these shared centers provide a forum for casual interaction and more structured collaboration across a range of disciplines, including engineering, physics, chemistry, biology, and medicine. Industry collaboration and interaction is also encouraged. The Stanford Nanofabrication Facility provides a robust model for this type of shared facility.