SMU cuts ribbon for Junkins building
SMU faculty, alum and students paused in their preparations for the first day of school on Thursday to remember Jerry Junkins and dedicate the new Jerry R. Junkins Electrical Engineering building to his memory Wednesday.
“Jerry Junkins worked hard to improve the quality of life in Dallas, particularly in education,” said Tom Engibous, current chairman, president and CEO of Texas Instruments. “He would be gratified to see what’s happening at SMU and to know that this area is becoming a recognized center for engineering education.”
As a tribute to him and his memory, the Junkins family made the initial contribution to the new engineering building. James Lindsay and Bobbie Embrey, the estate of Hugo R. Kamb and the TI Foundation also generously contributed to this project. The three-story, 53,800-square foot building is located on the east-side of the SMU campus near the intersection of Airline Road and Dyer Street.
“This new building represents the growing partnership between the University and industry to enhance the leadership role of the School of Engineering,” said SMU president R. Gerald Turner. “In recent years the school has initiated new academic programs, strengthened research advancements and emphasized teaching that develops management and entrepreneurial skills. Adding state-of-the-art facilities to this progress ensures that SMU will continue to make a major impact on engineering education, supporting our region and the nation’s ability to compete in a technological society.”
In a recent interview, dean of the SMU school of engineering Stephen Szygenda said that the engineering department is endeavoring to establish their reputation for excellence in a world class market.
“Dallas is one of a small group of major cities that does not have a major school of engineering associated with it. This new building will help SMU get on track to becoming such an institution and, in the process, will benefit the entire metroplex,” he said.
The building features classrooms and lecture halls that are all of which are equipped with LAN and power connections at the benches similar to those in the new Dedman Life Science Building. This enables students to download presentations from their professors onto their laptop computers or share notes with each other.
Labs for optical electronics, telecommunications, biomedical engineering, and others are scattered throughout the building.
A couple of the classrooms have modern distance learning equipment that can send audio and video signals to any classroom in the building. This unique communications equipment can also send data via satellite to National Technological University and other customers of the School of Engineering’s distance education programs.
“We’re really excited about the new facilities,” said Geoffrey Orsak, electrical engineering dean. “You should see the demonstrations on the sound equipment, it will blow you away. You can’t help being impressed.”
Construction of the Junkins Engineering Building was part of The Campaign for SMU: A Time to Lead, which took place from April 1997 to May 2002 and raised nearly $540 million for academic programs, scholarships, faculty positions and facilities. The building itself cost approximately $15 million.
The building was designed by Hahnfeld Associates of Fort Worth in association with Ellerbe Beckett of Minneapolis. Construction manager for the project was Manhattan Construction of Dallas. The building took 156,000 person-hours to build and includes 93,000 bricks, 3,157 cubic yards of concrete and 2,800 pieces of cast stone.
Complementary bricks with dedication plaques were shared with visitors Wednesday along with a barbecue luncheon.
The SMU School of Engineering will be the primary users of the new facility, however some work in the other engineering programs will be done here as well.
While working on various committees and activities at SMU, Junkins “day job” continued with TI. A manufacturing engineer, he was later promoted to head of TI’s defense business, then president and CEO.
Junkins first moved to the metroplex in 1959 when he began work with Texas Instruments. He received his master of science degree in engineering administration at SMU in 1968. Even though he had graduated, Junkins stayed active in his involvement with the university. He served as a member of School of Engineering Executive Committee and retired as a member of the Board of Trustees.
SMU cuts ribbon for Junkins building
