Event Schedule

Registration for the Fundamentals Course attendees.

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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:
$1,375 Fundamentals Course only
$1,100 with registration to two-day conference immediately following

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

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This meeting is intended for presenters only, and is a critical part of the Tradeline program. Your group will be given last minute information on the audience and their special questions as well as project information relative to this topic. Also covered will be conference protocol and audio-visual equipment for presenters, as well as details on the conference schedule. Speakers will receive a full set of conference materials at this time.

Advanced RSVP Required

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Join us for a hosted beer and wine bar along with light snacks.

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

Guests welcome.

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See the full list of participating exhibitors and event hosts.

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Many research institutions face the gap between laboratory discovery and commercial-scale adoption in advanced manufacturing, energy storage, and polymers. Bret Cummock draws on NLR's Energy Materials and Processing at Scale (EMAPS) facility —a 127,000-square-foot, $224 million flagship building now under construction—to share design evolutions and infrastructure decisions behind a next-generation scale-up research environment. He describes the flexible configurations supporting rapid reconfiguration and industry collaboration, how pilot-scale processing bridges bench research to commercial production, and how electrification and reclaimed water systems advance decarbonization targets. He highlights a range of best-in-class features to inform emerging science capital initiatives at any scale.

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Don’t let your campus strategy treat location as a constraint — in today’s research landscape, breakthroughs don’t just come from funding or talent, they come from ecosystems. This session presents a candid, execution-focused look at how NYU Tandon School of Engineering has turned New York City’s density, proximity, and transit access into measurable drivers of research growth. Drawing on real-world capital projects in a high-intensity urban environment, Maey Khaled and Michael O'Neill deliver a data-driven framework for integrating location intelligence into capital project prioritization, vertical planning, adaptive reuse, and shared infrastructure. They outline a replicable playbook to assess campus positioning, align facilities investments with research ROI, and convert location from a fixed constraint into a competitive advantage. 

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Artificial intelligence and data science are driving a fundamental rethinking of academic research facilities, shifting from individual PI labs toward collaborative research neighborhoods optimized for fluid team structures and shared computational infrastructure. This session examines next-generation facility models and lab typologies through Amy Gutmann Hall at the University of Pennsylvania, an interdisciplinary hub for AI and data science programs, alongside peer benchmark comparisons. Presenters explore how open lab environments, transparent collaboration zones, shared computational infrastructure, and material systems including mass timber support both collective exchange and focused individual work. They deliver post-occupancy insights that translate directly into actionable planning guidance for future projects.

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As computing and engineering curricula converge, universities face mounting pressure to create facilities that seamlessly integrate software development, robotics, data science, embedded systems, and advanced manufacturing, often within a single building or floor plate. This session presents a curriculum-driven, metrics-based planning framework for designing academic environments that unite computing-centered spaces with hardware-intensive labs. Stantec planners draw on quantitative and qualitative metrics covering space allocation, adjacencies, infrastructure capacity, utilization, and flexibility to translate academic requirements into actionable facility decisions. Through project case studies, they evaluate and contrast renovation-versus-new-construction tradeoffs, risk management strategies, and design approaches that future-proof computing and engineering education facilities.

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Hosted by Vacuubrand

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To attract high-caliber talent, institutions are reimagining the campus experience to bridge the gap between recruitment and enhanced learning outcomes. Critical to these efforts are cross-discipline convergence, student-centered experiential learning, and enabling collaboration. In this session, RFD presents trends, planning solutions and benchmarking studies for next generation science and engineering facilities, including design considerations for biophilic laboratory spaces. They outline key decisions to best leverage complex systems inherent to laboratory focused facilities, and review valuable “lessons learned.” They will also detail examples from recently completed and ‘on-the-boards’ projects from across the United States, and highlight design strategies for planning successful laboratory facilities that provide active and collaborative environments for learning and discovery.

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Funding agencies mandate interdisciplinary collaboration, institutional commitments require aggressive decarbonization, and researchers demand adaptable spaces that keep pace with rapidly evolving science. This session reveals how the Resnick Sustainability Center addresses all three imperatives through integrated design-build execution, mass timber innovation, and flexible lab typologies that dismantle disciplinary silos. Presenters map actionable strategies for achieving measurable embodied carbon reductions, designing adaptable research modules that respond to evolving science, and creating transparent, collaborative environments that accelerate discovery-to-impact timelines. They chart new metrics for space utilization and collaboration effectiveness, demonstrate how progressive sustainability targets drive operational excellence, and provide a replicable blueprint for institutions pursuing convergent research models. They distill lessons learned on aligning stakeholder vision with performance outcomes and illustrate how strategic facility investments generate campus-wide ripple effects—empowering attendees to champion next-generation research environments.

