Boeing

Boeing [NYSE: BA] officials announced today a donation of $215,000 to help fund a new Product Innovation and Creativity Center (PICC) at the University of Missouri Rolla.

The gift is the third in a series of Boeing donations to the university that total $645,000. The money will be used to build a center that is designed to help the university's engineering students innovatively design, manufacture and market products.

"One of our chief goals at Boeing is to help provide for students an environment which will better prepare them for careers in engineering," said Frank Statkus, vice president, advanced technology for the Boeing 7E7 aircraft program. "We feel the PICC will do that, and we're proud to have played a role in its creation."

"The Product Innovation and Creativity Center will give our students many opportunities to develop self-confidence through the expression of their creativity," says UMR Chancellor Gary Thomas. "In an interdisciplinary environment, students will work in teams on open-ended, real-life projects."

The PICC is expected to open in about two years. Portions of the funds will be used to support laboratories, curriculum in mechanical and other engineering programs, scholarships and student organizations, and to develop programs to help attract pre-college students to engineering and science fields.

Founded in 1871 as the first technological school west of the Mississippi River, the University of Missouri-Rolla is one of the nation's leading engineering-focused universities. UMR is 20th in the nation in the number of engineering Bachelor of Science degrees awarded in 2001-2002, according to the Engineering Workforce Commission of the American Association of Engineering Societies.