The purpose of the recently completed Design Center is to emphasize the centrality of design in engineering at The Cooper Union by providing a physical focus for that activity. Interdisciplinary in character, The Louis and Jeanette Brooks Engineering Design Center is an industrial-strength facility making available the tools, information, and services that students and faculty engaged in design projects or design research require at the point of need. Its space has been conceived to create a synergy of powerful computers, good software, connectedness, and people: students, faculty, engineers from industry, business people, artists, architects, and even poets.

In combination with the Forrest Wade Rapid Prototyping Laboratory, the Andrew Labowsky Sr. Materials Engineering Laboratory, and the Acoustics Research Center, the Design Center emphasizes hands-on, real-life experience through the design and building of real products for real customers in conditions similar to those found in the best industrial practice. In combination with the Multimedia Presentation Room/Theater and the Gallery, it offers an opportunity to explore new dimensions of design.

The Center provides close to 3,000 square feet of space for the varied activities of design groups and classes as well as individual projects. Each area has been conceived so that it can work independently or be integrated with any of the other areas.

Specific features of the Center include

� The Design Studio, where four clusters of seven workstations are connected to printers and a plotter. It is also visually integrated and networked with the Forrest Wade Rapid Prototyping Laboratory across the Gallery.

� Four Design Carrels, each equipped with table, chairs, a video conferencing set, a monitor, and power and information terminals for laptops, can accommodate design groups of up to five or six people for design reviews or conferences. These carrels, acoustically isolated from the Design Studio, can be accessed from the Studio or directly from the Gallery. They also communicate with one another.

� The Multimedia Presentation Room/Theater is an auditorium/lecture room able to accommodate 40 people comfortably. Fully equipped with cameras for video taping presentations and audiovisual and computer facilities, it features high-resolution rear projection so that an adequate level of lighting may be maintained for the audience. Outlets for laptop computers are available in the center of the room under a floor tile. Walls can be used for projection from roll-in computer projectors or slide projectors, and a blue screen for chroma keying video can be unrolled from the ceiling.

� The Gallery can accommodate flat displays and has shelves and cases for three-dimensional objects. Glass walls allow for

visibility of design activities. Also included are computer monitors and projectors in the Gallery to showcase lab activities or exhibits. The Gallery includes benches for informal gathering of students, faculty, and visitors.

� The Forrest Wade Rapid Prototyping Laboratory, visible across the Gallery, contains an industrial CNC Bridgeport Milling machine and a Unival Puma-762 Robot. It also features an Actua 2100 rapid prototyping machine which can directly produce wax or resin prototypes to be used either as models for investment castings or for shape analysis.

In addition, a Morgan-Press GT-100 injection molding machine, a Light Machines SpectraLight turning center, and a desktop Dyna 2200 milling machine allow for prototyping products designed in the Design Center.

For more information on the Design Center�s capabilities and on upcoming events and exhibitions, contact: