Wichita ? A planned expansion at Wichita State University will be welcome relief for graduate engineering students who often have to work overnight because of a lack of space for research.

The College of Engineering hopes to open a $10 million, 40,000-square-foot, three-building research complex with lab space for all departments by midsummer 2006.

Because undergraduate classes are in WSU’s Advanced Networking Research Center labs during the day, graduate students often have to conduct their research overnight.

The college includes mechanical, aerospace, electrical, computer, industrial and manufacturing disciplines.

Engineering dean Walter Horn said bids on the expansion would be taken in January, with construction expected to last about 15 months.

The expansion will include two new labs for aviation research: a tunnel to test the effects of ice on airplane wings and a large-components testing lab for parts such as fuselages. Those labs will be funded from a $13 million allocation the university received in 2002 for aviation research.

The remainder will be paid for with $10 million from a $120 million research bond the Legislature approved in 2002.

University officials hope the increased lab space will attract more research dollars.

Research brought in $16.7 million in 2002-2003, about double the amount from five years ago, said Skip Loper, associate vice president for research.

“WSU is not a major research institution like the Big 10 universities, but our College of Engineering has been capable of competition in the last five to 10 years,” Horn said.

Professor Ravi Pendse said the new building would give graduate students more time and space to research.

“Ideally you want teaching to take place somewhere different than research,” Pendse said.