Proposed Engineering Centre for Experiential Learning (ExCEL)

A living laboratory for engineering students to experience hands-on learning and showcase sustainable building technologies.

The Engineering Centre for Experiential Learning will be a multi-storey facility located adjacent to or near the John Hodgins Engineering Building. The centre will serve as a common meeting ground for Engineering students from all disciplines. It will provide a home for student clubs and societies, collaborative workspaces, design studios, display and demonstration spaces, areas for students to meet, relax and work together, as well as selected student services. Enhancing the student learning experience in the Faculty of Engineering, the proposed ExCEL building will provide a venue for hands on learning as well as serving as a living laboratory for sustainable building technologies. The open concept will show construction techniques and building materials. The building's energy use will be available in real time, showing the energy cost of the building’s operation.

The ExCEL facility will showcase sustainable building technologies with the aim of creating an ultra-green building with the potential for a net zero energy rating. Technologies involving solar, geothermal and other technologies will not only power the centre, they will serve as interactive labs where students can, for example, study the impact of various energy-saving strategies, how they interact and how they are impacted by weather. In this capacity the ExCEL building will function as a living laboratory. As students use the centre for their day to day needs they will be learning about how their use of the building plus other factors affects the energy consumption within the building.

Engineering students will play an active role in building design through a process that will encourage them to develop preliminary designs and space allocations that will be part of the research provided to the building’s architects. So far many student teams have worked on designing the energy systems, the structure requirements and how the building can best meet student needs. Student teams will continue to work on the building through the formal Integrated Design Process. Student involvement in developing new experiential learning programs and optimizing the use of student space will continue beyond completion of construction.

Funding of the building will come from a combination of sources. Current students, alumni and friends of McMaster will contribute to the construction of the building with possible additional funding coming from government organizations for support of the sustainable technologies used in the building. Since part of the ExCEL building will be funded by students and to contribute to the experiential learning program, students will be involved in the management of the building once construction is complete. 

Building features:

• Sustainable technologies with potential for a net-zero energy rating
• Powered by solar and geothermal
• Students involved in design process

Proposed new home of:

• Student clubs and societies such as Engineers Without Borders
• Student design teams such as for Solar Car, Mini Baja, Formula SAE, Troitsky Bridge Building, Concrete Toboggan and Robot Racing
• Design studios and computer labs
• Student group meeting rooms and collaborative work space
• Select student services
• Community summer camps