Two assumptions constrain sustainable research facility design: that timber structures can't meet vibration criteria for experimental labs, and that high-performance computing is an unavoidable carbon liability. Luther McDonald profiles Oregon State University's Jen-Hsun Huang and Lori Mills Huang Collaborative Innovation Complex, opening in 2026 as the first all-mass-timber laboratory in the US to meet 2000 MIPS vibration criteria. He details how heat recovered from one of the nation's most advanced NVIDIA supercomputers moves the 143,000-sf facility toward net-zero operational carbon, and how shared cores foster collaboration among researchers, students, and industry partners. He maps the decisions and metrics that pair ambitious sustainability targets with world-class research performance.
Schedule
- Monday, October 5 · 4:15 – 4:40 PM