Skip to main content Skip to main navigation Skip to page-level navigation Go to the Disability Resource Centre Website Go to the DRC Booking Accommodation Portal Go to the Inclusive Technology Lab Website
The University of British Columbia
UBC - A Place of Mind
The University of British Columbia Okanagan campus
UBC Okanagan News
  • Research
  • People
    • Student Profile
    • Faculty Profile
    • Alumni Spotlight
  • Campus Life
    • Campus News
    • Student Life
    • Teaching & Learning
  • Community Engagement
  • About the Collection
    • Stories for Media
  • UBCO Events
  • Search All Stories
Home / 2011 / May / 25 / Engineered vision becoming reality at UBC’s Okanagan campus
Research

Engineered vision becoming reality at UBC’s Okanagan campus

May 25, 2011

A key facility for knowledge creation in the Okanagan has gone from blueprint to a bricks-and-mortar reality, as the new $68-million Engineering, Management and Education Complex nears completion at UBC’s Okanagan campus.

On Thursday, more than a dozen members of the Innovation Okanagan Network (ION) toured the four-storey, 14,500 sq. m. building, which will be ready for occupancy later this summer. The facility will house offices for the School of Engineering, Faculty of Management, and Faculty of Education, and a variety of classrooms, laboratories, social spaces and student services.

An idea-exchange group representing a cross-section of business, government and academic communities, ION pressed for the creation of an engineering program at UBC’s Okanagan campus. When UBC opened its campus in Kelowna in 2005, it featured a new School of Engineering and Faculty of Management­ — but neither of the faculties had permanent homes. That will change when the new complex opens this summer.

Spiro Yannacopoulos, Director of the School of Engineering, led the tour with fellow ION members from the Okanagan Regional Innovation Council (ORIC), Okanagan Science and Technology Education Council (OSTEC), university professors and industry experts in the region.

“It is a great pleasure to show this remarkable new complex to the Innovation Okanagan Network,” said Yannacopoulos. “ION has been behind us every step of the way as we established the School of Engineering over the past six years, including getting full accreditation for all of our programs by the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board (CEAB).

“We are very excited about the future of engineering research and education that this new facility will enable,” he said. “We have achieved a great deal already, and our future achievements will not be possible without the support and advocacy that ION is providing.”

Last year, School of Engineering researchers averaged $279,109 each in funding awards, bringing the total funds raised to $14 million.

Jack Van der Star, secretary and founding member of ION, notes that the organization is volunteer-based and unincorporated, and it doesn’t have a bank account. But it is an important player in pursuing and sparking initiatives that benefit Okanagan industries.

“We pride ourselves on being effective at creating positive change at the blueprint level,” says Van der Star. “We are very much about leveraging the Engineering and Management Schools as tools for clean economic development for the region and beyond.”

Faculty and staff will begin moving into the Engineering, Management and Education Complex this summer. An official opening ceremony will be held later this year or in early 2012.

Media Contact

Bud Mortenson
Director
University Relations

The University of British Columbia
Okanagan campus
Tel: 250-807-9255
E-mail: bud.mortenson@ubc.ca

Content type: Media Release
More content from: School of Engineering

Trending Stories

  • UBCO Downtown
  • UBCO celebrates the graduates of 2022
  • Gold-medal tennis player, human rights activist win UBCO honours
  • Bold new plans unveiled for UBCO Downtown
  • UBCO researchers change the game when it comes to ...
All Stories
Contact Media Relations

About UBC Okanagan

UBC’s Okanagan campus is an innovative hub for research and learning founded in partnership with local Indigenous peoples, the Syilx Okanagan Nation, in whose traditional, ancestral and unceded territory the campus resides. The most established and influential global rankings all consistently place UBC in the top five per cent of universities in the world, and among the top three Canadian universities.

The Okanagan campus combines a globally recognized UBC education with a tight-knit and entrepreneurial community that welcomes students and faculty from around the world in British Columbia’s stunning Okanagan Valley. For more visit ok.ubc.ca.

Discover more about UBC Okanagan

Find a Program Admissions Book a Tour UBCO Facts
UBC Okanagan Campus News, University Relations

Innovation Precinct Annexation 1 (IA1)
3505 Spectrum Court
Kelowna, BC Canada V1V 2Z1

We respectfully acknowledge the Syilx Okanagan Nation and their peoples, in whose traditional, ancestral, unceded territory UBC Okanagan is situated.

 

Search all stories

Subscribe to receive news by email

Visit UBC's Vancouver news room

Global and Admin Messages

News

Okanagan Campus

UBC Okanagan News
Okanagan Campus
3333 University Way
Kelowna, BC Canada V1V 1V7
Find us on
  
Back to top
The University of British Columbia
  • Emergency Procedures |
  • Terms of Use |
  • Copyright |
  • Accessibility