Milwaukee’s three top engineering schools are forming what they hope will become a national research center. The departments at UW-Milwaukee, Marquette and MSOE, the Milwaukee School of Engineering, plan to jointly develop energy technology. Local companies have donated a half-million dollars to enable the group to launch seven projects; the U.S. Energy Department has chipped-in $200,000. Spokesman for MSOE, Thomas Bray, says as far as he knows, this is the first time the three departments have collaborated on a major initiative. They're calling it the Southeastern Wisconsin Energy Technology Research Center.