Event Schedule

What you will learn: This course covers the basic elements of planning and design of labs and facilities for teaching and research – upfront planning and programming, teaching lab designs, active learning space designs, informal learning space designs, research lab designs, building design, and planning for mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and lighting systems components. Participants will come away with a basic understanding of the terminology, concepts, processes, standards, numbers, and types of labs, scientific equipment, and furniture (as applicable) involved in teaching and research facility planning and design. The course also serves as primer for the two-day conference that follows and will be highly interactive with Q&A throughout.

Who should attend: This one-day course is open to all who have interest in lab planning and design: project managers, facility planners and managers, lab managers, architects, engineers, construction engineers, faculty, researchers, and scientists employed at colleges and universities, and A/E/C firms.

Space is limited and enrollment is subject to approval.

Cost:
$1,300 Fundamentals Course only
$1,100 with registration to two-day conference immediately following

(Fees include course materials, continental breakfast, refreshment breaks, lunch)

A hosted beer and wine bar along with light snacks will be served.

Attendees may sign-in and pick up their registration materials here, or the next morning at the conference ballroom foyer.

Guests welcome.

See the full list of participating exhibitors and event hosts.

Stanford University’s new award-winning research complex brings together Chemistry, Engineering Medicine, and Human Health (CHEM-H) with the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institutes to deliver groundbreaking research, improve human health and eradicate disease. Zach Pozner and Stephen Chu provide rationales for key departures from conventional lab planning, highlight innovative features of the light-filled lab “neighborhoods” and “living rooms”, detail flexibility and reconfigurability features of laboratories, set out new lab/office/support metrics, and illustrate how a shared-resource space plan supports the convergence of disciplines among 40 principal investigators.

The George Mason University “Fuse” facility now nearing completion will deliver a peerless innovation experience to spark new ideas, solve important global challenges, and redefine the modern university’s role in catalyzing business and talent. Alex Iszard previews the potent mix of university R&D and education programs, as well as corporate innovation labs, incubators, accelerators, and co-working facilities, retail, a below-grade parking garage, and enhanced public spaces. He provides rationales for decisions and investments in specialized labs including robotics, AR/VR, simulation, network, data visualization, and secure facilities, as well as a future-ready, high-tech, sustainable infrastructure that can respond to the accelerated pace of change.

To successfully compete for students and faculty, higher ed is engaged in an "arms race" of facilities enhancements which foster collaboration and cross-disciplinary convergence, student-centered experiential learning, and allow for extended learning opportunities with real-world applications.  In this session, the RFD team leverages their extensive experience to distill the latest trends and planning solutions for next-generation applied science and engineering facilities. They identify critical decisions to make and pitfalls to avoid when incorporating the complex systems inherent to these facilities. Don't miss this opportunity to gain insights from recent projects across North America and dive deep into three compelling case studies. 

Colleges and universities with high growth programs are having to accommodate additional students with limited facility expansion, leading to tremendous pressure on existing spaces and college resources. Here you’ll see the space use efficiency steps University of Colorado Boulder is taking to prepare for 20-40% enrollment growth in the College of Engineering and Applied Science over the next 5- to 7-years. Session leaders examine the results of a study on existing hands-on learning and project activity spaces, and opportunities identified to increase effective space use, improve student experience, and reprioritize future projects. They illustrate national trends on university enrollment and space use, highlight challenges to be aware of when repurposing spaces, and developing a roadmap for the future.

Lunch hosted by Strobic Air Technologies

Institutions are scrambling to create a pipeline of undergrads, masters, and PhDs for an AI-fueled computing - data - tech revolution workforce. Here you’ll see the space needs required to support collaborative ecosystems of innovation and bring together academics, industry, government, and surrounding communities. Session leaders highlight novel facility and operational planning processes that minimize the effects of construction lag times on rapidly-changing programs and stakeholder groups. They examine five university projects with audacious goals that are rethinking traditional science and engineering building molds and creating more nimble and future-facing spaces.

Strength in Advanced Manufacturing (AM) is critical to the US economy and national security, but less understood is the ecosystem of education and research foundational to AM innovation, and the facilities required to support this ecosystem. Presenters examine the planning and design of AM facilities in the context of the web of interrelationships between workforce skills training for AM, integration of AM in engineering education, and applied AM research. They illustrate facility solutions developed for multiple institutions with unique combinations of high-bay AM space, prototyping and testing resources for industry and academia, workforce training areas, multi-disciplinary research labs, and more.

Mounting pressure on construction costs will impact all science and technology facility projects on the drawing boards, both new construction and renovations. Attend this session to get better pricing and more accurate budget figures, and better understand construction cost drivers for different science and technology facilities. The Vermeulens team delivers up-to-date construction cost forecasts based on economic conditions, job creation and cost data from more than 100 projects. Using analyses of equities, GDP, construction labor markets and their national construction weather map, they illustrate regional construction pricing targets for the next two years and demonstrate bid and purchasing strategies that lock in costs and reduce risk. 

