Pratt & Whitney donates $1M toward UMaine engineering center

Courtesy / UMaine A rendering of the planned Pratt & Whitney Tool Lab Suite, to be part of a new engineering center at the University of Maine.

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By Staff

Aerospace manufacturer Pratt & Whitney, which operates a plant in North Berwick, has donated $1 million to support construction of a planned engineering and design center at the University of Maine.

The pledge brings the total raised for the facility to $67 million, approaching the estimated project cost of $75 million to $77 million, according to a UMaine news release Friday. Groundbreaking on the E. James and Eileen P. Ferland Engineering Education and Design Center is next spring, and the university expects the building to be completed in 2022.

In recognition of the gift, the center’s machine tool suite will be named for Pratt & Whitney.

The suite will include more functional, updated space for mechanical engineering technology students to learn production and manufacturing skills. It will feature an open layout, computer-controlled milling machines and lathes, a tool crib, an applied research lab and a computer-aided drafting/computer-aided manufacturing classroom.

“It is so appropriate that Pratt & Whitney named this space since they hire so many of our engineering graduates. I am deeply grateful for the strong and long-standing relationship between UMaine engineering and Pratt & Whitney,” said Dana Humphrey, dean of the College of Engineering, in the release.

Pratt & Whitney’s previous support for UMaine engineering program includes a 2015 gift of $100,000, which provided scholarships and equipment. The company, based in East Hartford, Conn., is part of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX).

The engineering and design center is named for James Ferland, a UMaine alumnus, and Eileen Ferland, who donated $10 million toward the project.