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The new ‘home' for engineering students should help to produce well-balanced graduates.

The Clough Engineering Student Centre was opened at the start of the semester on the ground floor of the Mechanical and Chemical Engineering building, looking out over James Oval.

It is already a popular place for students to relax or, in their words ‘chill out'. They can study, chat, eat and drink, access wifi with their laptops and tablets, and lounge around on big green sofas: making the most of their student days.

But they also use the big bright space for working on group projects, holding meetings of up to a dozen different student bodies and doing the team work that they will be expected to do when they are in the workforce.

It is a space with a unique balance which University Engineers Club Education Vice President Tom Henderson says is a big hit with the students.

"Before, we would have to study in the library where we couldn't eat or drink," he said. "If we wanted to work on a group project, it was always difficult to find a place to get together. And the old UE C common room was a bit grungy, so not popular with all the students."

The UEC was allocated a room in the Monadelphous Integrated Learning Centre but both students and staff soon realised that the noise from the common room was disturbing nearby classes, so they had to give up that space.

"This room used to be the undergraduate physical sciences library, but it was superseded by the big new Science Library," Tom said. "Then it was earmarked for a first year centre. But with the new courses, we no longer have first year undergraduate engineering students."

It is a perfect space with plenty of natural light, a choice of seating, a kitchen, wifi, printing and photocopying, a meeting room and four individual study rooms.

"I'm a big advocate of group learning," Tom said. "There has been a push over recent years towards a lot more group-based activities, which is great experience for us, because when we're out in the workforce, we'll be working in teams. And there really wasn't anywhere suitable for us to do this before."

The four study rooms are designed for groups who need quiet to concentrate, or who want to make a lot of noise or who need privacy.

Rachael Penning-Bourne, manager of external relations in the Faculty of Engineering Computing and Mathematics, said student groups including UEC, Engineers with Borders, Robogals and discipline-specific groups were pleased to have the board room for their meetings.

"It enables them to conduct their business in a professional way," she said.

Clough Engineering Ltd donated $300,000 towards the new student centre, which is available to engineering students from all the different disciplines. The Centre was also supported with a gemerous personal donation from Dr Harold Clough.

Clough's CEO Kevin Gallagher said that as an engineering, construction and asset support contractor, Clough was very proud to be sponsoring this state-of-the-art facility, which provided an open-learning base for students.

"Attracting and nurturing bright young engineering talent is key to Clough's long term sustainability," he said. "We are delighted to continue our long-term relationship with UWA to help achieve this objective through the Clough Engineering Student Centre."

Published in UWA News , 28 May 2012