As institutions struggle to expand science & engineering program capacities, what role can virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR) play in reducing, replacing, or supplementing the need for costly lab space and infrastructure? Chris Morett and Dan Munnerley illustrate the VR/AR technology trajectory including pilot projects, early wins, potential uses, and limitations. They extrapolate what it means for planning future physical science and engineering spaces, and new location dynamics that should be factored in. They deliver insights and provide an empowering framework to know what questions to ask, what to look out for, and when to act.

Reception hosted by Siemens

(Guests welcome)

Courtesy of Tradeline

Colleges and universities with high growth programs are having to accommodate additional students with limited facility expansion, leading to tremendous pressure on existing spaces and college resources. Here you’ll see the space use efficiency steps University of Colorado Boulder is taking to prepare for 20-40% enrollment growth in the College of Engineering and Applied Science over the next 5- to 7-years. Session leaders examine the results of a study on existing hands-on learning and project activity spaces, and opportunities identified to increase effective space use, improve student experience, and reprioritize future projects. They illustrate national trends on university enrollment and space use, highlight challenges to be aware of when repurposing spaces, and developing a roadmap for the future.

Interprofessional Education and Practice (IPE) at Ball State University has been extended to health and hard science disciplines, redefining how students learn and practice in their profession and giving rise to a whole new academic science quadrangle defined by a 165,000-sf Health Professions Building and a 206,000-sf Foundational Sciences building. Session leaders illustrate how the University and design team identified the synergies to bring multiple departments under one roof, the facility requirements for IPE pedagogy, and decisions on flexibility for growth. They profile the project impacts of a “one stop shop” community clinic, and a high commitment to sustainability.

A legacy building renovation at McGill University is creating a state-of-the-art research, teaching, and learning hub, and serving as a catalyst for dissolving boundaries between disciplines. Anna Bendix demonstrates the application of activity-based models to maximize the value of spaces, equipment, resources, and knowledge, deliver facility adaptability for rapidly evolving needs, and bring researchers of multiple departments and faculties under one roof. She examines the new metrics for laboratory planning and support spaces, and how the activity-based model is being extended to office spaces.

Over the last decade The University of Maryland has transformed a campus precinct into a vibrant, STEM district with facility initiatives that foster interdisciplinary convergence. Core to this transformation and realization are three STEM buildings for bioengineering building, interdisciplinary chemistry, and integrated engineering. Session leaders chart the rapid iteration of solutions for inspiring innovation, incorporating robust practical infrastructure to anticipate continual change, and achieving carbon neutrality cost-effectively. They illustrate a framework for using facilities to establish innovation communities, how complementary facility planning nurtures interdisciplinary connections and strengthens the overall campus experience, and how future facilities will carry the advances forward.

The skyrocketing influence of artificial intelligence and the digital transformation of the business world are driving explosive growth in computer science programs -- nearly 15% by 2030. What spaces and infrastructure should institutions be putting in place now to successfully compete for top faculty, students, and funding? Using the recent renovation/addition of an interdisciplinary computational research and education hub, session leaders provide insights into the functions of computer science departments and which activities are most prevalent and demanding for research and teaching groups. They set out best practices for implementing high-performance computing (HPC) data centers, identifying sustainability opportunities, and planning for the future.

Two institutions, one building, 100% yet-to-be-recruited users, and changing translational research priorities. These are the demanding conditions that put research facility flexibility and adaptability concepts to the test, and here you’ll see the results through a case study of the Texas Instruments Biomedical Engineering & Sciences Building. Session leaders chart the process of defining a balance of facility capability and cost that will sustain multi-disciplinary research programs into the future. They detail key elements of a flexible chassis solution supporting a variety of research typologies, recruitment, and collaboration, and how the adaptability concepts responded to end user buildouts during construction.

Hosted by Vacuubrand

Institutions are scrambling to create a pipeline of undergrads, masters, and PhDs for an AI-fueled computing - data - tech revolution workforce. Here you’ll see the space needs required to support collaborative ecosystems of innovation and bring together academics, industry, government, and surrounding communities. Session leaders highlight novel facility and operational planning processes that minimize the effects of construction lag times on rapidly-changing programs and stakeholder groups. They examine five university projects with audacious goals that are rethinking traditional science and engineering building molds and creating more nimble and future-facing spaces.

Over the last two decades, Oregon State University's College of Engineering (COE) has grown to almost 12,000 students, and with that growth, the academic master planning process has similarly undergone dramatic, positive changes. Session leaders illustrate how OSU's "Engineering Next" master plan for the College of Engineering provides a focused, clear, concise, and flexible framework for practical near-term facility improvements with outsized impact on mission resulting in planning that is faster, more affordable, and more impactful. They demonstrate how shorter process schedules can lead to more focused and impactful planning, and how the process increased research capacity by 25% within existing buildings while accelerating the schedule by three years.