Sessions

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.

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.

As quantum information science emerges as a defining research frontier, universities are reimagining engineering facilities to support both established and emerging disciplines within unified, flexible environments. This session presents Cornell University’s Duffield Hall Expansion, which transforms two existing buildings into a cohesive complex housing the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, a state-of-the-art Quantum Information Science Technology (QIST) research facility, and strong programmatic connections to Cornell’s NanoScale Facility and Bowers College of Computing and Information Science. Presenters explore design strategies for flexible shared quantum labs, adaptable instructional spaces, and spatial connections that reinforce interdisciplinary collaboration across one of the nation’s leading engineering programs. 

AEC firms accumulate decades of design data from science and engineering facility projects, yet much of this institutional knowledge remains locked in tribal expertise and disconnected files. This session explores how Affiliated Engineers (AEI) has formalized a data management program that unlocks nearly 50 years of project history to improve decision-making across the entire facility lifecycle, from programming through post-occupancy. Presenters demonstrate how AI and machine learning tools are being integrated into design, construction, and building automation workflows to reduce costs, optimize performance, improve resource utilization, and advance decarbonization goals for high-performance science, engineering, robotics, and applied research facilities.

The University of Arkansas’s 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.

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.

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. 

What does it take to deliver a major research facility when funding gaps, a global pandemic, and institutional uncertainty stretch a project timeline over a decade? This session traces Florida State University’s Interdisciplinary Research and Commercialization Building from concept in 2013 to construction completion, examining the leadership and persistence required to maintain momentum. Perspectives from FSU’s project management team, HGA architects, and Whiting-Turner reveal how the project accommodated evolving user needs including a late-added Quantum Sciences program, and how a complex, technically demanding research facility was successfully delivered in a smaller regional market with limited specialized trade resources. 

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.

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 make 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.

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.

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.