MSOE Reveals Plans For $76 Million Engineering Building, AI School
Engineering school taking 'next bold step' as part of $125 million campaign.
Robert D. Kern Engineering Innovation Center Exterior. Rendering by Ramlow/Stein.
The Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) is redoubling its commitment to its downtown campus and to its ongoing growth. Its part of a vision of becoming the national leader in applied artificial intelligence (AI) education.
The university announced a $125 million “Next Bold Step” campaign Monday that includes a $76.5 million engineering building and an AI-focused school of advanced computing. In a press conference Monday, MSOE reported already raising more than $80 million including two large donations.
“Today, we stand at a pivotal moment in our university journey,” said MSOE President John Y. Walz in announcing the university’s first-ever comprehensive campaign. “The world is evolving at an unprecedented pace, and the demands on highly skilled engineers, nurses, and business leaders has never been greater.”
The campaign wouldn’t just create a new building and new school said Walz, it would also keep the university affordable and improve outcomes. An $18 million scholarship endowment would be created, as would a $14 million faculty support fund and $2 million student support fund to enrich campus campus.
“To stay on the cutting edge of this evolving field, as well as the fields of engineering, business, and health care, we must invest in top teaching talent through endowed chairs, professorships and faculty-oriented research funds,” said Walz.
New Building
The Robert D. Kern Engineering Innovation Center would be constructed atop a surface parking lot at the southeast corner of the intersection of N. Milwaukee and E. State streets. It would serve as an addition to the Fred Loock Engineering Center, which was built in the 1960s at 432 E. Kilbourn Ave., and the older, attached Allen-Bradley Hall of Science to the east.
“MSOE’s current science and engineering building has served generations of students,” said Kern Family Foundation President and MSOE Board of Regents Chair James Rahn. “The building is also the most heavily trafficked on campus. But also, it’s the university’s most dated.”
The new building will house the university’s Mechanical Engineering, Electrical, Computer and Biomedical Engineering, Civil and Architectural Engineering and Construction Management departments.
Robert Kern, the founder of Generac Power Systems, was a longtime backer of MSOE. He previously funded the Kern Center, the university’s health-and-wellness facility. It opened in 2004. The university’s music conservatory opened in 2023 and is named for his late wife, Patricia Kern. The couple were also the lead funders of Viets Field, which opened in 2013. Robert Kern passed away in 2022 at the age of 96.
The four-story, 97,000-square-foot building would include labs, classrooms and workshops tailored to robotics and artificial intelligence. It is also to include public spaces open to all students and an outdoor “sustainability lab.”
A groundbreaking on the new building is expected to occur later in 2025. VJS Construction Services will serve as the general contractor. Ramlow/Stein Architecture + Interiors is leading the design.
It’s being designed as a “seamless cutting edge learning environment,” said Rahn. But the existing amalgamation, including mid-building ramps and extra-thick walls, would remain as part of the three-building complex.
The Kern Family Foundation is contributing $20 million to the campaign.
AI School
A key component of the Next Bold Step campaign is the creation of a new school, backed by one of the university’s most prominent and generous alumni. The Dwight and Dian Diericks School of Advancing Computing is designed to make the university a leader in applied artificial intelligence (AI) computing. It’s being funded by someone who already is.
Dwight Diercks, a 1990 graduate and university regent, is the senior vice president of software engineering at Nividia. The Silicon Valley company, now one of the world’s largest with a $2.8 trillion market cap, is a leader in the production of chips to handle AI applications. Diercks was its 22nd employee.
“The new school will be far more than an academic department,” said Walz. “It will serve as the central hub for advanced computing and AI integration across MSOE. [The school] will set the national standard, not just for what we teach in artificial intelligence and machine learning, but for how we teach and integrate and innovate using these transformative technologies.”
Diercks and his wife Dian previously made the largest gift in the university’s history, $34 million, in 2017 to construct a computational science hall that opened in 2019. At the time, Diercks joked that his fortunes had improved to allow him to move from donating a couple of computers to a whole building. Things have gotten astronomically better since then, with the company’s stock price increasing more than 2,400%.
“It’s just 5 and a half years since we did this before, but we’re back,” said Diercks, speaking from the building he previously funded. “Dian and I saw the incredible opportunity that AI was going to have on computer science and beyond and wanted to help MSOE be at the forefront of that revolution.”
Diercks said he was pleased with the progress the new computer science degree program was showing. “In seven short years, we have become a model for undergrad AI computer science in the nation,” he said. “It’s become one of the largest degrees on campus… And so we’re here today because we’ve decided to renew our support of MSOE’s next bold step, weaving artificial intelligence into the curriculum, into every one of our engineering and business degrees.”
He said AI will revolutionize Milwaukee’s bread-and-butter industry, manufacturing, and he was proud MSOE will lead that revolution.
“MSOE has been a great for the economy of the Midwest and the nation as a whole, and it helps create great careers for our hardworking students that turn their brains, hard work, and grit into prosperous careers that become productive members of our society,” said the engineer.
He said the AI opportunity was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to advance the university and further enhance its reputation and impact.
Diercks and his wife are contributing $20 million to the campaign.
“MSOE’s impact on the region and the world has been very, very clear,” said Mayor Cavalier Johnson. “Having one of the nation’s top ranked technical universities here is a point of pride for us in Milwaukee.” The mayor praised the university for doing what it is known for “putting words into action.”
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Wow! Hats off to MSOE for its vision, its exceedingly generous donors, and its wherewithal to conduct a wonderfully successful quiet phase of a campaign. Talking about generating excitement and momentum…!