Do you need custom furniture fast? Read about the top universities we've worked with in research, architecture, and design to enhance classroom experience!

AUSTIN, TEXAS, USA, January 6, 2020 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Did you know that Formaspace has manufactured new furniture installations for over 350 different colleges and universities? We’re quite honored to help enhance learning experiences on campus by providing modern furniture solutions — for new and updated science and computer labs, lecture halls, classrooms, cafeterias, Makerspaces and more. We also take great pride in the accomplishments of our college and university clients, so this week we’d like to share some latest developments at Texas A&M, Harvard University, Cornell University, and the University of Texas at Dallas.

With a current enrollment of more than 68,000 students, Texas A&M is one of the largest universities in the country. And, like Texas itself (whose population has been growing 1.80% each year), Texas A&M has been expanding rapidly as well: 2017 saw 18,000 more students on campus compared to 2011.

The Scientific research and engineering programs at Texas A&M are very well respected and well-funded — the school ranks 16th in overall research and development funding.

Laboratory scientists at Texas A&M’s Inspired Nanomaterials and Tissue Engineering Lab in the Department of Biomedical Engineering recently published new research on how to encourage new blood vessels to grow in the body, a process known as angiogenesis. Their new, novel method uses nanosilicates (essentially microscopic pieces of clay) to deliver specialized proteins that stimulate new blood vessel formation.

This technique may pave the way for new methods for delivering growth factors to the body, as well as providing new clinical options for healthcare providers performing tissue implants or healing wounds. The new research may also provide insight into how to prevent cancers from generating new blood vessels that allow tumors to grow.

According to biomedical engineering assistant professor Dr. Akhilesh K. Gaharwar, “clay nanoparticles work like tiny weak magnets that hold the growth factors within the polymeric hydrogels and release very slowly.” Dr. Gaharwar explains that “sustained and prolonged release of physiologically relevant doses of growth factors are important to avoid problems due to high doses, such as abrupt tissue formation.”

Texas A&M is also expanding its engineering programs on campus. However, the rapid growth of students posed a problem for the Dwight Look College of Engineering. Their landmark Zachry Engineering Building, built in 1972, was woefully undersized to serve today’s cohort of 18,000 engineering students, much less the expected enrollment of 25,000 students in 2025. The challenge facing Texas A&M was to create a new, student-centric, state-of-the-art engineering design center that would fit within the existing facility footprint, yet provide space for more students. The school also wanted to transform the way students learn, by emphasizing peer-to-peer learning as well as providing hands-on experiences to design and build projects in cutting-edge makerspaces.

While Texas A&M is a public school, the project to create a new engineering facility was funded privately. In fact, the students themselves (represented by the Student Engineer’s Council) kicked off the fundraising campaign for the new facility — by donating $1 million toward the project. It was later matched by over $75 million in private donations.

After four years of construction, the new Zachry Engineering Education Complex, known by students as the “Zack,” was dedicated in September 2018. Texas A&M University President Michael K. Young hailed the new building as a stunning feat of engineering. At 525,000 square feet, the new facility is the largest academic building on the Texas A&M campus; the covered area is equivalent to 12 acres and could fit two Boeing 747 jets inside, parked nose-to-nose.

The New Building Features:
•Active learning classrooms
•24×7 access to laboratories
•Collaborative meeting areas
•Faculty and administrative offices
•Starbucks with grab-and-go dining
•E-quad green space featuring math-inspired artwork
•18 large classrooms for 100 students
•14 smaller classrooms
•60,000 square foot Fisher Engineering Design Center Makerspace

President Young also praised the way the building supports modern, student-centered, flexible teaching methods. For example, in many of the classrooms, both the tables and chairs are mounted on wheels, which makes them easy to reconfigure for different needs. In the Eagle newspaper, Young said that these spaces are “active learning pods — not just classrooms — but places where students gather, where they work together, work on projects that they have an opportunity to internalize and actually use the things that they’re learning in the classroom with respect to engineering.”

Formaspace is very proud to have been part of the Zachary project. We manufactured over 200 desks and tables used in the student laboratories.

From its inception in 1636 to today, Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts reigns as one of the world’s most prestigious institutions of higher learning. Harvard consistently ranks in the top 10 of nearly all academic surveys (for example, it’s #8 on the survey of research and development funding).

Given the wealth of excellent academic programs at Harvard, it’s hard to identify which discipline stands above the others. But if we had to choose only one, we might select Harvard’s graduate-level architecture school, known as the Graduate School of Design, or GSD for short.

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Mehmet Atesoglu
Formaspace
+5122792792
email us here

Caroline Chao (MArch '19)