ORONO, Maine — University of Maine's College of Engineering and Computing (MCEC) is celebrating its first anniversary of educating students in Orono. The next milestone: a new facility on campus.
The school merged its engineering and computing programs one year ago to help students get a more integrated learning experience. The new facility, which will be built near the Collins Center for the Arts, will break ground by early fall, according to MCEC's Dean Giovanna Guidoboni.
The new facility will give students an innovative workspace to combine engineering, arts, sciences, and computing educations, Guidoboni said.
"There is nothing that we do in our daily life that doesn't include some sort of technology and computing in it," Dean Guidoboni, said. "I truly believe that discovery-driven learning can open the eyes to everyone as how to use engineering and computing to improve our lives."
Guidoboni said integrating the two will better prepare students for the demands of today's job market. The state will need to replace more than 4,000 engineering and computing jobs in the next decade, according to UMaine, as about 30 percent of the state's engineering workforce is coming close to retirement age.
"I hope I get to build things that will last for generations," sophomore civil engineering major Erin O'Connell, said.
According to UMaine's Society of Women Engineers, just 20 percent of engineering undergraduate students are women. O'Connell said that reality can be intimidating as she's sometimes one of just a few women in some of her classes.
However, seeing more and more female engineers in positions of leadership—like Dean Guidoboni who also serves as the school's first female Dean of Engineering in history—gives her a boost of confidence.
"I am just as intelligent. I am just as powerful. I am just as strong as everyone around me. My gender doesn't matter. My sexual orientation doesn't matter," O'Connell, who also identifies as queer, said. "My minority does not make me any less or different from everyone around me, which is something that I am particularly passionate about."
Guidoboni said it's an honor to inspire the next generation because she recalls there weren't many women in high engineering ranks when she began in the field more than 20 years ago.
"Having a diverse population in the design itself can actually bring different points of views and perspective to the design so that it is again more accessible and more effective in its outcome for all of us," she said.
Guidoboni hopes in the coming decades, the new facility on campus will be an integral part in engineering and computing students' educations. The new facility will break ground by early fall and should take two or so years to be complete.