Electrical and computer engineering students built and programmed robots for the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the Centennial Engineering Center on Sunday.
The center is the second largest building on Main Campus, after Zimmerman Library, UNM spokeswoman Karen Wentworth said in an e-mail.
It is 147,000 square feet and cost $42 million to build, Wentworth said.
Dean of Academic Affairs Chuck Fledderman said students and faculty should enjoy the hard work that was put into the building, which is dedicated to the creation of materials, devices and knowledge for the advancement of health care and biomedicine.
With this center, UNM is leading an effort to establish the state's only Ph.D. and M.S. programs in biomedical engineering, Fledderman said.
The center houses environmental, hydraulics and structures labs, along with autoclave and optical labs, Wentworth said.
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"The new center for biomedical engineering is especially interesting because they are doing research on everything from growing skin cells for burn victims to looking at the root causes of Alzheimer's, or erecting polymeric scaffolds to allow rapid new bone growth," she said.
Fledderman said the labs will benefit students immensely.
Student Matthew Gallegos said students should appreciate the new building because they helped pay for it - part of the building's funding came from a three-year bond underwritten by student fees.
"It's nice to see the students' money going to something positive that was built for their use," he said.
Tamara Williams, who works in administration of student tuition, said funding also came from the state Legislature and private donors.
"Sen. Diane Snyder and Larry Ahega were also involved," she said. "It's projects like this that can really show that hard work is really beneficial."
Computer science student Christian Romano said the building will be useful to graduates and undergraduates.
"Now students are really going to want to know what's available to them with the new technology that is being provided from this building," he said. "If you're an undergrad student, you're going to need to know a lot about this building. It's a good learning process."
Engineering student April Davidson said she has been looking forward to the opening of the center.
"It's nice to see everything all come together," she said. "There are going to be so many beneficial things students can get from this building, like more spaces for students to meet up and study, new and beautiful high-tech machines to work with. I think it will be really nice."
