Tina Quigley, president and CEO of the Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance, had her reservations about LOCATE Las Vegas. The initiative, which entrusted the developmental authority with courting 17 global company leaders in hopes of attracting them to Southern Nevada, already felt like an expensive, time-intensive task. Add on the pressure of doing it during Super Bowl LVIII weekend and they certainly had their work cut out for them.

Mugundan Prakash moved to the United States from India last July to complete his degree, and he couldn’t imagine doing it at a better place than UNLV, he said. The 21-year-old graduate student, who majors in electrical engineering, has spent the past couple of months working on a drone that can test the soil of places affected by wildfires.

Engineering is one of the fastest-growing disciplines on the UNLV campus, and now the school has a brand new, state-of-the-art building to hold all the students it’s attracting.

UNLV celebrated the opening of its Advanced Engineering Building on Friday as the university works to help accommodate one of its fastest growing programs.

The UNLV College of Engineering is looking to the fall semester with a new upgrade.

The new three-story $73 million Advanced Engineering Building is open. While it took 10 years for the building to become a reality, the construction of the building only took 20 months.

The growing tech environment also means a greater demand for engineering and tech talent, which UNLV is stepping up to answer.

The new building will provide more spaces for teaching, research, and collaborations.