Students in the Missouri S&T-Missouri State Cooperative Engineering Program work with Dr. Rohit Dua, center, assistant teaching professor of electrical engineering, in a lab at the Plaster Center in Springfield, Mo. (Photo courtesy of Missouri State University.)

A cooperative engineering program between Missouri University of Science and Technology and Missouri State University has a new home in Springfield.

The Missouri S&T-Missouri State Cooperative Engineering Program recently moved in to the Robert W. Plaster Center for Free Enterprise and Business Development at 405 N. Jefferson Ave. in Springfield. The Plaster Center is part of Missouri State’s IDEA Commons.

Through the program, students from a 16-county area in southwest Missouri may obtain Missouri S&T bachelor of science degrees in civil engineering and electrical engineering. The program was established in 2006. Classes began in 2008, and the program’s first 15 graduates received their S&T diplomas in 2012.

A dedication ceremony for the Plaster Center will be held at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 3, at the center. Speakers for the ceremony include Gov. Jay Nixon and Steve Plaster, the son of the late Robert W. Plaster, for whom the center is named. Missouri State President Clif Smart and University of Missouri System President Timothy M. Wolfe will also speak at the event.

Following the event, attendees may tour the Missouri S&T-Missouri State Cooperative Engineering Program classrooms, labs and offices, as well as other portions of the Plaster Center.

In addition to the engineering program, the Plaster Center also houses:

• The eFactory, a technology-focused entrepreneurship center and business incubator designed to assist start-up and growth in new small business; and
• Missouri State Printing and Postal Services, a full-service offset printing facility for the Missouri State campus.

Dr. Doug Carroll of Missouri S&T is director of the Springfield program.

For more information about the program, visit rol.la/coopdegrees.