The glass-and-shiny-steel flagship building that is home to UCF’s College of Engineering and Computer Science has been renamed the L3Harris Engineering Center, announced Michael Georgiopoulos, dean of the college.

The announcement celebrates the rebranding of one of the most prominent buildings on UCF’s main campus and showcases the longstanding partnership between UCF and L3Harris Technologies, an $18 billion aerospace and defense company born from the merger of L3 Technologies and Harris Corporation in 2019.

Headquartered in Melbourne, Florida, L3Harris employs more than 20,000 engineers and scientists, many with ties to UCF.

Originally named the Harris Corporation Engineering Center, the 113,866 square-foot structure was built in 2006, and houses the Dean’s Office, the Department of Computer Science, the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and the UCF Center for Research in Computer Vision.

The building also has classrooms and high-tech innovative lab spaces where cutting-edge research is performed in topics such as power grids, advanced communications technology, sensors, magnetics, antennas, artificial intelligence, medical robotics, machine learning, cyber security, interactive computing and more. These labs include the Siemens Digital Grid Laboratory and a planned 360-degree augmented-virtual reality lab space.

Also rebranded are two spaces in UCF’s Engineering II building: the first-floor L3Harris Partnership Atrium, formerly named the Harris Gathering Lab; and the L3Harris Evaluation and Efficiency Testing Center, formerly a computer lab space on the second floor.

“Our partnership with UCF allows us to impact students pursuing careers in engineering and technology, while also providing a trusted pipeline of interns and new college graduates to join our ranks post-graduation.”— Ross Niebergall, vice president and chief technology officer, L3Harris Technologies

The L3Harris Partnership Atrium is a bustling space that features round whiteboard tables to increase collaborative creativity and engineering ideation as part of UCF’s Maker Space Lab Complex. The busy atrium is a main thoroughfare for students and faculty and also serves as a tabling center for student organizations and is a stop on UCF’s campus tours.

“We’re proud of our partnership with L3Harris Technologies. Their name on our building not only illustrates that partnership, but also represents how they have helped prepare hundreds of students become engineers and computer scientists for important engineering and computer science work on behalf of our nation’s defense,” Georgiopoulos says.

“At L3Harris, we’re committed to the development of future innovators. Our partnership with UCF allows us to impact students pursuing careers in engineering and technology, while also providing a trusted pipeline of interns and new college graduates to join our ranks post-graduation,” says Ross Niebergall, vice president and chief technology officer, L3Harris. “We are proud to have our company name prominently displayed on the L3Harris Engineering Center, the L3Harris Partnership Atrium and the L3Harris Evaluation and Efficiency Testing Center.”

UCF has been named the nation’s top workforce supplier to the aerospace and defense industry for six consecutive years, and in 2020 was named the nation’s No. 2 preferred supplier by Aviation Week Network.

L3Harris Technologies is the formation of two $9 billion defense contractors a year ago: New York-based L3 and Florida-based Harris Corporation. The merger created $18 billion L3Harris Technologies, now  headquartered in Florida’s Brevard County.

The University of Central Florida is a public research university in Orlando. Founded in 1963 to fuel the region’s talent pipeline and support the growing U.S. space program, UCF has been making an impact on the state, the nation — and outer space — ever since. UCF and its 13 colleges offer more than 220 degrees from the university’s main campus, downtown campus, hospitality campus, health sciences campus, online and through multiple regional locations. The university benefits from a diverse faculty, staff and student body who create a welcoming environment and thrive on the opportunity to learn and discover. More at ucf.edu.

The UCF College of Engineering and Computer Science is one of the largest in the nation with more than 13,000 students; and ranks top 100 for both undergraduate and graduate engineering programs.

L3Harris Technologies is an agile global and aerospace defense technology innovator, delivering end-to-end solutions that meet customers’ mission-critical needs. The company provides advanced defense and commercial technologies across air, land, sea, space and cyber domains. L3Harris has approximately $18 billion in annual revenue and 48,000 employees, with customers in more than 100 countries. L3Harris.com