The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) recently held a groundbreaking event for its new $117.8m Computer Design Research and Learning Center (CDRLC) which will be located at 900 W. Taylor St., near UIC’s Memorial Grove.
The new 135,000ft2 multi-use Computer Design Research and Learning Center (CDRLC) structure is to be merged with the already existing fragmented computer science department, at the College of Engineering into a new property, and will also be jointly located with a large cluster of university classrooms. CDRLC is the third academic building to be built in the past few years, on the East side of UIC’s campus. It is also a major upgrade of the university’s facility, which will ensure the provision of collaborative teaching and learning spaces, along with 16,000ft2 of classroom space, which are necessary for accommodating the increasing undergraduate population, due to the rise of the computer science enrolments.
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The Computer Design Research and Learning Center (CDRLC) consists of 35 labs for engineering fields, a 1,200ft2 robotics lab and also includes space for University’s faculty research in computer science. The facility will hold collaborative teaching and learning spaces, 15 classrooms, an undergraduate learning and community centre, student affairs office spaces, flexible events room, auditorium and a five-floor day-lit atrium will also be part of the new building. In addition, the construction plan also includes an Electronic Visualization Laboratory and a new geothermal farm under the Memorial Grove, which will provide heating and cooling for the facility, and also enable the University to achieve the LEED Gold certification. The CDRLC construction project is to be finished in 2023.
During the ceremonial groundbreaking at the University of Illinois Chicago campus, the UIC Chancellor, Michael Amiridis, admitted that the University had gotten to a point where they were compelled to place restrictions on the continuous growth of the computer science department because there wasn’t enough room to accommodate the students or the faculty, and he also expressed his gratitude to the governor for the support he provided to higher education in the last two years.
