New Laboratory at UCI Will Offer Services to Local Electronics Firms

UC Irvine’s School of Engineering will offer additional research and development services to local industry when it completes an 8,000-square-foot laboratory next year.

Richard Nelson, professor of engineering, said the school will create a microfabrication research laboratory, which would offer its services to local electronics firms.

“We hope to promote economic and entrepreneurial activity in Orange County,” Nelson said.

The laboratory will be run by a professional staff and offer services such as computer chip design, engineering analysis of electronic parts and materials, and fabrication of prototypes.

The facility will charge fees for companies that need particular services that they probably cannot get elsewhere in Orange County, such as building prototypes for future products.

Nelson said the lab, which will be part of the school’s new engineering building, will be completed by the summer of 1994.