By Colin Poitras, UConn Today

The UConn School of Engineering, in partnership with United Technologies Corporation (UTC), launched the UTC Institute for Advanced Systems Engineering at UConn, thanks to $10 million in planned investments from UTC. The initial $7.5 million contribution is one of the largest corporate gifts in UConn’s history and represents a significant investment in educating the next generation of engineering leaders.

Today’s aircraft, buildings and other highly engineered solutions include numerous intelligent components and sub-systems.  Systems engineering focuses on understanding and optimizing the interactions between these systems and components to make products more efficient and reliable, with greater capabilities, at a lower cost.  As we look to the future, this expertise will be crucial for engineers who want to design and create the most advanced products and solutions.

“We are excited to work with UConn to develop the next generation of engineers who understand how to approach complex systems,” said Dr. J. Michael McQuade, UTC Senior Vice President, Science and Technology. “The Institute will train the innovators and engineers of today and tomorrow, ensuring that we have the people and skills necessary to keep UTC at the forefront of technology.”

The UTC Institute for Advanced Systems Engineering will provide our students exciting opportunities for research and training in one of the fastest growing fields in engineering today,” said UConn President Susan Herbst. “This investment demonstrates UConn’s highly ambitious commitment to promoting education and research in critical disciplines across the board that will benefit our students and our state.”

Read the full story here.