It’s the college’s first new facility in nearly two decades. The Houston-areas oldest historically Black university, Prairie View A&M, recently opened a new $70 million engineering building. The 106,000 square foot building will incorporate student spaces and focused research spaces, with nearly two-thirds dedicated for classroom instruction and one-third for faculty and grad student research lab space. 

The lab spaces support multidisciplinary research in areas such as space exploration, data analytics and artificial intelligence, robotics, structural analysis and 3-D manufacturing. There will also be a maker space area for students to collaborate across engineering disciplines.

The building is also one of a few in the nation to have a microgravity drop tower for research in space-related conditions. 

ConocoPhillips, who invested $1.2 million into the venture, will conduct lectures with engineers and professors to show students how to understand and implement the equipment within the industry.