SECCM Labs Celebrates Completion

RWU honored the completion of the SECCM Labs building, now open for classes, with an Open House

By Anna Cohen
People in the CM lab
RWU community members tour the Materials & Methods Lab.

The Roger Williams community watched the building grow from the foundation up. Now, SECCM Labs is buzzing with activity. This morning, the community celebrated the building’s completion with an Open House, which included student-led tours and conversations with SECCM faculty and staff. 

"This has actually opened up and enhanced what we're able to do. This is much more cutting-edge. We're excited to use it," said Maija Benitz, Assistant Professor of Engineering. 

Watch SECCM Labs Grow

"I actually have classes in here. I'm excited to use the new open spaces. The white boards and everything are a nice addition. Now you can work on projects really easily," said Jessica Jensen, an RWU senior studying computer engineering.  She led curious students, faculty, and staff on tours through the three-story, state-of-the-art building. 

The mood was upbeat as community members explored the laboratories for the first time. Onlookers asked questions of SECCM staff and marveled at the array of technology. While some students were there for the Open House, others were chatting with friends, working in the common spaces, or going to class. 

"It’s definitely nice to have another building. There’s more space. It looks more high-tech, high-rent," said Jack Marchioni, mechanical engineering major and RWU senior, as he settled in for a class in the Electrical Engineering Lab. 

SECCM Labs brings laboratory work to the heart of the Bristol campus, giving students access to the latest in technology and allowing the greater community to witness them in action. 

"The big change is that the ground floor labs are replacing a space we were leasing in downtown Bristol. The convenience of having them right here makes it so much easier to work with the students," said William Palm, Associate Professor of Engineering. 

We followed Jensen on a tour and learned about what SECCM labs has to offer for engineering, computer science, and construction management students as well as the greater RWU community. Check out what we found, and stop by SECCM Labs to see it for yourself. 

Twenty-four television screens combine to make an interactive display in the Construction Management Emergent Technologies Lab.

"We can have groups presenting their work next to each other and compare them in real time. We create digital models, actual-size, and walk through the buildings," said Bilge Gökhan Çelik, Associate Professor of Construction Management.
This two-ton crane in the Construction Management Methods & Materials Lab is capable of lifting a small SUV. "It will be used to show safety protocol to students working on the job site," said Laboratory Manager James Dorothy.
In the Electrical Engineering Lab, breadboards and oscilloscopes allow students to build and test circuits.

"We’ll learn electronics and will definitely use the breadboards. It’s nice that we will have equipment for everyone in our lab. Before you had to share, but now you can do your own work," said Jack Marchioni, mechanical engineering major and RWU senior.
The purpose of these Tensile and Compression Testing Machines in the Mechanics and Materials Lab is to test the strength of materials.

"Believe it or not, metal is an elastic material like a rubber band, except we typically can't stretch it by hand. When you bend a paper clip, you keep bending it until it fails. You get a curve and then it fails, so then you know the failure strength of the metal. Manufacturers will say, 'This rebar has 36,000 PSI failure rate.' You can put a piece of rebar in there and stretch and break it and see if that is a true statement," said SECCM Dean Robert Potter.
"That machine is for torsion. It twists materials until they break," said Jessica Jensen, computer engineering major and RWU senior. "For our lab we used Home Depot and Lowe’s bolts and twisted them until they broke and saw which was stronger. It was so close, they were pretty much the same."
Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machines are used to fabricate materials using computer input. "You use those in your very first semester to fabricate a piece for the semester long project, which is some kind of game board," said Jensen.
"This one is a pipe flow lab. We start the lab by setting up all the valves in random ways and we say, 'You have to turn on the valve and get the water to flow in a specific way.' You have to find a way to correct the path to get it to flow the way you want it to flow, taking measurements along the way. We try to mess it up as much as possible and then students can figure it out. It’s really fun, this is one of my favorite ones to do," said Maija Benitz, Assistant Professor of Engineering.
"This one is a small version of a wind tunnel. Students can put things into the clear section and it generates an air stream so they can make measurements," said William Palm, Associate Professor of Engineering.
The Pressure Measuring Bench provides ten different pressure measurement systems.

"You can measure the same pressure different ways and compare them. We used to have this really funny thing that was made by one of our lab technicians that was bendy tubing. It worked very well but it looked very DIY. We are excited for this one," said Benitz.

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