Milwaukee School of Engineering leaders on Wednesday celebrated the grand opening of the new We Energies STEM Center on its campus.
The 10,000-square-foot center at 1444 N. Water St. was developed in partnership with Milwaukee-based We Energies, Rockwell Automation and Northwestern Mutual and Madison-based American Family Insurance. It was built on the ground floor space on the north side of the parking structure that is topped by Herman Viets Field at 1305 N. Broadway.
The center is now home to all of MSOE’s STEM outreach efforts and hosts K-12 students from across Milwauke for hands-on learning experiences. It includes a flexible technology studio, design and development lab, machine tooling area and a FIRST Robotics playing field for teams to practice on a regulation field before they compete.
The new center is an outgrowth of MSOE’s investment in outreach in 2017, which led the college to establish a dedicated outreach department to introduce more students to science, technology, engineering and mathematics opportunities. More than 15,000 students from 150 K-12 schools have participated in STEM outreach program since then.Â
The center allows MSOE to grow its in-house programming while also partnering on programs with K-12 schools, local companies, community groups and organizations. The programming is available to students from all school types, including public, private, charter and homeschool.
Uilhelin/Wilson – Ramlow/Stein Architects were the project developers and Catalyst Construction the construction manager.
In addition to the main corporate partners, Milwaukee Tool gifted tools to help outfit the STEM Center. MSOE Corporation member Scott Haag and his wife Linda have also made a gift in support of this project.
