Boomtown: Sidney Lu Mechanical Engineering Building

SPRING 2022

The project includes a new five-level, 25,000 square feet addition to the east of MEB, a 3,000 sq. ft. space increase on the north end, and more than 60,000 square feet of existing space reimagined, reengineered, and optimized for education, innovation, and community.

Since 1950, the Mechanical Engineering Building has been the foundation and headquarters for one of the nation’s top engineering programs: the Department of Mechanical Science & Engineering. Its hallways have been traveled by more than 20,000 students who have learned, experimented, and succeeded in becoming engineers — many of whom went on to have an incredible impact on society.

Over the past two years, the building has been transformed.  It is now named the Sidney Lu Mechanical Engineering Building  (Lu MEB) after the department’s distinguished 1981 alumnus.  Lu saw the opportunity to transform the building into an incredible, 21st-century facility that would inspire and empower current and future generations of MechSE students to be the best in the world. And he stepped up in a powerful and meaningful way, putting more than $20 Million toward the project.

“I can’t thank enough all the great teachers who touched my life. Thank you for opening my mind and letting me know the small way I could contribute to the continuing success of this great institution.”

Sidney Lu
CEO of Foxconn Interconnect Technology

This historic project included a five-story addition on the east side of the original building, a single-story addition to the north, and 66,000 square feet of existing space reimagined, reengineered, and optimized for education, innovation, and community.