High Tech

Tulane University opened The Commons in August of 2019 in New Orleans. Designed by Weiss/Manfredi, the $55 million facility enhances campus connectivity by providing a dynamic gathering place for students, faculty, and staff. Located on Tulane's Central Quad, the three-story, 77,000-sf hub provides food service and dining amenities, study areas, two classrooms, conference and event spaces, a demonstration kitchen, a library with a dedicated reading room, and an outdoor courtyard.

Swansea University is planning to construct the £30 million Center for Integrative Semiconductor Materials in Wales in the United Kingdom. The three-story, 46,500-sf facility will house cleanrooms, labs, and offices to support the creation of advanced semiconductor materials, processes, and technologies. Located on the Bay Campus, the multidisciplinary project will integrate manufacturing, research, and development operations as well as offering business incubation and workforce development opportunities.

The term “Fourth Industrial Revolution” (4IR) was coined in 2016 by Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, to describe the exponential transformation society and commerce are experiencing due to converging breakthroughs in numerous fields, such as artificial intelligence, robotics, 3D printing, nanotechnology, biotechnology, materials science, energy storage, the internet of things (IoT), and quantum computing. While this latest advancement is to some degree an extension of the third revolution (aka: The Digital Revolution), 4IR is considered a new era because of the unprecedented speed, scope, and systems impact of the coming changes. It is evolving at an exponential rate rather than a linear one and is expected to disrupt entire systems of production, management, transportation, and governance on a global scale. In response, a new breed of interdisciplinary research facility is emerging, as academic institutions try to anticipate training students for the unforeseen demands of the 4IR.

A two-year, $55 million renovation at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Everitt Laboratory has transformed the four-story, 136,763-sf building into the first engineering-based medical school in the country, with a focus on medical simulation, research, and instruction. With final completion in June 2018 and the first medical classes starting in July, the Carle Illinois Medical School’s state-of-the-art features enable bioengineering students and future medical professionals to engage in project/problem-based learning and maximize their medical training by using the latest simulation and virtual reality technology.

IBM is partnering with SUNY Polytechnic Institute to create the AI Hardware Center in Marcy, N.Y. The project is one component of IBM's $30 million investment in the State University of New York system to support artificial intelligence-focused computer chip research, development, prototyping, testing, and simulation. SUNY will provide up to $25 million in matching funds for a combined total of $55 million.

Fujifilm Electronic Materials broke ground in March of 2019 on an 85,000-sf expansion of its Mesa campus. The project will provide five new buildings for research, development, manufacturing, warehousing, and administration. Completion is expected in early 2020. Fujifilm is investing $91 million over several years to expand its operations in Arizona and Rhode Island to meet a growing global demand for high purity electronic chemicals.

Innovation hubs and incubators are emerging as the best solution to help universities, entrepreneurs, researchers, and students transform their creative ideas into viable commercial ventures. Users want facilities that focus on entrepreneurship, creativity, and innovation; foster interdisciplinary collaboration and partnerships; offer responsive and flexible spaces; create a spirit of ground-up innovation; support commercialization of ideas/products; and connect to nearby universities, companies, and amenities.

Mercyhurst University opened the MCPc Cyber Education Center in August of 2018 in Erie, Pa. Accommodating programs for the Ridge College of Intelligence Studies and Applied Sciences, the $2 million facility houses MCPc's Security Operations Center as well as providing two computer mathematics labs, a cybersecurity lab, and several collaboration areas. Designed by Keyman Asefi, a faculty member in the department of Interior Architecture and Design, the 8,000-sf center is located on the ground floor of Hammermill Library.

To support its cutting-edge research in self-operated machines, the Center for Autonomous Systems and Technologies (CAST) at California Institute of Technology (Caltech) is equipped with several groundbreaking capabilities that set it apart from other engineering research facilities. At the top of the list are a drone testing arena capable of mimicking a full gamut of real-world weather conditions, and a zero-gravity-simulating space lab whose epoxy resin floor has been ground and polished to a final flatness of 0.003 of an inch. Three CAST components—the aerodrome, assembly lab, and the Space Robotics Controls Laboratory (SRCL)—are located in the 1940s-era Kármán building, originally constructed for wartime hydrodynamics research. Working with CO Architects and Matt Construction, Pasadena-based Caltech renovated the bunker-like building to create new types of spaces for cross-campus collaborations in the expanding field of autonomous drones, robots, and satellites, with a focus on practical applications in science, industry, and medicine.

Infineon Technologies is planning to begin construction in mid-2019 on a 646,000-sf semiconductor manufacturing center in Villach, Austria. The company will invest $1.9 billion over six years in the creation of the facility, which will begin producing 300-millimeter wafers by 2021. Accommodating approximately 400 employees, the project will enable Infineon to meet an increased global demand for semiconductors to support the development of electric vehicles, battery technologies, data centers, and renewable energy systems. 

Global consumer electronics company LG Group opened the $3.74 billion LG Science Park in April of 2018 in Seoul, South Korea. Accommodating up to 25,000 employees, the 18-building campus provides 11.9 million sf of flexible research and office space designed to foster collaborative innovation among scientists and staff from multiple disciplines, including nanotechnology, chemistry, fabrication, and life sciences.

NextCorps opened an entrepreneurship hub in Rochester in February of 2018. Located in the Sibley Square building, the project was created by the University of Rochester, the state of New York, and the U.S. Economic Development Administration.

Mass Innovation Labs, a provider of life science research space solutions, signed a ground lease in December of 2017 for 54,0000 sf at Innovation Square Seaport (iSQ) in Boston. Located in the Raymond L. Flynn Marine Park, the 375,000-sf iSQ campus is being built by Related Beal, a real estate developer, owner, and operator. Mass Innovation Labs will anchor the first two floors of the multi-tenant facility, which will include coworking spaces and a collaboration center.

While the rapidly growing Internet of Things (IoT) offers tremendous business potential for all types of organizations, it also presents significant new security challenges and privacy concerns. As the number of connected devices grows into the billions, so does the number of risks and exposures through multiple entryways, including building automation systems (BAS). Many of these network-connected devices and applications lack basic security measures because they are rushed to market or deployed rapidly without standard protections. In addition to providing hackers with more opportunities to gain access to corporate networks, exposed IoT devices—some as innocuous as a light bulb—allow hackers to take control over millions of devices at a time and use them to launch large-scale distributed denial of service (DDoS) and other attacks on the internet. This means that, while facility management and operations teams may have the most to gain from IoT platforms and applications, deploying and securing them is now an IT issue.     

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a widely used buzzword that refers to a rapidly growing network of internet-connected devices and sensors that transmit data back to a central repository for rapid analysis. This network generates massive amounts of information that can be used to maximize energy efficiency, optimize space use, reduce costs, and increase operational visibility across all types of facilities and organizations. LED lights with sensors, smart grid meters, intelligent HVAC and security systems, even mobile and body-worn devices, all generate tremendous amounts of data that both humans and computers can use to make better decisions.