OMA's first scientific building, Lab City, to open in September

2017-08-31T14:58:00-04:00

OMA’s first scientific building—laboratory and engineering school, Lab City CentraleSupélec in Paris Saclay, has been completed and will open to students this September.

The university, which is now one of the most prestigious French grandes écoles specialized in engineering, was formed in 2015 by a merger between Ecole Centrale Paris and Supélec. CentraleSupélec's new building is part of a 22ha campus located at the heart of the future district Joliot-Curie, for which OMA has developed the masterplan, placing the university alongside research institutes and major tech companies.

Photograph by Vitor Oliveira, Courtesy of OMA

The public areas of the school are treated as urban tissue—streets, terraces and center square are fully day-lit through a large translucent roof. Grided independent blocks house laboratories and classrooms, and as they increase in height, their roof terraces provide open workspaces for students and views to the heart of the structure.

Photograph by Philippe Ru...

University of Michigan to get $800,000 drone testing lab

2017-08-15T17:54:00-04:00

Autonomous aerial vehicles have a host of applications, researchers say. Large ones can be used for commercial transport and national security. Small drones could survey disaster sites, inspect infrastructures like bridges and wind turbines, gather environmental and atmospheric data, and deliver packages, for example. Package delivery goes beyond Amazon orders.

University of Michigan’s College of Engineering is adding an outdoor fly lab for testing autonomous aerial vehicles to the university’s spate of advanced robotics facilities. Designed by Harley Ellis Deveraux, M-Air will be a netted, four-story complex situated next to the site where the Ford Motor Company Robotics Building will open in late 2019. Construction of the $800,000 M-Air is expected to begin in August and be complete by the end of the year.

“M-Air will allow us to push the edge of our algorithms and equipment in a safe way, where the worst that can happen is it falls from the sky,” said Ella Atkins, professor of aerospace engineering. “With this facility, we can pursue aggressive educational and research flight projects that involve high risk of fly-away or loss-of-control—and in realistic wind, lighting and sensor conditions.”

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OMA's first scientific building, Lab City, to open in September

University of Michigan to get $800,000 drone testing lab