Campus Labs & Studios

Genetics is at the forefront of biomedical progress, as there is mounting evidence that personalized approaches to combatting disease and regenerating tissue are essential for effective therapies. In that regard, enhanced knowledge of biological blueprints has allowed scientists to develop synthetic structures and life forms as alternative approaches to outdated interventions. These labs are at the forefront of modern biological science, focusing on genetic interventions to model organisms, as well as training students in tissue engineering and synthesis of biomaterials. 

The Biological Engineering Projects Lab is the hub of the biological engineering curriculum, enabling the faculty to integrate hands-on coursework and student design projects throughout the program. The proximity of this lab to both biological and chemical instrumentation is ideal for the study of the convergence of the life sciences and engineering processes. This lab is designed to host many capstone and undergraduate research projects spanning all aspects of biological engineering and applied biochemical sciences.

Students have access to a variety of advanced imaging techniques, including compound microscopes, stereoscopes and inverted fluoresce microscopy.

The Whelan Biology lab is equipped to support introductory biology courses.  In this lab students learn fundamental biology lab techniques such as: micropipetting, DNA isolation, PCR, DNA electrophoresis, chromatography and SDS-PAGE.

In the Anatomy & Physiology lab, students learn human anatomy and physiology by conducting physiological experiments and performing specimen dissections.  This lab is also equipped with a patient simulator where students can explore the physiological impacts of various medical conditions. 

Devices include biomedical electrical safety analyzers, heart rate and blood pressure monitors, pulse oximeters, electronic stethoscopes, ECG monitors, telemetry and nurse call systems, External Pacemakers, Defibrillators, AED’s, Neonatal and Transport Incubators, Electrolyte and Blood Gas Analyzers, Automated Blood Cell Counters and Patient Monitors as well as a collection of several special-purpose simulators.   

Students have access to several medical electronic sensors and signal processing units, Biological work tables, Centrifuges, microtome, cryostat, and Infusion Pumps.  Both BMIL and BEFL include general test and calibration equipment and provide access to commonly-used engineering software and specialized biomedical software. 

BEPL is designed for final-year students to work on their senior interdisciplinary projects.

The major pieces of equipment include the sieve shakers, sample splitters, curing tank, drying ovens and the compression machine. Students learn the fundamentals of concrete mix design and testing in this lab. Tests are run on aggregates, as well as on the freshly made and hardened concrete. Students can measure the effect that different aggregate have on gradations. 

Students study the characteristics and behavior of soils as they relate to the design and construction process. Topics include origins of soils, permeability (the flow of water through a soil), subsurface stresses, shear strength, consolidation and settlement. 

Some of the learning objectives and goals of this lab include: 

The major pieces of equipment in this laboratory include a triaxial machine, two direct shear machines, two unconfined compression machines, four consolidometers, a data collector and a sieve shaker. Tests on field-obtained soil samples can be performed to characterize and classify soil and to determine the strength, settlement and drainage characteristics of soil deposits, information that is essential to the design of shallow and deep foundations, embankments, retaining walls and base courses for highways. 

Before students can design concrete or mortar, they must understand the materials with which they are working. In this lab, students will define the difference between coarse and fine aggregate, as well as the difference between fine aggregate and soil. 

Students perform specific ASTM tests including: 

• Final compressive strength tests on concrete to determine if it meets the specification for which they designed. In order to do this, they will cap and break their concrete cylinders. 
• Capping (ASTM 617) is done to provide the cylinder a perfectly flat surface to insure a good break. 
• The strength of the cylinder is then recorded in PSI and students will then organize and prepare all data for their final concrete reports. 

This facility houses a variety of typical laboratory analytical equipment and assorted glassware. There are incubators for B.O.D. (biochemical oxygen demand) testing and incubating biological samples, and a water distillation column and 12 bench microscopes.

This lab houses an atomic absorption spectrometer with a data acquisition unit and a gas chromatograph with mass selective detector. 

