University Science & Engineering Facilities 2024 Sessions

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 freshly-opened Chemistry Building at University of Maryland delivers state-of-the-art infrastructure to support research in sustainable advanced materials, 4-dimensional biomolecular science, quantum chemistry, and more. Chemistry Professor and Department Chair Janice Reutt-Robey was involved in every step of design, construction, and now occupancy, and in this session she examines rationales for decisions on programming, lab configurations, and future-facing flexibility across a variety of climate-controlled environments, vibration-mitigated spaces, and mixed-discipline research labs. She highlights key lessons learned along the way, and how the early planning projections on space needs have worked out, both through the project and after move-in.

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.

Mass timber now figures prominently in sustainability and carbon reduction initiatives, but does this material help or hamper facilities housing advanced programs in artificial intelligence, robotics, energy, and materials science? Scott Ashford and Libby Ramirez chart Oregon State University’s journey from skepticism to confidence in the use of mass timber for the Huang Collaborative Innovation Complex, which will house team-based transdisciplinary research and teaching groups, an NVIDIA supercomputer, a cleanroom, and advanced science, teaching, and prototyping labs. They highlight key performance specifications to factor into decision-making and designs including vibration, heat, acoustics, finishes, and user experience, the additional sustainability features being adopted, and the anticipated impact on campus carbon targets.

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.

Moving from traditional space use policies to the innovative solutions required today can be rocky, and here you’ll get insights from Augusta University’s space management model deployment for high-profile research space. Barbara Manley-Smith details the development, integration, and launch of a comprehensive space management system including criteria for effectiveness, precision metrics, and management guidelines. She identifies flexibility features for incorporating future metrics and modifying existing processes in response to changing research priorities, and the resources and processes to ensure effective culture change. She provides key lessons learned, results to-date, and advice for other institutions embarking on research space utilization initiatives.

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.

This end-of-day session is where key ideas, new developments, and findings that have been revealed over the course of the entire two-day conference (including sessions you may have missed) get clarified, expanded upon, and affirmed or debated. This is also the opportunity to get answers from industry leaders and the entire audience to specific questions on key and challenging issues.