MTSU plans to open a new $74.8 million building for the engineering department in fall 2025, which received a $1 million grant from DexCom to furnish the building with new equipment.
This spring, engineering students say goodbye to the Voorhies Engineering Technology (VET) building, which has housed the engineering department for over 80 years.
The department received a grant worth over $1 million from DexCom, a company that manufactures glucose monitors for people with diabetes, in 2024 to revitalize the program and its equipment, Rick Taylor, the engineering technology department director, said.
As a result, the department gets to part ways with outdated equipment as part of the revitalization.
“Much of the [old] equipment here is being offered to different programs across the country,” Taylor said. “Any program can make an offer, and after that, they have 90 days to claim the equipment.”
Taylor said if no one claims the equipment after 90 days, it gets listed on GovDeal.com, an online marketplace where they can auction off any remaining equipment.
Some programs have already begun to cycle through their equipment, and new machines, like FLEXBASE automation work centers from Dexcom, started to arrive in Fall 2024 — a welcome change for students.
“A lot of the equipment provided for projects is just old and decrepit,” Marco Montoya, a sophomore engineering student at MTSU, said.
Michael Hill, a mechatronics engineering student and captain of the Formula team, which is currently working on a Formula One race car design, said some of the equipment they use is over 50 years old.
“Everything that’s in VET right now is more than old and should have been replaced at least ten years ago,” Hill said. “And that’s just what’s in VET. You should have seen some of the stuff in Kirksey Old Main before it was pretty much condemned.”
Hill added that much of the equipment from the Kirksey Old Main, the engineering department’s original home, will also be replaced.
MTSU started a $54 million renovation project on the campus’s oldest building, which will be completed by Summer 2026, according to MTSU News.
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