Building a Next-Generation Workforce
New Shady Grove Facility to Boost Medical, Science Education for Maryland Students
By Liam Farrell
Photo by John T. Consoli
UMD’s new bachelor of science program in biocomputational engineering will be housed at the 220,000-square-foot Biomedical Sciences and Engineering building at the Universities at Shady Grove in Rockville, Md.
A striking new academic building will give students in UMD science programs at the Universities at Shady Grove a cutting-edge place to prepare for some of the fastest-growing sectors of the state economy, including health, health care delivery and biosciences.
The $175 million Biomedical Sciences and Engineering (BSE) Education Facility officially opened yesterday as the fourth academic building on the Universities at Shady Grove (USG) campus in Montgomery County.
“We are taking the next really exciting step forward,” Gov. Larry Hogan told the hundreds of people gathered in the building’s atrium. “It truly is projects like this that are a strong example of how we are changing Maryland for the better.”
USG offers approximately 80 undergraduate and graduate programs from nine state universities; UMD offers tracks in communication, engineering, criminology and criminal justice; accounting, management, marketing, public health science, biological sciences and information science.
Forthcoming BSE programs include embedded systems and internet of things; biocomputational engineering; autonomy and mechatronics; and agricultural science and technology.
Stewart Edelstein, executive director of USG, called the building a “game changer” that will ensure all students are technologically sophisticated and ready for “STEMM” sectors: science, technology, engineering, mathematics and the medical field.
“The BSE is about science … and leading the application of science to improve the human condition,” he said. “This is a transformational and pivotal moment for USG, Montgomery County and the state of Maryland.”
The six-level, 220,000-square-foot building will eventually more than double USG’s enrollment capacity from 3,000 to 7,500 students. Its features include:
- 20 fully equipped teaching laboratories;
- two 120-plus-seat lecture halls;
- 12 active-learning classrooms;
- clinical training facilities such as a dental clinic; and
- product design and maker spaces, and an innovation and entrepreneurship center.
The building is also on track to be certified as LEED platinum, the highest environmental designation given by the U.S. Green Business Council.
Jeff Galvin, CEO of Rockville-based American Gene Technologies, said the building is “exactly what we need to collaborate” between the public and private sectors.
“Anything is possible here with the great university system and this investment,” he said.
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