PEORIA, Ill. – Hundreds gathered at Bradley University Friday to see the new $100 million Business and Engineering Convergence Center.
The new building will house classes for the Foster College of Business and Caterpillar College of Engineering and Technology.
Board of Trustees member James Shadid said the concept of the facility is now a reality.
“This is so much more than just a building. It is a new concept in education to ensure our students are ready for what lies ahead,” Shadid said.
The floor plan is an open concept with many windows to let in natural light.
Dean of the Caterpillar College of Technology, Lex Akers, visited many businesses Apple, Google, and Microsoft to find innovative spaces.
“Innovation does not come through sending emails. It comes through people sitting down and talking to each other,” Akler said. “Our mission was not to build a monument to the past, but a beacon to the future.”
Bradley Senior Naydeen Musaitif said that after graduation, students were expected to think like an engineer and business person simultaneously.
“But they weren’t taught how to do that,” Musaitif said. “Now with our Business and Engineering Convergence Center, we’re taught to do that and we’re encouraged to collaborate. We can navigate each other’s worlds much easier.”
