Marquette received its fourth eight-figure donation of 2007 after the university announced a $15 million gift to the College of Engineering from Robert Kern, founder of Generac Power Systems Inc. on Monday.

The money will be used for the construction of a new engineering building called the Discovery Learning Complex, according to Tom Hefty, president of The Kern Family Foundation. Hefty said the money was a personal gift to the university from Kern and his wife, Patricia.

"The Kerns have always had a significant commitment to engineering education across the Midwest and the country," Hefty said.

The Discovery Learning Complex will be a five- or six-story building that will include integrated classrooms, teaching labs, research labs and a conference center and will feature as much glass as possible to make the building transparent, according to Stanley Jaskolski, dean of the College of Engineering. He said the transparency will allow outsiders to see what is happening inside the building and should motivate them to come inside and see what engineering has to offer.

"It is going to be a one-of-a-kind unique facility," Jaskolski said. He said the design should be completed by the end of the year and that it was drawn up by combining the best practices and designs of similar buildings of other universities.

The building will be built on the south side of West Wisconsin Avenue between 16th and 17th streets at an estimated cost of $100 million, according to Mary Pat Pfeil, senior director of university communication.

Jaskolski said the building is the first of a three-part aggressive and bold strategic plan to transform engineering education at Marquette. He said the College of Engineering is working toward a $150 million goal to support the construction of the new building, endowed professorships and student scholarships. He said the college is about halfway to completing the goal.

"We have been truly blessed by our alumni," Jaskolski said. "The Kerns truly believe in improving and building the pipeline of engineering students."

He said students should feel like they also own the building so they are truly motivated to design products of the industry. He said the building should produce a better engineering student for the 21st century.

Hefty said the Kerns' goals are to generate more interest in engineering as a career and to provide more resources and engineering careers. He said they want to help adapt engineering education to the changing economy of the industry and to increase the competitiveness of the country in engineering internationally.

The Kern Center at the Milwaukee School of Engineering, a 210,000-square-foot recreation, athletic, health and wellness facility located at 1245 N. Broadway, opened in 2004 and was made possible by a $9 million donation from the Kern Family Foundation.