UW-Green Bay breaks ground for game-changing STEM Innovation Center

It’s only one milestone, but it’s a transformative one. The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, and its many partners broke ground today (Monday, September 17, 2018) on the new Brown County STEM Innovation Center that will live on the UW-Green Bay campus and house the Richard J. Resch School of Engineering, the Einstein Project, UW-Extension and Brown County’s Land and Water Conservation departments.

Turning the soil together were Governor Scott Walker, Brown County Executive Troy Streckenbach, UW-Green Bay Chancellor Gary L. Miller and Einstein Project CEO Kelly Ellis. Joining in the festivities were many community partners, including Dick Resch, members of the Kress Family, WPS, UW-Green Bay science and engineering faculty and others. Speakers included:

• Brown County Executive Troy Streckenbach
• Chancellor Gary L. Miller
• The Einstein Project Chief Executive Officer Kely Ellis
• Governor Scott Walker
• WPS Vice President of Wisconsin Field Operations Vern Peterson
• George F. Kress Foundation President John Kress

“This STEM Innovation Center is the future of Brown County with regards to helping create long-term, family-supporting jobs,” says Streckenbach. “For me, this day represents being a hands-on partner for providing solutions to help secure our region’s manufacturing future, helping create economic development for years to come, and ensuring all our students have opportunities to be tomorrow’s innovators.”

As home of the Richard J. Resch UW-Green Bay’s school of Engineering, the STEM Innovation Center, which will address Northeast Wisconsin’s educational training and skills gap of qualified employees to support manufacturing growth and entrepreneurship.

“This community has been asking for engineering and STEM careers for decades,” said Gary L Miller, Chancellor of UW-Green Bay. “Through our partnership with Brown County in the STEM Innovation Center, we established the Richard J. Resch School of Engineering to help meet the needs of this community. This is the first School of Engineering established and based in Northeast Wisconsin, and we believe it will transform the economy for generations.”

The center will be an approximately 63,730 square feet, and received $5 million from Governor Walker’s 2017-19 capital budget, $5 million from Brown County and $5 million in donations through UW-Green Bay for construction. This unique collaboration will have a positive impact on Northeast Wisconsin’s economy and received broad support of the local business community, employers, the State of Wisconsin and the UW System.

Noted Miller in his comments to media, “It’s a great time to be here at UW-Green Bay…”

• UW-Green Bay is now a four campus university providing university degrees and outreach in 16 rural and urban counties in Wisconsin, including an internationally branded city, three major manufacturing regions, over 400 miles of coastline on the world’s biggest freshwater ecosystem and some of the most beautiful resort and recreational areas in the world.
• With the support of this community and the approval of the Board of Regents, the Richard J. Resch School of Engineering was established this year. It is our expectation that in short order the Resch School will have operations in all of our locations from Marinette to Green Bay to Manitowoc to Sheboygan.
• Along with the UW System have entered a partnership with the Green Bay Packers and Microsoft in their very innovative Titletown Tech initiative.
• We have added important programs in health and business and the arts. Indeed, this weekend we celebrate the 25 anniversary of the Weidner Center for the Performing Arts.
• Our enrollment is growing and our students continue to graduate into good jobs in this area.
• We have one of the finest and most committed faculties in the country.

And it’s only just begun.

Miller noted that UW-Green Bay has designated 64 acres to the development of the “Phoenix Innovation park.”  “Our dream is that this facility will be the first of many innovative public-private partnerships that support the innovation economy, knowledge creation and opportunity for the students of this region in the STEM areas.”

According to a press release from Brown County (Sept. 17, 2018), “Brown County and the greater Northeast Wisconsin region have a long history in the manufacturing industry. Manufacturing is the largest employment sector in the region with nearly one of every five workers in Brown County employed in industry. The Brown County STEM Innovation Center will serve as a focal point for the region’s growth plans by providing engineering training to meet Brown County’s 18.5% increase in demand for engineering professionals since 2010 (according to NAICS data) to enable Northeastern Wisconsin to remain competitive in manufacturing. The National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS), Baccalaureate and Master’s Engineering Supply and Demand in Wisconsin study determined that in 2013 there was a need for Baccalaureate Degree engineers in Northeast Wisconsin with a demand of 1,110 and supply of eight, resulting in a demand/supply ratio of 134 which is a significantly higher demand than any of the other Wisconsin regions studied.”

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