Steve Goodwin, Dean of Umass Amherst College of Natural Sciences, said, “This relationship highlights Trimble as a forward-thinking company, and I commend it for its very strong commitment to education, research and public service. The possibilities of the Trimble Technology Lab are limitless. As many more students and faculty across campus have access to these technologies, UMass Amherst will broaden our applications of surveying, 3D building modeling, performance analysis, and digital fabrication in new and exciting ways.”
Until the new Design Building opens this spring, the Trimble Technology Lab will be temporarily located in Holdsworth Hall. The lab will benefit four departments and three colleges at the beginning: College of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning), College of Natural Sciences (Department of Environmental Conservation, Department of Geosciences, and the Building and Construction Technology Program), and the College of Humanities and Fine Arts (Department of Architecture).
Alexander Schreyer, senior lecturer and BCT program director, said, “We are very excited about receiving this state-of-the-art technology and to be able to share these new capabilities with our colleagues in the Design Building-the Department of Architecture and the Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning.”
Schreyer is also the author of popular textbook Architectural Design with SketchUp. He explained that, in creating the new Design Building, Leers-Weinzapfel Associates actually used Trimble’s 3D modeling software; I’d say that’s rather fitting. The Trimble Technology Lab will fit right in with the makerspace that already exists on the UMass Amherst campus, the Digital Media Lab (DML) 3D Innovation Center, housed in the W.E.B Du Bois Library. The UMass Amherst Library worked with MakerBot back in 2015 to set up the first large-scale 3D printing MakerBot Innovation Center at a university library.
“We are extremely excited by our new relationship with UMass. Trimble’s broad portfolio is highly relevant for students at the university. The next generation of architecture, engineering, construction and operations professionals will be able to experience the breadth and depth of our construction lifecycle solutions. We also look forward to supporting and learning from these new professionals as they experience and apply our solutions to real-world applications in their curricula,” said Roz Buick, Vice President, Trimble.
The Trimble Technology Lab, in the new Design Building, will continue to encourage rapid prototyping, entrepreneurship, and experimentation among the students. UMass Amherst, the flagship of the five-campus UMass system, was founded in 1863, and is home to the Commonwealth Honors College. Due to its continuing research and creative work in all fields, it has been classified as a doctoral university with the “highest research activity,” or R1, by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Watch this video to learn more about the new Design Building: