Fuse at Mason Square

Each episode of “The Mason Mechanical Engineer” podcast features an interview with a member of the Mason nation, including staff, faculty, students, alumni, and industry partners. Mechanical engineering chair and professor Leigh McCue co-hosts with Philip Wilkerson, an employer engagement consultant in University Career Services. 

Mason’s Institute of Digital Innovation (IDIA) recently welcomed the inaugural cohort of Public-Private Partnership (P3) Faculty Fellows. The Fellows Program aims to spark research collaborations between the university and industry partners on impactful societal problems and deliver state-of-the-art digital solutions to the local, regional, or national economy.

An event on Nov. 3 at the Mason Square campus celebrated the "topping out" of the Fuse building, meaning the structural frame of the building is complete.

Mason’s new Fuse at Mason Square destination in Arlington will reach a major milestone this month with the “topping out” of what will become a 345,000-square-foot collaborative and digital innovation space in the heart of the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor.

The Next System Studies program at Fuse stems in part from the Next System Project, a grassroots initiative by The Democracy Collaborative. The project takes a deep and bold look at addressing challenges the U.S. faces now, and will face in the future, as a result of the intersection of systems formed around race, economy, technology, climate, and ecology.

The College of Engineering and Computing continues its trajectory of growth hitting a record number of nearly 12,000 students.

Mason is deeply committed to pioneering processes that can answer the grand challenges of water, its responsible management, and sustainability. In fact, the university’s interdisciplinary approach and cutting-edge research as part of its strategic direction, has turned Mason’s campuses into a Living Lab.

Fuse at Mason Square, currently under construction in the heart of the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor, will be a new innovation destination uniting scholars, students, researchers, and policy and business developers, working together to accelerate the pace of change and solve our grand challenges. With that in mind, architect Rob McClure, of the firm Page, said the core of the building was designed to feel like a Main Street.

As plans for Mason Square progress, the Cyber Security Engineering (CYSE) department, the fastest growing department in the College of Engineering and Computing, is eager to leverage the space.

Mason's data analytics engineering program plans to scale up its presence at Mason Square in Arlington in the coming years.