E-cubed Commons

Missouri S&T is partnering with the University of Missouri-Columbia to build its fourth solar house for the U.S. Department of Energy's Solar Decathlon.

What will college campuses look like in the next 100 years? Soon, Missouri S&T may provide a glimpse into the future with a campus development that includes eco-friendly facilities, groundbreaking energy and environmental research, and a network of students, researchers and industry leaders who want to make a difference. From its technically savvy name to its admirable vision of a sustainable environment, the E³ (E-Cubed) Campus Development emphasizes that the future is now.

The plan will use sustainable infrastructure, building, energy, education, and operating principles to create a campus that not only looks a little different, but thinks differently too. With an ever-present eye toward the future, students involved in the E³ Campus Development will live, work and study new energy and environmental technologies.

Located on Interstate 44 in proximity to student housing, the E³ Campus Development will serve as a central research facility where students, faculty, and industry professionals can come together to respond to the critical energy and environmental issues facing our world. With a world-class student design center; an energy and environment education center; and a sustainable village containing our solar homes, future sustainable construction demonstration facilities, and a retail district all designed to earn a LEED certification by the Green Building Council, the campus will serve as a learning and working community.

The E³ Campus Development will focus on many research areas, including:

• Wind and solar energy coordinated through S&T's Energy Research & Development Center.


• Sustainable building techniques coordinated through a new, multi-disciplinary Center for Sustainable Design and Construction.


• Infrastructure development toward a hydrogen fuel economy in partnership with the National University Transportation Center.


• A plug-in electric vehicle demonstration project through the Federal Transit Administration and the Missouri Transportation Institute.


• Student-led design team competitions focusing on the solar house, solar car, human-powered vehicle, and the ecoCar NeXt Challenge.


• Hydrogen generation using supercritical water reforming led by S&T's chemical and biological engineering department.

With its E³ Campus Development concept, Missouri S&T may be not only reinventing the college campus, but establishing a vision, a reflection of what we value as an institute of higher learning and as a leader in the scientific community: The importance of energy and environmental research for a sustainable future.

"The Missouri S&T campus must be green to show our students, our state, and all of our constituents what a sustainable future could look like," says Chancellor John F. Carney III.