The Molinaroli College of Engineering and Computing plans to use a recent $30 million donation to increase opportunities for students and establish itself as a prominent education and research institution.
Alex Molinaroli is the former CEO of Johnson Controls and has strong ties to USC, with seven of his family members attending since the 1930s. The donation, made by the Molinaroli family in June, will allow the College of Engineerong to continue to give students better opportunities for working with high-technology equipment and getting internships. Dean Hossein Haj-Hariri has plans for a Center for Industry Solutions, which will work with the engineering and computing industries in South Carolina to solve problems. For example, students will be able to work with AI-powered technology that will modify manufacturing inspections.
“We are (setting) up a Center for Industry Solutions, which formalizes what we have been doing, but now we are giving it an umbrella name, so people know what it is,” Haj-Hariri said. “ We also have incredible students that we train, in addition to educate, because we've been investing a lot in equipment and software, so our students are trained on state-of-the-art equipment.”
Haj-Hariri said the college also aims to be a top choice for students in the area who are applying for engineering and computing, comparable with the prominence of the Darla Moore School of Business. Haj-Hariri referred to increasing graduation rates, with hopes of getting job placement rates as high as possible for graduates. He said he plans to increase internship opportunities for students by building relationships with more engineering companies in South Carolina.
“The way that we do this is through internships,” Haj-Hariri said. “As we build the relationship with companies, we can place more students. And our students really are good. Not only are they good on their education side, but on their common sense side, which is really essential for engineering and computing.”
While the dean has discussed bolstering the college’s reputation, Aidan Billings, a fifth-year mechanical engineering student, wants curriculum at USC to be modernized to prepare students for their fields.
“For mechanical engineering, in our entire degree, we spend 45 hours doing hands-on, and everything else is with equations in the classroom,” Billings said. “And I really don’t think that’s the way that it should be for an engineer, because so much understanding comes from doing things."
Billings said he has an array of interests for the college which expand beyond a lack of time working in labs. He also said he thins a scarcity of courses covering topics which may be important in students' careers.
“Some of the biggest fields that mechanical engineers are going into these days are the ones that still feel like they have the least focus in our classes,” Billings said. “For instance, materials science is a huge area for mechanical engineers right now, and we only take one class in that.”
Billings is also concerned about the availability of some courses. Certain classes are only offered to honors students, meaning that some fields may be less accessible.
“Like green energy, we have one surface-level class that is for every engineering discipline, and it’s only offered for honors students,” Billings said. “So non-honors students will leave the College of Engineering without knowing anything about green energy, how to design for it, what changes it’s going to bring to the world around us. And I think these and many others are really important areas for engineers to know about nowadays.”
The donation makes this the fourth building on campus to be named for a donor, joining the Darla Moore School of Business, the Arnold School of Public Health and the Joseph F. Rice School of Law. Molinaroli donated the gift to honor his family and their history at USC, with goals to improve the school's stature and drive economic growth in South Carolina.
“The University of South Carolina always was and still is a family affair,” Molinaroli said in a press release. “It is a privilege for my family’s name to be associated with the College of Engineering and Computing as it becomes an incubator and foundation developer for the students who will be the next Fortune 100 CEOs and successful entrepreneurs.”