Science & Engineering Quad

The Huang Center, named for alumnus and NVIDIA co-founder Jen-Hsun Huang, is the central home of the School of Engineering and is designed to inspire invention in an environment of creativity and collaboration. It houses the Terman Engineering Library, named for Frederick Terman, the dean of Engineering in the 1950s. He is widely credited with the creation of the culture and academic-industry collaborations that created Silicon Valley. The School of Engineering houses the Global Engineering Programs, which aim to enhance engineering education by providing students with an opportunity to learn about technology and engineering globally, to build professional networks and to gain real-world work experience in a culturally diverse and international environment alongside various global community and industry collaborators. Also in Engineering is the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP), which accelerates entrepreneurship education at Stanford and around the world.

Opened in 2008, Y2E2 was the first large-scale, mixed-use, high-performance building at Stanford to house cross-disciplinary teams and programs with teaching and research focused on sustainability, such as the Woods Institute for the Environment, which serve as the university's interdisciplinary research hub that strives to advance solutions to the world’s most critical, complex environmental and sustainability challenges. Constructed to high environmental standards, the building showcases significant sustainability features, sustainable building practices and serves as a living laboratory for the research conducted inside.

Supported by both the School of Engineering and the School of Medicine at Stanford, the Shriram Center is the home to research in biomedicine, molecular biology, health and environmental sciences, chemistry, and engineering. The Center is distinctive on the quad for its sunken courtyard, daylight basement laboratories, prominent central stair and five-story atrium, and extensive graphic storytelling throughout the facility. The Center houses 34 custom-tailored research laboratories, including a suite of five undergraduate teaching labs. Shared core labs are located on a basement loop that connects all four Quad buildings, allowing faculty and staff to access cutting-edge technology to advance their research. The design concentrates amenities around the central stair, drawing occupants into a vertical mixing zone to cultivate energy, activity, and social and academic interaction.

This building is home to Stanford's Nanoscale Science and Engineering. Spilker does not house any departments; its facilities are used by a variety of disciplines such as Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Physics, and Material Science and Engineering.

Lab64 is a maker space that focuses on electronic systems, physical devices that include electronics and computing, and is open to the entire Stanford community. Housed in the Packard building of the electrical engineering department, lab64 provides tools, equipment, workshops and advice on building systems.

The Stanford Product Realization Lab (PRL) is a multi-site teaching and hands-on facility where Stanford students discover the power to create the future. It is an academic makerspace with six distinct lab areas: machining, woodworking, foundry, welding, plastics, and rapid prototyping (located in the Huang Engineering Building). While the PRL operates under the auspices of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, students from all disciplines and experience levels across campus are welcome to participate.

While the PRL is primarily a teaching lab supporting coursework, student research, personal work, and exploration are also encouraged. Each year, under the mentorship of PRL faculty and course assistants, more than 1,000 Stanford undergraduate, graduate, and professional school students make things of lasting value ‒ innovative medical, food production, transportation, communications, and consumer products ‒ that transform lives at home and abroad.

The “d.school” (officially: The Hasso Plattner Institute of Design) is a recognized thought leader in human-centered design, and a leading teaching center for design and experiential learning. Despite its nickname, it is not a “school” of the university, but an internationally acclaimed institute, providing offerings to students from all seven of its schools, both graduate and undergraduate. In 2012, the d.school started the ‘Project Fellowship,’ inviting professionals with expertise in their respective fields to join the d.school to advance an ambitious project to create systems-level change in the world.