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New University of Windsor CEI building boasts automation system and living green roof

CEI, which finished construction in September 2012, was designed to feature a wide variety of different structures and systems, allowing students to see construction and engineering ideas firsthand. It currently hosts more than 1,400 engineering students in the facility.


“The building is really a marvel of engineering and education,” said Mehrdad Saif, dean of the Faculty of Engineering. “In the classroom they are learning the engineering and construction theory and just a quick walk through of the building itself puts those theories into real life examples that they can experience and put in to context.”


The 300,000-sf building also boasts a 20,000-sf living green roof with measurement devices that allow students to compare the green roof’s data to that from the control sample on the regular roof.

“It was important that we looked at this building not only as a place to house the students, faculty and staff, but how we could best utilize it as a teaching tool as well,” said Saif. “This is the first time that we are able to get the entire Faculty of Engineering under one roof and we’re excited that we were able to design and construct such an outstanding structure for them.”


“The Centre for Engineering Innovation will provide our students with an extraordinary facility within which to learn and to see engineering in action,” added University of Windsor president Alan Wildeman. “It will provide laboratories and research facilities where emerging priorities such as environmental sustainability, alternative energy, nanostructure, lighter materials, and more efficient manufacturing systems can be addressed.”


CEI contains more than 80 teaching and/or research laboratories, and is currently targetting LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification.

Photos courtesy University of Windsor.