Equipment in this laboratory is used to demonstrate the basic principles of hydraulics and fluid flow in both open channels and closed conduits. Students learn the concepts of buoyancy, velocity of flow, energy losses in bends and restrictions, sediment transport and pump efficiency. A large bench is a reservoir with a pump to circulate water. Individual experiments can be hooked up to benches, allowing students to have separate workstations. Of particular note are the two five-meter flumes. 

The Altschuler Computer Center has three major sections where our students apply the skills they learn in the classroom: 

• The instructional space where our department's lectures and labs are held. This space was designed from the ground up to support our applied, project-based learning environment. The room's table arrangement allows students to work in groups of four to promote teamwork and collaboration. There are 20 Cisco routers and 20 Cisco switches available directly next to these table groupings for use in introductory networking courses. 
• The student data center houses equipment used and managed by students. There are six racks that contain five 20 Dell servers, 10 Cisco routers, 10 Cisco switches, five Cisco Nexus switches, one EMC storage array and additional supporting equipment including UPS units and shared network infrastructure. Students use this equipment in multiple courses as you learn to manage and operate your own computing infrastructures up to industry standards.  
• The faculty/department server room that contains equipment managed by the department staff. 

A job site experience for Construction Management students. In this outdoor lab, students work with and learn about construction materials. They perform hands-on exercises using masonry construction, wood framing, concrete forms and steel reinforcement.

Courses offered in this lab:

• Building Construction
• Materials Testing & Quality Control
• Wood & Steel Analysis & Design

The Project Lab provides students with a place to apply the technical skills of a construction project from concept to completion. During a student’s collaboration here they will complete projects using such proficiencies as budget, scheduling, estimating, engineering fundamentals, and analytical and communication skills.

Courses offered in this lab:

• Intro to Construction Management
• Building Construction
• Construction Graphics
• Wood & Steel Analysis & Design
• Construction Project Scheduling
• Advanced Estimating & Bid Analysis
• Construction Project Control
• CM Senior Project
• Estimating

Before students can design concrete or mortar, they have to understand the materials they work with. In this laboratory, students will define the difference between coarse and fine aggregate, as well as the difference between fine aggregate and soil. Coarse and fine aggregate are needed for concrete and mortar design and types soils must be known.

Students will do final compressive strength tests on their concrete to determine if it meets the specification for which they designed. In order to do this they test their concrete cylinders in one of the two concrete compression machines in this lab. The strength of the cylinder is then recorded in PSI and students organize and prepare all data for their final concrete reports.

Courses offered in this lab:

• Materials Testing and Quality Control
• Building Construction
• Concrete Analysis & Design
• Wood & Steel Analysis & Design

This room is an example of Wentworth partnering with industry to give students an opportunity to work with the most current technology. B.L. Makepeace, a local survey equipment supplier, along with their corporate partners, Topcon and Carlson Software, donated more than $100,000 in survey equipment. The donation included new Total Stations, a complete Hiper-Lite GPS system, and complete field to finish Carlson data collection systems. Some of the applications students will learn here are:

• Determining Elevations (Auto Levels)
• Boundary Survey (Theodolite)
• Construction Layout (Total Station)
• And Utility location (GPS)
• Carlson Data Collectors

Once students complete these labs, they download the data and make adjustments accordingly.

Courses offered in this lab:

• Construction Surveying

The major pieces of equipment include the two concrete mixers, sample splitters, curing tank and drying ovens. Students learn the fundamentals of concrete mix design and testing in this lab. Tests are run on aggregates, as well as on the freshly-made and hardened concrete. Students can measure the effect that different aggregate gradations, varying amounts of water and cement have on their mix design. This lab is also used for masonry instruction and surveying. Heavy construction methods are simulated and equipment is demonstrated for the Heavy Construction course. The Building Systems Display Unit, which simulates a commercial building wall with mechanical systems exposed is also located in this lab.

