GLENDALE, AZ — Glendale Community College officially cut the ribbon Thursday on its new STEAMworks Innovation Center, a 10,000-square-foot facility built to give West Valley students hands-on experience with the technology shaping the modern workforce.
The center features two primary spaces: a virtual reality and augmented reality room where students can run immersive simulations, and a maker space equipped with 3D printers, drone technology, CNC routers, laser cutters, mills, lathes, and welding stations.
For computer science student Maximiliano Pimentel, the center represents something bigger than just new equipment.
"I think it is very good that they are investing in the education for the students and like building this type of infrastructure for us," Pimentel said. "I think it was going to be great for our education."
Dean of Career and Technical Education Dr. Susan Campbell says the facility was built with one goal in mind: getting students ready for careers, not just classrooms.
"Whether they're an artist, whether they are going to be an engineer, it's a great place for them to come in and get the opportunity to experience and learn by doing," Campbell said.
The project grew from an initial $1 million vision to a roughly $7.5 million investment, funded primarily through grants including a $5 million STEM grant. Campbell says the West Valley's rapid growth made the investment necessary.
"The types of companies that are coming in are changing," Campbell said. "We've had a huge expansion of need for engineering technology and advanced manufacturing, programming, construction management."
To make sure the curriculum keeps pace with industry, GCC built the center around input from more than 20 industry partners per program, including Boeing, Intel, Honeywell, NASA, and the Arizona Department of Homeland Security. Construction management programs are being shaped in partnership with ASU, GCon Construction, and McCarthy Construction.
"The employers are always telling us the types of skills they need, and we also want to develop not what they need just for today but also for where the industry is going," Campbell said.
The center is also designed to reach beyond the college campus. GCC plans to use STEAMworks to host K-12 robotics and engineering competitions, summer camps, and community outreach events to build a pipeline of future students from across the West Valley.
Digital media arts instructor Casey Farina, who spent five to six years helping envision and design the space, says the technology inside represents the future of how people will learn and create.
"I think it's going to be one of the primary modes of expression coming up," Farina said. "Students can take their visions and manifest them as a way of thinking about, like designing the kind of world they want to live in."
The STEAMworks Innovation Center is now open to GCC students and faculty.
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