On the first floor of Texas A&M University San Antonio’s new Science and Technology Building, students Tuesday tested measures of force on a plate embedded in the ground, as six cameras around the room tracked sensors on their legs.

In the Health and Fitness Lab were two machines that measure body composition and tools that test balance and oxygen uptake, waiting for kinesiology students to use them.

Marcus Blaylock, who will graduate in December, will be working in the lab this semester with a professor on a research project testing bone density, balance, strength and other physiological characteristics of people whose lower limbs have been amputated.

Before the new building opened, “we just didn't have the space for this,” said Blaylock, who hopes the research experience will help him in applying for jobs and graduate school.

A&M-San Antonio dedicated the new $63 million, 140,000-square-foot Science and Technology Building on Tuesday in what President Cynthia Teniente-Matson called a “game-changing moment” for the school.

The building opened a semester ahead of schedule and holds kinesiology, natural sciences and cybersecurity classrooms and labs.

It also houses the Mays Center for Experiential Learning and Community Engagement, which provides career services and community service programs and helps students access internships and other outside-the-classroom opportunities.

The Center offers help with resumes, professional clothing, networking and practice interviews, which sophomore psychology major Gustavo De Lafuente credited with helping him land an internship with the San Antonio Police Department. Its new space was funded by a $5 million donation from the Mays Family Foundation.

Another 20,000 square feet will open this spring on the north end of the building, with more space for the school’s current science offerings and future programs in cyber engineering technology and electronic systems engineering technology, Teniente-Matson said.

At the dedication was John Sharp, the chancellor of the Texas A&M University System, who said the system “ought to be on the forefront” of cybersecurity education.

In the Center for Information Technology and Cyber Security, now housed in the new building, students will learn “to fight what the wars of the future are going to be about,” Sharp said.

“What’s going to happen here is those young women and men who are going to win those wars are going to be trained,” he said. “This is a special leap forward.”

A&M-San Antonio has worked to position itself as a leader in cybersecurity education and this summer received a grant from the National Science Foundation to bolster a three-year project to recruit students and strengthen their ability to work in that field. The university is one of a handful of National Security Agency-certified institutions.

“Nothing could be more exciting to me than to see this kind of facility in South Texas,” said Lowry Mays, founder of Clear Channel Communications and a former member of the A&M System’s board of regents. He recalled “the birthplace of the university, when it was nothing but farmland,” and said he was excited to see it continue to grow.

San Antonio City Councilwoman Rebecca Viagran, whose district includes the campus, praised the new addition to the city’s South Side.

“With this building, with STEM and with our community and civic engagement, we are going to activate a brand new era for the students and the members of the South Side and the entire city of San Antonio,” she said.

Krista Torralva covers several school districts and public universities in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | Krista.Torralva@express-news.net | Twitter: @KMTorralva | LTeitz@Express-News.net | @LizTeitz