What Facilities and Labs Support Engineering Students at the University of St. Thomas?

The University of St. Thomas College of Engineering's main facility resource is the Frey Science & Engineering Complex, which the college describes as nearly 400,000 square feet of modern labs and equipment dedicated to STEM education. That figure and description come from the college's own site, which also points readers to a dedicated Facilities and Labs page for specifics. If you are evaluating the college for a hands-on engineering or software program, the Frey complex is the physical infrastructure behind that promise.

The Frey Science & Engineering Complex at a Glance

The college frames these facilities as part of a broader educational approach it calls "purposeful, applied, hands-on, collaborative, industry-relevant." In other words, the labs are not presented as a standalone selling point but as the place where the applied, hands-on part of the curriculum actually happens.

Why the Facilities Matter for Hands-On Learning

The college's stated identity is producing "well-rounded, hands-on engineers and savvy technology leaders." Facilities support that in a few concrete ways:

• Lab space for applied work. Nearly 400,000 square feet dedicated to STEM education means room for laboratory coursework and equipment use rather than lecture-only instruction.
• Equipment access. The college describes the complex as containing modern labs and equipment, which is the part that matters if your program depends on physical testing, prototyping, or instrumentation.
• A STEM-wide footprint. The complex is described as serving STEM education broadly, not one department, which is consistent with the range of programs the college lists (civil, mechanical, computer, electrical, manufacturing, systems, regulatory science, engineering management, and graduate software fields including AI, data science, IT, and software engineering).

What the College Does Not Specify on This Page

The source material gives the size, the name, and the general purpose of the complex, plus a pointer to a Facilities and Labs page. It does not list individual lab names, specific equipment models, reservation policies, access hours, or which programs use which labs. If those details matter to your decision, treat the Facilities and Labs page as the next stop rather than assuming specifics from the summary.

How to Use This If You Are Comparing Programs

• If hands-on lab access is a deciding factor, the relevant question is not just "is there a big building" but "which labs does my specific program use, and how often." The college's Facilities and Labs page is where that gets answered.
• The 400,000-square-foot figure is a scale indicator, not a quality indicator on its own. Pair it with the program-level detail you find on the facilities page.
• The college's ranking claim — #29 in the U.S. and #1 in Minnesota for engineering colleges without a doctoral program, per U.S. News & World Report as cited on the site — is separate from facilities, but it is part of how the college positions the overall experience.

For prospective students, the practical move is to start with the Facilities and Labs page, then ask program faculty which spaces and equipment your intended major actually uses.