Courses offered in this lab:

• Building Construction
• Materials Testing and Quality Control
• Heavy Construction
• Construction Surveying
• Building Systems
• Wood & Steel Analysis & Design

Shawmut completed a fit-out of an existing shell space including carpeting, millwork and a complete multimedia package with the capacity for video conferencing, two large projectors and corresponding screens, and a 80'' hi-def screen with stereo sound. The conference room seats nearly two dozen people and includes an adjoining outside seating vestibule where an LED screen displays information about the Construction Management Department.

In order to help visually inspire current Wentworth students toward their potential as construction professionals, the walls of the room have been adorned with a rotating gallery of portraits of graduates-turned-Shawmut employees.

This new lab features state-of-the-art equipment that enables interdisciplinary student teams to work on collaborative projects in the area of the built environment by utilizing building information modeling, which has become the industry standard.

This laboratory provides students with an area to build and test their prototypes. Internet access is available as well as standard electronic bench equipment (oscilloscope, digital multimeter, function generator and power supply). Workbenches and equipment are available for component assembly and packaging, soldering and mechanical assembly. 

The laboratory is used to supplement nanotechnology courses and supports undergraduate research through senior design offerings and special student projects, as well teaching across engineering disciplines to promote cross-disciplinary teamwork at Wentworth. The laboratory encompasses a nanoparticle deposition system capable of generating nanoparticles of different sizes from different materials in a differential pressure vacuum system, along with a Scanning Atomic Force Microscope and other test and characterization equipment.  

The Electronics Laboratory is a core work area for all electrical and computer engineering students. Twenty laptops, which are linked to their own set of test equipment (oscilloscopes, digital multimeters, power supplies and function generators), enable students to perform computer-aided tests, circuit analysis and simulation tasks, as well as solve data acquisition and process control problems. Each laptop is loaded with an array of current software packages, and is connected for e-mail and Internet access. 

This laboratory has eight workstations that include eight laptops, oscilloscopes, power supplies, function generators and digital multimeters. This laboratory also houses two robotics arms—one translational and one rotational vibration module—that can be used as one- or multi-degree freedom vibrational systems. 

This laboratory is intended primarily to meet the needs of the rapidly growing communication industry. The student work area is currently equipped with 10 RF network analyzers, oscilloscopes, high-frequency wave generators and 10 laptops.  

The Power and Controls Laboratory is a specialty lab dedicated to the study of various types of motors and generators, as well as to the analysis and design of analog and digital feedback control systems. Centered on four motor-generator sets, the student work area is supported by laptops, power supplies, function generators, digital oscilloscopes and digital multimeters. 

The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Wentworth Institute of Technology is a Cadence University Program member. 

In the Anatomy & Physiology lab, students learn human anatomy and physiology by conducting physiological experiments and performing specimen dissections.  This lab is also equipped with a patient simulator where students can explore the physiological impacts of various medical conditi

Chemistry Instrument Lab: additional instrumental space for advanced spectroscopic analysis.

Michael Lutrzykowski BARC’ 90 Laboratory: project lab space where students from diverse programs may keep ongoing research or design projects that require the resources and safety provisions of a chemistry lab.

Chemistry Instrumentation Room: This room houses advanced instrumentation  students may use for chemical analysis, including spectroscopy, chromatography, and mass spectrometry.

An instructional lab space specifically oriented towards the needs of an organic chemistry curriculum
 

An instructional lab space specifically oriented towards the needs of a biochemistry curriculum

This facility converts cooking oil into diesel fuel as part of an ongoing chemistry project. This apparatus was entirely student built and is housed on-campus in the Ira Allen building.

The Additive Manufacturing Center houses several 3D-printing technologies, including Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), Stereolithography (SLA), PolyJet, Multi-Jet Fusion and FDM/Sinter Metal printing. This facility also includes a dedicated Finishing Room for post-processing 3D-printed parts and assemblies, as well as an integrated instruction area for up to 24 students. 

