ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY
Technology continues to evolve at a breakneck pace. For advanced manufacturing and other high-tech businesses, keeping up with these trends can be the difference between a company’s continued success or its demise.
Rowan-Cabarrus Community College is committed to partnering with business and industry to ensure that the technology and training needed to keep pace is available and accessible. In 2014, the College successfully passed a bond campaign in Cabarrus County to support the development of a new Advanced Technology Center (ATC).
In 2018, the College was proud to officially break ground and construct a significant portion of the new Advanced Technology Center.
“The Advanced Technology Center will be a flagship to attract employers to the region and will allow the College to bring a higher level of training and education to the community, increasing participation in high-wage jobs,” emphasized President Carol Spalding. “Employment in advanced technology is constantly evolving, and this facility will allow us to ensure that the local workforce remains qualified and current – key components of economic development.”
The Advanced Technology Center will be a 55,000-square-foot building located across from the College’s very successful biotechnology and health sciences building on the North Carolina Research Campus in Kannapolis.
The ATC will include 12 practical and integrated labs and seven general and computer classrooms. The building will feature a
“When looking around this growing area, I know this groundbreaking is more than a literal symbol, but a figurative representation of a better tomorrow. This building is not just an investment in the students, but also in the community.”
Liana Walker, 2017-2018 Student Government Association president
large flex lab on the ground floor, which will allow the College to provide space for industry partners to assist in working through their production line challenges. The building will also have a student lounge and collaboration areas, and a useful lobby. There will be seminar spaces, which will enhance the ability to host community partners as the College currently does in the adjacent North Carolina Research Campus location.
“It is our hope that the Advanced Technology Center is going to be both a place and a culture. It will be a home for innovation, technology, and the excitement that can be felt when ingenuity and creativity are able to thrive,” said Craig Lamb, vice president of corporate & continuing education at Rowan-Cabarrus. “This building is a sign to our community and companies that this region is committed to developing a workforce to accommodate and support high-tech, advanced technology careers.”
The College plans to anticipate and respond accordingly to future technology changes and has designed the new ATC to support industry growth for the next 50 years. It will offer advanced levels in numerous programs, including the new transferable engineering A.A.S. degree and interdisciplinary projects and capstone experiences for students. Students will work on equipment in the ATC that is currently in the workplace and get hands-on experience to learn and improve their skills.
“We hope to bring together people who are teaching and training to solve comprehensive problems for companies. When a company has a manufacturing issue, we can bring together our skilled instructors to collaboratively solve their problems at the Advanced Technology Center,” said Dr. Michael Quillen, vice president of academic programs. “All of this comes together to provide timely, state-of-the-art training and integrated approaches to solving everyday problems.”
The Advanced Technology Center project is the result of collaborative funding by both private and public partners. The combined efforts and support of the Cabarrus County Bond Referendum ($9 million), Cabarrus County funding ($8 million), the Economic Development Administration ($2 million), and additional funding from the Rowan-Cabarrus Foundation’s Building a More Prosperous Community Major Gifts Campaign make the creation of this new building possible.
The ATC is located on nearly three acres of land generously donated by David Murdock through the collaborative efforts of Vice President of Castle & Cooke North Carolina Operations at North Carolina Research Campus Mark Spitzer, College President Carol Spalding and Kannapolis Mayor Darrell Hinnant.
The new ATC will open in two phases-with the first phase completing 90 percent of the building in August 2019. The second phase, funded by the $2 million grant from the Economic Development Administration, will complete the flex lab space of the building and allow companies to use the space to set up prototype systems and manufacturing lines to expand or enhance their business.