SDL Dedicates New Facility

When hundreds of community and business leaders, faculty, students and staff joined the dedication of the new Calibration and Optical Research Laboratory (Nov. 15), they were not celebrating the dedication of a building, they were celebrating an investment, said President Kermit L. Hall. "It’s a bet on the future," he said.

The facility, part of Utah State’s Research Foundation’s Space Dynamics Laboratory, is Innovation Campus’s newest addition. The 43,000 square foot facility, built without state funding, is an investment for the university in the same way SDL has proven to be a highly successful investment for the university since the 1950s. As the world has changed, SDL has adapted accordingly — today, the lab sees some $50 million annually in research dollars. It is expected that number will more than double over the next decade. "It is a springboard for greater returns for the university," President Hall said.

Students have benefitted the most from those returns, with 400 undergraduates annually participating in unique hands-on research not available anywhere else. This new laboratory signals that "the best days of Utah State are ahead, not behind," he said.

President Hall said it is easy to fall into despair when the economy struggles, but "great institutions persevere." The dedication of this building serves as a reminder to all that "we are not only a success now, but will be even more of a success in the future."

The facility is SDL’s fifth building, bringing its total size to 173,000 square feet. The new building, that took a little over a year to complete, houses a large calibration facility donated to SDL by Boeing and features a vacuum chamber with cryogenic capabilities. It allows SDL to calibrate systems such as small satellites and optical sensors in a simulated space environment.