FACILITIES and EQUIPMENT |
The Engineering department had been housed in the Edwards-Holman Science Center since its completion in the Fall of 1994. But to accommodate the growing engineering major, an expansion of facilities and equipment began in 2002 into the adjacent Wood-Mar Hall (“Something Old, Something New”).
The renovation has been completed of the first two floors of the three story, 90 year-old landmark, housing the engineering faculty office suite and nine new engineering labs. The 4500 sq. ft. of new lab space have been outfitted with the latest equipment, with support of a $500,000 gift from the W.M. Keck Foundation.
The W.M. KECK ENGINEERING DESIGN CENTER includes three distinct laboratories. This area serves as the backbone of the engineering program at George Fox. It is the space wherein “ideas become reality.” Students from virtually all courses will use the design center at one time or another.
Students use this space for computer-aided design, solid modeling, parametric analysis and virtual prototyping. Here students initiate the design process, using a variety of software applications. These allow students to funnel their creative thoughts into working computational models. The lab is equipped with twelve Windows XP Pro/Linux workstations (3.06GHz Xeon processors) and a laser printer.
The machine shop enables students to create material objects out of metal, sheet metal, wood or plastic, from their drawings, sketches and computer models. All first-year students will be oriented on lab safety and machine. As well as housing five primary material removal and joining apparatus, this shop also provides storage for material stock and hand operated and portable power tools. The shop equipment is as follows: MIG welder, milling machine, lathe, drill press, band saw, portable power tools, hand tools and accessories.
This re-configurable space facilitates student teams working on engineering design projects as a part of various courses and is the primary work area for the senior design sequence. It will be the place where students assemble, test and redesign their prototypes. It houses a three-dimensional printing facility which utilizes a composite building process comprised of alternating layers of powder matrix and binder resin for creating 3D parts.
Circuits/Electronics Laboratory
This lab is used by electrical engineering courses including: Digital Logic Design, Electronic Circuit Analysis, Electronic Devices and Circuits, and Application of Electronic Devices. Students construct a wide variety of circuits on breadboards and have all of the necessary instruments to test their designs. The lab also serves other engineering courses that require a circuit to be built as part of an assignment or group project. The lab provides ten complete electronics stations, featuring 200 MHz Tektronix digital scopes and PC-based data acquisition systems, along with the digital multimeters, function generators, frequency counters, FPGA boards and power supplies.
Microwave Laboratory
The primary use of this lab is for the Microwave Engineering senior course. The lab contains an RF network analyzer, spectrum analyzer, and high frequency signal generators used in performing experiments and building microwave circuit boards. It is also used in support of class demonstrations or testing design projects for other courses, such as Electromagnetic Fields and Waves and Applications of Electronic Devices. The space serves faculty and undergraduate research in microwave and radio frequency antennas and electronics.
Energetics Laboratory
The energetics laboratory is a space dedicated to the experimental measurement and observation of thermal and fluid phenomenon. Students have the opportunity to investigate the fundamentals of conduction, convection and thermal radiation heat transfer via a variety of experimental stations, as well as the behavior of basic fluid networks as governed by the centrifugal pump. The primary equipment includes a wind tunnel, refrigeration cycle apparatus, centrifugal pump apparatus, natural convection, thermal radiation and conduction apparatus.
Mechanics and Materials Engineering Laboratory
This laboratory serves as the primary space for investigating the mechanical behavior of engineering materials. This lab provides the space and equipment necessary for performing weekly laboratory exercises in Principles of Material Science and Mechanical Engineering Design courses. This lab is also used for class demonstrations and design projects for Engineering Principles and Mechanics of Materials, as well as undergraduate and faculty research. The primary equipment includes a servo-hydraulic universal testing apparatus, digital micro-hardness tester, Charpy V-notch impact tester, metallographic sample polisher, and heat treating furnaces.
Mechanical Engineering Research Laboratory
The purpose of this lab space will be to facilitate independent research for mechanical engineering faculty members and undergraduate research students. It will be used during an ongoing basis throughout the year, as well as during the summer months.
Microprocessors/Robotics Laboratory
This lab provides the space and equipment necessary for performing the weekly experiments in Microprocessors and Robotics Control Systems. In this lab, students have access to microprocessor boards, each with its own controlling PC, plus a 34-channel digital logic analyzer. For the Robotics course, several control systems stations are used to perform real-time experiments. Other courses will be served by this lab that require robotics or machine dynamics equipment as part of an assignment or group project. The primary equipment includes ten microprocessor boards, Windows XP Pro/Linux workstations, control systems apparatus and interface software, and industrial robotic arms.
In addition to the new lab space, the engineering program retains a physics lab, research lab, instrument room and stock room in the Edwards-Holman building.