‘Dynamic’ new manufacturing/tech center triples ECC’s trade training space

Emily Ponce-Marquez’s final semester in Elgin Community College’s welding and fabrication program will be spent in the school’s newly opened $88 million Manufacturing and Technology Center.

The 150,000-square-foot building is more than three times the size of the space they had been using in Building O, and a boon to Ponce-Marquez, who not only is following her father into the welding business but also working at the school as an adjunct welding instructor.

“I’m really into (welding) and have been since I was a kid,” she said. “I learned from my dad, took classes my senior year at Hampshire High School and now here at ECC. Welding is such a gorgeous process.”

But welding and fabrication aren’t the only skills being taught at the new center. There are programs for advanced manufacturing; automation, robotics and maintenance technology; and heating, ventilation, air conditioning, refrigeration and green energy, according to Cathy Taylor, ECC’s dean of sustainability, business and career technologies.

It will all be open to the public from 4 to 6 p.m. Sept. 24, when ECC has a planned ribbon-cutting for the new facility and tours of the new building will be offered.

Reyes Estrada, instructional coordinator for HVAC, said there’s no comparison between the old center and the new one — the former was dark and cramped. And they couldn’t accommodate all of the students who wanted to take classes, he said.

“The new building is transformational for how we can teach,” he said. “Before we had multiple classes taking place in the same lab, with students getting limited time on equipment. Now they can get immediate, hands-on experience.”

Welding classes used to have students huddled behind a teacher who demonstrated a technique, Estrada said.

Now, video technology allows them to monitor the process without having to peer over each other’s shoulders, he said.

ECC has seen a 15% increase in student enrollment across all manufacturing and tech classes offered this fall thanks to the new center. There are 586 students enrolled in the center’s four programs, with the 98 classes in the new building offered morning, midday and night, Taylor said.

Building O is empty for now as administrators and board members decide how it will be repurposed.

The new building was paid for with about $27 million in ECC funds, $33 million obtained in a bond sale and about $28 million from the state. A $2 million federal appropriation was secured by U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, who also helped the school land $936,000 in federal funding to enhance its mechatronics and automation programs.

Taylor said in addition to eight spacious labs housing machinery and equipment for each program, the building has outdoor areas where students can learn how to work in the elements — albeit on surfaces that can be heated so they don’t have to be shoveled or de-iced after winter storms.

The building also has classrooms and collaboration spaces where students and teachers can meet about projects or study. In the atrium is stadiumlike seating, one of the uses of which will be to hold classes for local middle and high school students, she said.

A systems room allows students to view everything it takes to make the center function via monitors set up in each room, and the building’s geothermal system for heating and cooling is being used as another training tool, Taylor said.

Estrada noted the center’s programs will accommodate all students, regardless of whether they’re pursuing an associate degree, certificate or credentials, as well as workers looking to build their skill sets and employers looking for additional employee training.

One personal goal he has is for ECC to be seen as a training hub for the local HVAC workforce, providing opportunities to meet consumer demand and decrease the skills gap, he said.

Taylor said the new facility is all about “strengthening pathways to employment and supporting regional workforce needs.”

“The (center) serves as a dynamic learning space that connects our students to in-demand careers, industry-relevant technology and hands-on experiences that prepare them for success,” she said.

Mike Danahey is a freelance reporter for The (Elgin) Courier-News.