University Park, Pa. -- Penn State President Graham B. Spanier will dedicate the College of Engineering's Service Enterprise Engineering (SEE) Center at 2 p.m. Thursday (Oct. 11) in the lobby of Leonhard Building.
Billed as the first of its kind in the nation, the SEE Center focuses exclusively on the emerging field of service enterprise engineering, which uses theories and processes native to engineering and applies them to non-engineering problems. For example, service enterprise engineering can be used to optimize the flow of patients through an operating room or decide how medication is purchased, inventoried and dispensed to patients.
The department was already the first in the country to offer a track for students in the service enterprise engineering field.
The creation of the SEE Center was made possible through a $1 million gift from Harold and Inge Marcus of Olympia, Wash. The Marcuses, who will be attending the dedication ceremony, are among Penn State's most generous donors. Over the years, the couple has given numerous gifts to the University, including endowing a dean's chair; the industrial engineering department; faculty positions; a student exchange program with the Technion, the Israeli Institute of Technology; and Penn State Hillel.
Terry Friesz, the Harold and Inge Marcus chaired professor of industrial engineering, will serve as the center's inaugural director. The SEE Center will be administered through the industrial and manufacturing engineering department.
Harold Marcus is a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., and a 1949 Penn State industrial engineering graduate. He is the president of Hal Marcus Inc. and American Villages Inc., both real estate development and management companies.
Inge Marcus is a native of Copenhagen, Denmark, and holds a bachelor of science in biology from St. Martin's College and a master of science in health sciences from Chapman University. She is a retired assistant professor of biology at St. Martin's.