Trine investing $8.5 million to launch computing school
By Lisa Green | The Journal Gazette
To help meet the growing need for professionals in high-tech areas, Trine University announced Tuesday it will invest more than $8 million for a School of Computing.
The school, set to launch in the fall of 2019, will provide training for careers such as hardware and software development, networking and information technology.
The school eventually will be housed in a planned $8.5 million expansion to Fawick Hall on Trine University's main campus in Angola.
The School of Computing will incorporate current Trine programs in computer and software engineering and a “revitalized computer science and information technology major that will feature new tracks in the increasingly important fields of cybersecurity, health informatics and web development,” a news release said.
The school will allow computer science students to collaborate more closely with students and faculty in engineering, providing “greater synergy for the educational experience in all majors and giving computing students access to the latest technology,” John Shannon, vice president for academic affairs, said in a statement.
“We strongly believe this future-thinking curriculum and our planned leading-edge facilities in the expanded Fawick Hall will ensure we produce highly skilled computer science professionals who will continue to be in demand by industry,” Shannon said.
Trine's fall enrollment is about 5,075. The university is still working on projections for how many students might enroll in the computing school for the initial fall 2019 semester, university spokesman James Tew said through email.
Fundraising has started for the Fawick Hall expansion, which was approved Oct. 5 by the university's board of trustees. No timeline has been set for construction.
Current designs for the expansion include an airy, glass-walled exterior. The expansion also will feature state-of-the-art technology supporting new classrooms and labs, including an artificial intelligence/virtual reality lab; movable walls in some classroom areas; and an active learning lab with a maker space to foster creativity, the release said.
Trine University President Earl D. Brooks II said the design will “reflect the same quality and aesthetics demonstrated in other recent projects on the Trine campus.|”
It's the second major academic program expansion Trine announced this fall. In October, the university said it would expand its health sciences programs, including planned degrees in applied health sciences, surgical technology, occupational therapy, anesthesia, nursing, radiologic technology and speech language pathology.
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