“We have this very large concentration and the requirements of the concentration are such that you could have two students who never take a course together,” said Margo S. Levine, assistant director for undergraduate studies in Applied Mathematics. “That creates this sort of very dispersed community.”

She said she hopes the space will be a site for social events, collaborative learning, and teaching opportunities.

“If you want to do it right, you will need [a] significant amount of active learning,” he said of SEAS’ teaching philosophy.

SEAS’ rethinking of “active learning” is not unique. Universities across the country, including MIT, are experimenting with classroom design in an effort to optimize student experience, according to Habbal.

He estimated that SEAS has spent about $5 million on teaching labs in the last five years, an investment that has tripled the amount of student lab space in Pierce Hall.

“We’re utilizing every space that one can imagine can be utilized,” he said, adding that teaching labs even overflow into the hallway and several administrators have already been moved to the Northwest Science Building. “One last frontier is the basement of Maxwell Dworkin.”

In fact, that space will soon be filled too. Electrical engineering lab space in the basement is poised to double by the spring term to accommodate growth in ES50 and ES1.

—Staff writer Radhika Jain can be reached at radhikajain@college.harvard.edu