Autodesk Technology Engagement Center
Welcome to the Autodesk Technology Engagement Center (ATEC), a new beacon of innovation and transformation at CSUN. Designed by the renowned architectural firm AC Martin, this two-story, 32,000-square-foot facility is set to open in the summer of 2025.
ATEC is dedicated to bridging the equity gap in STEM education and inspiring students from our diverse communities to pursue careers in innovation. The Anagnost College of Engineering & Computer Science is among the largest in the country with more than 5,600 students.
With a shortage of talent in state and national STEM workforces, ATEC’s six high-tech labs will leverage advanced research in design, manufacturing, emerging technologies, smart materials, artificial intelligence, data science, and more. Our goal is to prepare students to become future industry leaders and disruptors who will impact industries nationally and globally.
We invite industry partners and philanthropic visionaries to join this public-private collaboration by investing in cutting-edge equipment and technology for the ATEC Labs. Your investment will benefit our communities and workforce—and elevate each student and their families—by building a brighter and more equitable future for us all.
Together, we can push the boundaries of engineering and computer science to make a lasting difference.
Each of the labs listed below, as well as collaboration spaces, come with recognition opportunities for investors.
For more information, please contact:
Suren Seropian (’88)
Senior Director of Development, Andrew J. Anagnost College of Engineering & Computer Science
Office: (818) 677-3850
Email: suren.seropian@csun.edu
The ATEC Labs
“I envision engineering students working with business students and students from the humanities, breaking down the silos that traditionally exist between disciplines to create something new—using their imagination and their education to work collaboratively to create something we don’t know we need now, but will in 10, 15, 20 years.”
Houssam Toutanji, Ph.D., Dean, Andrew J. Anagnost College of Engineering & Computer Science
High Bay Structural Test Lab
The High Bay Structural Test Lab provides capabilities of conducting large-scale static, dynamic, and fatigue testing. It performs tests on structural systems and parts using different types of loads that reflect real-world conditions. It includes a strong floor with threaded inserts and a 20-ft-long by 2-ft-thick reaction wall for testing pushing and pulling loads. A 15-ton capacity overhead crane is provided for moving large components around the lab. This lab includes a concrete mixing and preparation facility with full ASTM test apparatus. It has servo-controlled hydraulic actuators, universal testing machines, data acquisition systems, and a vertical shaft mixer.
Material Structure and Properties Lab
The Material Structure and Properties Lab provides sufficient space for a variety of testing machines and instruments. This lab creates a learn-by-doing environment for faculty and students to perform advanced materials testing, including the measurement and study of behaviors of metals, concrete, and other materials. It includes MTS and Instron machines that can perform flexural, compression, shear, hardness, pullout, torsion, fatigue, and friction tests. It has dataloggers, wireless Linear Variable Differential Transducers (LVDTs). and miscellaneous instruments for specimen preparation.
Digital Design & Capture Lab
The Digital Lab is a multi-purpose lab for the exploration of digital media, networking, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and cybersecurity. The main room contains six advanced workstations, project tables, group study stations with sharable widescreen monitors, and, at one end of the room, an LED digital wall. The LED digital wall is reconfigurable as either a flat wall with approximate dimensions of 18 feet by 8 feet, a concave wall for various simulation environments, or a cave environment for near total emersion in virtual and augmented reality without the need for goggles. The lab will contain all the power needed to support real-time simulation and virtual reality environments, and for projects involving networking and cybersecurity, the network for the entire Digital Lab can be reconfigured locally and, if need be, isolated or sandboxed from the Internet.
Future Manufacturing & Prototyping Lab
The Future Manufacturing & Prototyping Lab provides a space for students and faculty to experiment and explore new additive manufacturing processes to transform ideas from digital design into physical reality with digital scanning, generative design, prototyping, testing, and creating mockups in a variety of scales and materials. The lab is equipped with computers with software tools for 3D Scanning, Digital Modeling. Generative Design and Optimization. and 3D printing preparation and a state-of-the-art additive manufacturing equipment such as 3D printers (for ceramics, polymers, and composites), resin transfer molding (RTM), surface finishing and coating, material mixing, and digital 3D scanners.
Emerging Advanced Materials Labs
The Emerging Advanced Materials Lab is an interdisciplinary lab for research and education in the areas of advanced materials, including composites, polymers, and metals, and materials processing. This lab utilizes state-of-the-art facilities such as advanced additive manufacturing equipment, injection molding, ovens, a hot press, mixing, sputter coating, polishing, and cutting tools toward improving quality, reducing cost, and developing new materials. The equipment will be upgraded and augmented, as needed, to support research collaborations with industrial and government sponsors. Undergraduate and graduate students will be involved in a wide variety of research projects and educational activities.
Material She
Incubator Project Research Lab
The Incubator Lab is a co-working space devoted to transferring ideas and projects out of the laboratory and into marketable business opportunities. The lab creates a collaborative environment where students can gather around technology-enabled spaces to brainstorm. plan, and execute their ideas. The lab contains space that is adaptable to the needs of an innovator. It's where early-stage individuals can find the resources and space they need to test. develop, and commercialize their research.
Watch Autodesk CEO Andrew Anagnost and Dean Houssam Toutanji as they share their excitement about the upcoming Autodesk Technology Engagement Center, and how this groundbreaking facility will transform engineering education, inspire students to push the boundaries of current technology, and empower the next generation of innovators.