New design studio space for engineering students working on design projects and creating prototypes.
University President Mark R. Nemec, PhD was on hand last August at the unveiling of the School of Engineering and Computing’s newest student-centered space: the Accurate Lock and Hardware Design Center, named after the Stamford-based company founded by Fairfield alumnus Ronald Salvatore ’64.
Dean Carrano spoke at the studio space unveiling which took place in August at the Innovation Annex. Members of the Salvatore family.
“One cannot be a modern, Jesuit university without the recognition that technology changes everything,” Dr. Nemec said, introducing the new facility and its generous benefactors, Ron and his wife Joanne. “And one cannot be a solid school without a robust School of Engineering and Computing.”
Located in the Innovation Annex, the new design studio space was created with flexibility in mind and has already become popular with engineering students working on design projects and creating prototypes.
Ron Salvatore, chairman of Accurate Lock and Hardware, spoke briefly at the unveiling. He noted that he is very proud to be a Fairfield alumnus and cited the “exceptional growth and recognition of the school.”
The Salvatore family’s connections to Fairfield’s School of Engineering and Computing (SEC) run deep. Ron and Joanne have been strong supporters throughout the years, and Ron contributes his vision, knowledge, and experience as a member of the SEC Executive Advisory Board. Recently, one of the couple’s two sons, Reed, who serves as Accurate’s CEO, also joined the board.
The Salvatores fund a four-year SEC scholarship, and have created internship opportunities for Fairfield mechanical engineering students at the family’s company.
It’s a very hands-on, learn-by-doing internship, noted Charlotte Savigny ’26, one of several mechanical engineering students lucky enough to have landed a summer gig at Accurate Lock and Hardware. “Accurate makes sure students get involved in the entire engineering process. I learned how to make the interior of the lock itself and to think about how the parts interact with each other on the inside, in order to make an operation occur on the outside.”
Savigny described how she spent the summer working with machine design to code and run a computer numerical control (CNC) machining center: “I worked with Autodesk, turning 2D drawings into 3D drawings with Fusion 360, and finally learned to finish pieces by polishing, coating, or sandblasting.”
Working at Accurate Lock and Hardware, she said, “fueled my passion for my major.”