This laboratory contains an array of fluid testing and propulsion equipment, such as a subsonic wind tunnel, a variable-frequency drive pumping station, a supersonic/compressible flow system, a friction pressure drop piping system for circulating water, a Saybolt Universal Viscosimeter and a velocity profile/pitot tube apparatus. 

The Gelfand Strength of Materials Laboratory houses electrodynamic and hydraulic testing equipment, which allows students to investigate important material properties such as tensile strength, shear stress and elasticity. Other major apparatus featured in this lab include a fatigue tester, a beam deflection station, a rotating beam device, an impact tester, a temperature creep tester and electronic strain gages. Students also analyze various structures and profile the results using graphics software. 

The Heat Transfer Lab enables students to study principles of heat conduction, convection and radiation. It includes equipment for axial and radial conduction experiments, a shell and tubes and a plate heat exchanger. The lab also contains equipment and sensors that allow students to investigate transient heat transfer and lumped system analysis, radiation prosperities, heat sink and heat pipes. 

The Instrumentation Laboratory enables Mechanical Engineering and Electromechanical Engineering students to learn moist air properties and air-conditioning processes, and also investigate various heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems and refrigeration cycles. This lab houses several basic vapor compression refrigeration systems, and an industrial type vapor-compression system with a double evaporator and water-cooled condenser. It is also equipped with a basic air-conditioning system to study psychometric processes, as well as general engineering instrumentation processes. 

The Manufacturing Center has three laboratory areas:  machining, metal fabrication and a foundry. 

The machining area has six computer numerically controlled (CNC) lathes, six CNC three-axis knee mills, a CNC three-axis bed mill and two 4-axis vertical machining centers. All equipment is linked through the campus network, allowing remote access file handling.  Through experiential laboratory activities, students learn the principles of material removal, from basic manual operations through the most advanced computer aided manufacturing (CAM) processes. 

The metal fabrication area contains basic sheet metal fabrication equipment. There are six multi-process gas metal arc welding (GMAW) stations on downdraft tables. 

The Materials Science Laboratory is equipped with all of the necessary equipment to introduce students to the concepts and fundamentals of materials. Metallographic samples are prepared with the help of diamond cut-off saws and electro-hydraulic automatic mounting presses. Microstructural analysis can be performed on one of several inverted microscopes equipped with digital imaging hardware. High temperature, industrial box furnaces and cold-rolling equipment are used to demonstrate the relationship of manufacturing processes and resulting material properties. Other topics of experimentation include electrochemical corrosion and polymer-matrix composite materials. 

The Engineering Projects Lab is designed to mimic an engineering prototyping area of a Research and Development department. The mills and lathes in this lab are supplied with a full stock of drills and mills.  The lab is always fully stocked with hardware, such as screws, nuts and washers, as well as materials like steel, aluminum, brass and plastics. There is a full supply of mechanical measuring equipment, such as calipers, veneers and dial indicators, and full 3D-printing centers available to the students.

The Thermodynamics Laboratory serves students enrolled in Mechanical and Electromechanical degree programs and enables them to study the use of energy for the purposes of mechanical and electrical power production. This lab features a turbo-charged diesel engine/generator station, a calorimeter for fuel analysis, an air heat-recovery ventilator (white enclosure) for indoor air quality, a state-of-the-art small engine dynamometer and an aircraft gas turbine. Students are introduced to pressure, temperature and humidity testing devices such as transducers, vacuum gages, thermocouples and barometers. Engine efficiency and performance tests are conducted, and students learn basic properties of various fluids. 

These labs are flexible spaces used to teach Physics classes including conceptual, algebra, and calculus-based Physics I and II. A variety of equipment is used to explore Newtonian mechanics, thermal properties, and electricity and magnetism

The Scientific Instrumentation Lab allows students to work on long term projects and learn the fine details of taking experimental measurements.

Its equipment includes a 3d printer, x-ray diffractometer, and vibrating sample magnetometer. Students can measure the magnetic and electronic properties of materials to high levels of accuracy.