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As AI and robotics reshape academic programs, science and engineering facilities must evolve into high-performing strategic assets that attract talent, drive investment, and catalyze regional growth. This session profiles Grand Valley State University’s Blue Dot Lab, a multidisciplinary STEAM innovation hub that embeds an experiential infrastructure layer bridging architecture, technology, and storytelling. Presenters illustrate how adaptable collision spaces blend teaching, research, and industry production for long-term facility relevance; how high-tech environments drive recruitment and donor engagement; and how co-locating student entrepreneurship with computing hubs transforms a campus building into a powerful catalyst for real-world innovation and measurable economic investment.

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Research institutions face mounting pressure to expand STEM research capacity as capital budgets shrink and deferred maintenance backlogs grow. Bruce Molino draws on experience leading facility planning at Syracuse University and in private practice to present the 80/20 lab renovation model, a proven framework that standardizes lab infrastructure decisions to shorten planning and delivery timelines. He shares how the process structures faculty engagement, minimizes custom design iterations, and maximizes adaptability within existing buildings. He describes implementation strategies and principles that balance institutional standards with research flexibility. He delivers key distinguishing characteristics and strategies for other institutions expanding research capacity through targeted renovation.

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Hosted by Siemens (Guests welcome)

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See the full list of participating exhibitors and event hosts.

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Courtesy of Tradeline

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Research facilities rank among the most energy-intensive building types, making them critical proving grounds for sustainable design innovation. This session presents the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy as a case study in integrating hybrid mass timber construction with advanced energy systems to achieve ambitious carbon and performance goals. Session leaders demonstrate how defining clear project drivers, including operational and embodied carbon reduction, user wellbeing, constructability, and cost, enabled systematic data-driven evaluation of every design decision. They examine results of a facility life-cycle assessment: A 40 percent reduction in embodied carbon through the timber structural strategy, while optimized facade design, heat recovery, chilled beams, and high-efficiency laboratory ventilation delivered substantial operational energy savings. 

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At many research universities, activities connecting faculty hiring, lab development, research operations, and equipment planning span multiple units yet lack integrated governance, creating gaps that delay projects, strain capital resources, and misalign facilities with institutional priorities. This interactive, facilitated session invites participants to map their coordination processes, surface common challenges, and collectively build a shared model for how research facilities are planned and delivered. Drawing on a proven workshop framework and an implemented institutional example, Bruce Molino guides attendees in identifying actionable opportunities to improve alignment, clarify governance structures, and make more effective use of capital resources in support of institutional research priorities. 

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The University of Arkansas’ Multi-User Silicon Carbide Research and Fabrication Laboratory is a landmark achievement in national semiconductor strategy, the only openly accessible silicon carbide fabrication facility in the United States. This session presents the collaborative design process behind this 22,000 sq. ft. facility, exploring how the architect, engineer, and university team balanced industrial-grade cleanroom requirements with an academic campus context and a commitment to educational transparency. Presenters illustrate how 6,500 sq. ft. of cleanroom processing space was integrated alongside open-access prototyping areas, how safety and security requirements were reconciled with visibility, and how flexible design features accommodate diverse semiconductor fabrication workflows.

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This session lays out the roadmap for modernizing legacy facilities to deliver competitive 21st-century learning environments and support high-growth programs. In this case study of a transformation of a 40-year-old STEM facility at Indiana State University, session leaders document achievements in improved accessibility and collaboration, and providing future-ready environments for data science, robotics, and engineering. They illustrate high-value investments in "learning on display" that foster transparency and interdisciplinary engagement, and reimagined lab environments to support modern teaching, research, and flexibility across multiple STEM programs in one building.

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Artificial intelligence and data science are driving a fundamental rethinking of academic research facilities, shifting from individual PI labs toward collaborative research neighborhoods optimized for fluid team structures and shared computational infrastructure. This session examines next-generation facility models and lab typologies through Amy Gutmann Hall at the University of Pennsylvania, an interdisciplinary hub for AI and data science programs, alongside peer benchmark comparisons. Presenters explore how open lab environments, transparent collaboration zones, shared computational infrastructure, and material systems including mass timber support both collective exchange and focused individual work. They deliver post-occupancy insights that translate directly into actionable planning guidance for future projects.

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Quantum computing and artificial intelligence are rapidly transforming higher education research and the facilities that support it. Quantum systems demand specialized infrastructure including cryogenic environments and electromagnetic shielding, while AI research drives demand for flexible computational hubs and high-performance data infrastructure. This session examines how leading R1 institutions are designing convergence facilities that bridge the digital and physical domains. Using Michigan State University’s Leinweber Center for Engineering and Digital Innovation as a primary case study, presenters explore how cleanrooms, flexible laboratories, digital learning environments, and industry partnership spaces can be integrated to support quantum computing, AI, and advanced materials research within a single adaptive facility.

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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.  

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Wednesday, October 7th
8:15AM - Participants check-in in hotel lobby, and load the bus including any luggage
8:30AM - Bus departs
8:45AM - Bus arrives at Vanderbilt University for a two hour tour
11:30AM - Bus departs Vanderbilt University to Nashville International Airport (BNA)
12:00PM - Bus drops passengers at Nashville International Airport 
12:30PM - Bus returns to Omni hotel

A $50 transportation fee will be added to the conference registration cost for this optional tour.

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