UAHuntsville, Gov. Riley Announce Plans for 160,000 Square Foot Center for System Studies

An artist’s rendering of UAHuntsville’s Center for System Studies. (click to enlarge.)

June 4, 2010 - Gov. Bob Riley and the faculty and staff at the University of Alabama in Huntsville recently announced that plans for a new research and engineering center will move forward with an $8 million investment from the state.

The new Center for System Studies will involve groundbreaking research into complex engineering systems, which include smart power grids, space launch vehicles, robotics, aviation systems and missile defense, to name a few. The center’s focus will involve understanding how complex systems interact and developing engineered solutions to system problems.

Plans call for the Center for System Studies to be a three-phrase project that will include research labs, training space, classrooms and a rooftop experiment area. Phase One of the project will be about 60,000 square feet. When fully completed, the center will occupy approximately 160,000 square feet.

“This center will offer this region and our entire state new opportunities for economic growth and development,” said Riley. “UAHuntsville plays an important role in our economy and this new center will expand the university’s research and development capability. Innovation and research are engines of sustained economic growth. Through strategic investments in research facilities, we are leveraging state dollars to secure high-wage, non-exportable jobs and making Alabama a national leader in groundbreaking research.”

Dr. Michael Griffin, a professor of aerospace engineering and an eminent scholar and former NASA Administrator, will lead the Center for System Studies.

As center director, Griffin will leverage his experience and relationships to set the tone and direction for the center’s academic and research endeavors, and will provide students and faculty with opportunities to work on some of the most complex system challenges of today.

“North Alabama is the most highly concentrated aerospace, defense and energy work center in the world, and it is growing. The Center for System Studies at UAHuntsville is poised to tackle the complex challenges which present themselves as organizations develop smart power grids, space launch vehicles, robotics, and missile defense, to name a few such important, sophisticated systems,” he said.

UAHuntsville President David Williams joined Riley in making the announcement. Williams said UAHuntsville is the logical home for the new research center.

“We are not only close to the organizations with these needs, but we also have immense research capabilities and top students to apply to the problems,” he said. “Our community and our state’s vitality depend on the workforce’s ability to design and manage complex systems. UAHuntsville will offer both solutions and ‘systems smart’ graduates.”