COSTA MESA : Technology Center On-Line at OCC

Finishing touches are being put on the gleaming, $8.6-million technology center, the largest facility on the 164-acre Orange Coast College campus and the largest technology center at any community college west of the Mississippi River.

Designed in futuristic, high-tech style, the facility opened in June for limited use by a few summer school classes.

The three-building complex is expected to be in full operation when the fall semester begins Aug. 16.

Grand opening ceremonies are tentatively scheduled for September.

“It’s going to be the signature building on campus,” said Ernest W. Maurer, the college’s dean of technology and a professor of aviation and space.

“It just glows at night,” he said of the two-story complex, which is built of glass, steel and masonry. “It’s really pretty.”

The 78,000-square-foot facility on the western edge of the campus replaces seven buildings that were constructed in 1948.

The aging buildings were “not quite up to speed” in terms of meeting the needs of today’s technology students, Maurer said.

In addition to the new complex, Orange Coast College has replaced about one-third of its technology equipment at a cost of $1.1 million.

The state paid for the updated equipment and for the center, which took 18 months to construct.

Maurer said that faculty members are excited about the new surroundings and that many have volunteered their time to help get the classrooms set up for fall.

“It takes a lot for somebody to come in during their summer vacation,” he said. “They’re so stoked, a lot of them have been working 40 hours a week since school closed.”

The center has 14 technology programs including aviation and space, computer graphics, drafting, construction, commercial pilot training, machine shop, wood shop and computer-aided design.

“Most of the stuff we teach now has some kind of computer technology attached to it,” Maurer said. Even in wood shop, which doesn’t sound exactly high tech, students use a new computer program to design cabinets.

Computers are integral to the technology center.

All the classrooms and faculty offices are linked by a computer network, which allows information to be electronically sent back and forth without the need for transferring data to floppy disks.

Students also can pull onto the emerging “Information Superhighway” by using modems to access the Internet.

“We’ve been playing catch-up for the last 10 years,” Maurer said. “Now we’re as state of the art as possible.”

The sprawling complex also has a robot, donated by a defense firm, that is being reprogrammed for non-military uses.

It was not immediately clear what tasks the robot will perform.

The center also has a holography laboratory, where students will use lasers to create holograms.

“We call this our Elvis room,” Maurer said of the black-walled lab.

“The King is going to show up there, no doubt.”