UM Rolla Student Design Center Opens

A former bread factory's transformation into a home for Missouri University of Science and Technology's award-winning design teams is complete. On May 20, the university's new Kummer Student Design Center in Rolla was formally dedicated. 

The $2.75 million project was funded entirely through private gifts to the university, including a $1.25 million gift from Fred and June Kummer.  Fred Kummer, a 1955 civil engineering graduate of Missouri S&T, is President and CEO of St. Louis-based HBE Corporation.

Missouri S&T's Kummer Student Design Center is a 23,000-square-foot facility with retail space and room for the university's design teams. Teams involved in the center include Advanced Aero Vehicle, Baja, Concrete Canoe, Engineers Without Borders, Formula SAE Racing, Human-Powered Vehicle, Robotics, Solar Car, Solar House and Steel Bridge. In 2009, Missouri S&T's Advanced Aero Vehicle Group was the top U.S. team in an international competition among student-designed-and-built radio controlled aircraft.

The original design center idea was spearheaded by three other alumni: Richard Arnoldy, CE'69, the retired CEO of ARCO Construction Co. Inc. in St. Louis; Robert Brinkmann, CE'71, founder and president of Brinkmann Constructors, based in Chesterfield, Mo.; and Barry Koenemann, CE'70, CEO of United Construction Ent. Co. of St. Louis.  

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