PKI Dedicated

From the Fall 1999 UNO Alum

 

From University Relations

 

What once was merely a vision has become a reality. And quite a sight, to boot.

 

In August UNO formally dedicated the Peter Kiewit Institute of Information Science, Technology and Engineering, designed in part to help meet the employment needs of the nation's technology and engineering firms. Already the Institute has received accolades from various organizations, including the National Science Foundation (NSF) and Carnegie Mellon.

 

"It's the best model I've seen in the nation to deal with the shortage of information technology workers," said Thomas Howell, a program director with NSF.

 

University of Nebraska President L. Dennis Smith called the facility a national model that demonstrates how education and business can work together. Two-thirds of the Institute's $70 million price tag was raised by the Omaha business community. In addition, the land for the Institute was donated by First Data Resources, one of Omaha's largest employers. Furthermore, several Omaha employers created scholarships and internships to help recruit the best and brightest high school technology students from across the country.

 

Walter Scott, chairman emeritus of Peter Kiewit Sons' Inc., and chair of the Institute's 11-member board of policy, echoed Smith's comments. "When something is needed today," Scott said, "we don't serve ourselves or society well by putting it off. Colleges have a reputation for being slow to change, but the Institute is an incredible example of higher education being responsive to the needs of business and willing to find a solution."

 

PKI houses UNO's College of Information Science and Technology and the College of Engineering and Technology, operated by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Among the Institute's unique features and programs:

 

• An innovative "living lab" building design, which exposes much of the infrastructure so engineering students can learn from the electrical wiring, heating and cooling systems.

 

•  An "Experts-in-Residence" program, which encourages executives from the world's high-tech companies to spend a year or more teaching and mentoring students at the Institute.

 

• An innovative curriculum designed around real-world business challenges and providing training across several disciplines.

 

• Venture capital support for student business start-ups, as well as joint research and development opportunities with area businesses.

 

• A telecommunications engineering laboratory allowing students to focus on networking, wireless and optical communications.

 

• A collaborative computer classroom where students can work in teams to adjust, modify or react to work locally, nationally or internationally.

 

• A structures laboratory providing testing of construction beams from bridges or buildings against a reaction wall capable of withstanding 600,000 pounds of pressure.