TN TECH – Tennessee Tech University officials and the campus community broke ground on its Advanced Construction and Manufacturing Engineering (ACME) Building on Friday, celebrating the second building in the College of Engineering’s recent expansion of facilities designed to support interdisciplinary collaboration and hands-on learning.

The $89.6 million ACME Building will be devoted to “making” on a grand scale, featuring industry-grade instructional labs to provide students with experience in real-world practices in advanced manufacturing and construction, fabrication, machine learning and cyber-physical systems, industrial robotics, mechatronics and concrete and steel manufacturing and testing.

Held on the future construction site at the corner of Stadium Drive and Wings Up Way, adjacent to the college’s recently opened Ashraf Islam Engineering Building, the event brought together university leaders, donors, industry partners, faculty, students and community members to mark a milestone in hands-on education.

“Groundbreakings are a significant moment in a university’s history, and we’ve been fortunate in the last few years to celebrate these quite often. They recognize growth, renewal, energy, vision, relevance – it’s all focused on the future,” said Tech President Phil Oldham during remarks at the event. “We’re investing in the students we currently have and the students yet to come. These groundbreakings remind us of our commitment to tomorrow and our commitment to our purpose: developing top quality graduates to lead our communities, our state and our country.”

Oldham went on to thank state and federal leaders, including Gov. Bill Lee, for their strong support of the building’s construction. ACME was approved for funding in the State of Tennessee’s fiscal year 2022-23 state budget with additional funding provided in the fiscal year 2025-26 budget for a total of $89.6 million from the state.

The building will be cross-disciplinary within the College of Engineering and will provide Tech students with practical, applied engineering skills that manufacturing and construction employers need.

“The Advanced Construction and Manufacturing Engineering Building will fill a critical gap for the state’s growing manufacturing and construction sectors by providing students with direct hands-on experience with the kind of industry-grade equipment, tools and technology they will encounter in the workplace,” said Joseph C. Slater, dean of the College of Engineering. “This building—combined with our ABET-accredited programs, strong industry partnerships, robust co-op and internship programs and reputation for producing career-ready graduates—will ensure our students are ready to hit the ground running in manufacturing and construction careers.”

With over 3,200 total students in fall 2025, the College of Engineering is ranked in the top 150 best undergraduate engineering programs in the country by U.S. News and World Report. Tech engineering graduates earn an average starting salary of $86,320, and the university ranks in the Top 50 institutions nationwide for the lowest median debt among graduates, according to the publication’s latest rankings.

Highlights of ACME labs and facilities include:

• The Gary Durham Foundry, a smart foundry, metallurgical lab and casting lab for advanced metal casting and materials research, nearly doubling the size of the current foundry. Tech is one of only 19 institutions in the U.S. to have an educational foundry certified by the Foundry Educational Foundation.
• An advanced manufacturing lab for instruction and research in advanced manufacturing processes and techniques.
• A state-of-the-art PLC lab and robotics lab.
• A 10,000-square-foot machine shop and 4,300-square-foot fabrication lab to consolidate Tech’s current machine and prototyping shops into one, open space.
• A computer lab to support CAD/CAM 3D modeling for manufacturing.
• Material formulation and characterization labs and exterior demonstration yard.
• A structural testing lab for the testing of large structures over 50 feet long.
• A fabrication lab and plating and coating labs.

The building will also house new locations for the Center for Manufacturing Research, a Tennessee Tech Center of Excellence conducting research in smart manufacturing and sustainable materials and manufacturing, and the Department of Manufacturing and Engineering Technology.

At the ceremonial groundbreaking, students, including Emma Waller, a Tech senior majoring in engineering technology with a concentration in mechatronics, also shared how the new building will impact future Golden Eagles.

“The engineering technology program at Tech has given me experience in ways I never expected,” said Waller, who also serves as president of Tech’s student chapter of the American Foundry Society. “Everything we are taught in the classroom is accompanied with hands-on labs where we can apply our knowledge… and I truly believe without these experiences I wouldn’t be as successful as I am today.”

The ACME building construction is anticipated to be completed in Fall 2028. To learn more, visit www.tntech.edu/WatchUsGrow.