Students, faculty and alumni watched as a Komatsu trackhoe began tearing away at the southeast corner of land near Wagner Hall on Wednesday.
The groundbreaking took place where the Centennial Engineering Center will be built later this year. It was part of a fundraiser to fund the contruction of the center.
The School of Engineering received $25 million from a bond that was approved by the Board of Regents in June, and $14.3 million from the state Legislature. But the school still needs about $2.7 million to reach the projected cost of $42 million, said Joe Cecchi, dean of the School of Engineering.
"I'm sure after the last five years, the New Mexico Legislature is getting tired of seeing me," Cecchi said. "We would really like to get more than that to give us a bit of a cushion."
New Mexico Rep. Larry Larranaga, former NASA shuttle pilot Sid Gutierrez, and CEO of the Jaynes Corp. Howard Mock spoke at the ceremony.
Gutierrez, who earned an aeronautical engineering degree from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1973, said he went into engineering partly because of the Soviet space program's success with the Sputnik program.
"I figured I needed to learn engineering or learn Russian," Gutierrez said. "Now people aren't concerned with taking our freedom. They want to take our jobs, and we're not competing against the Russians. We're competing against everyone."
Gutierrez also stressed the importance of American innovation.
"Innovation is usually the intersection of many disciplines," Gutierrez said. "This facility will enable us to do that."
James Horey, a third year doctorate student in Computer Science, was one of many engineering students displaying their work at the fundraiser.
Horey is working on computer systems sensors that can monitor environmental conditions.
"We hope to be able to put these in forests, so we can detect forest fires and be able to determine the fire's boundary," Horey said.
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Charles Jennett, former president of Texas A&M International University and chairman of the civil engineering program at Syracuse University, underscored the importance of women in engineering.
"My wife is an engineer, my daughter is an engineer, but it's still not 51 percent like it should be," Jennett said.
Jennett also spoke about international competition.
"If only one percent of China were to become an engineer, they would have more engineers than us," Jennett said. "And a lot of our engineers are encouraged to go overseas."
The Centennial Engineering Center, which will have three floors above ground and a basement, will make better use of the space than Wagner Hall, said Bruce Thomson, civil engineering professor.
"Wagner Hall has a big footprint for what is essentially a one-story building," Thomson said. "This new building will innovate and invigorate. It's the first building that people see and a sign that UNM is a leader in science and technology."
Larranaga said the new building is important to the continuing success of UNM.
"When I see a structure or a building that I know is going to provide an opportunity to get better faculty and students, I know I have to support it," Larranaga said.
Marion Cottrell, an alumnus who graduated from the University in 1951 and former faculty member, said he remembered when Wagner Hall was first built in 1949.
"We got into the building in '50, and two weeks later had to move out because it was condemned," Cottrell said. "They had to go back and put tensioning cables under the support beams."
Mock, who is a former student of Cottrell's, joked about the building.
"We always used to joke that it wasn't a UNM student that designed it; it was an Aggie," Mock said.
Cecchi said demolition would begin after a contractor is chosen sometime later this month. Construction will begin in June or July after the blueprints and construction price are finalized, he said.
