Research facilities

The Biodesign Institute, housed in the Biodesign A and Biodesign B buildings, is Arizona’s largest investment in bioscience infrastructure to date. Completed in 2004, the institute has unlocked many doors to discovery, including the ability to study and construct systems at the nanoscale — a size 1,000 times smaller than a human hair.

Home to 10 research centers, the Biodesign Institute is a conduit for Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering researchers to combine their expertise with other ASU scientists. Fields of study in the Biodesign Institute’s research include environmental engineering, materials science and engineering, electrical engineering and biomedical engineering.

The institute’s research includes disease prevention and cures, the reduction of injury-induced pain and physical limitations and renewable and sustainable resources.

The Biodesign Institute is master-planned as four interconnected buildings that will comprise 800,000 square feet. Currently, three buildings are complete and house more than 1,300 faculty, staff and students.

An architectural landmark with more than 20 awards, the facility was named 2006 Laboratory of the Year by R&D World and became Arizona’s first building to earn platinum-level LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. The Biodesign Institute has attracted more than $300 million in external funding since its inception, including competitive grant awards and support from philanthropic sources.

The Engineering Research Center is home to research and instructional labs, as well as offices for faculty in:

• aerospace engineering
• biomedical engineering
• chemical engineering
• civil, environmental and sustainable engineering
• electrical engineering
• materials science and engineering
• mechanical engineering

Also located in the Engineering Research Center is the Adaptive Intelligent Materials & Systems Center, the Power Systems Engineering Research Center, Quantum Energy and Sustainable Solar Technologies Research Center and NanoFab, a flexible foundry that offers state-of-the-art device processing and characterization tools to individuals and companies.

The Engineering Research Center houses everything from state-of-the-art nanofabrication equipment to a 100-square-foot clean room for researchers making strides in quantum mechanics, photovoltaics, aeronautics and civil infrastructure.

The Barry M. Goldwater Center for Science and Engineering is shared by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering. The Goldwater Center contains faculty offices and classrooms, as well as research and instructional labs for:

• aerospace engineering
• biomedical engineering
• chemical engineering
• chemistry
• electrical engineering
• industrial engineering
• mechanical engineering
• physics

The Goldwater Center is home to several important research centers such as the LeRoy Eyring Center for Solid State Science, the Sensor, Signal & Information Processing Center and facilities for ion beam analysis.

The work conducted in these research centers affects many fields, including wireless communication, sustainable and environmental technologies and homeland security.

MacroTechnology Works, located off of the Tempe campus in the ASU Research Park, is a unique enterprise and research building that provides ASU with the ability to advance research in partnership with private industry. MacroTechnology Works launched with a $100 million investment to establish a leading-edge flexible display fabrication facility to support collaborative research among the federal government, ASU and industry to advance full-color flexible display technology and flexible display manufacturing to the brink of commercialization. Along with wet labs, dry labs, high bay space and offices, the facility boasts a number of clean rooms, including one measuring a remarkable 40,000 square feet.

MacroTechnology Works is also home to Quantum Energy and Sustainable Solar Technologies, ASU’s first national engineering research center supported jointly by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy. Quantum Energy and Sustainable Solar Technologies works to solve challenges to use solar power in economically viable and sustainable ways.

The School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy, the School of Earth and Space Exploration and the Department of Physics also conduct research at MacroTechnology Works along with several non-ASU research partners.

The Engineering Center, composed of A through G wings, is an important research and instruction facility for the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering. It is comprised by a group of buildings connected by shared courtyards and hallways. This complex houses a majority of the Fulton Schools’ classrooms, research and instructional labs and many administrative offices. The complex also includes student services such as an Engineering Tutoring Center and the 7,500-square-foot engineering student center. The student center provides access to study pods, WiFi, loaner laptops and meeting and conference facilities.

In addition, the eSpace Lab design and protoyping studio is reflective of our commitment to provide students with the experience needed to prepare them to be engineers of tomorrow. Aimed at first-year students, eSpace is designed for the early introduction of engineering thought processes and concepts through hands-on, problem-solving projects. Built in 1956, the Engineering Center A Wing has seen a lot of students come and go. This historic building currently houses research and instructional labs for civil engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and aerospace engineering.