In speaking with Dr. Douglas Perry, the Dean of the
College of Informatics, it only takes a matter of time before one begins to share his excitement for
Northern Kentucky University's
new $50.8 million Center for Informatics. Drawings show a
state-of-the-art facility that will serve as both a new home for the
College of Informatics as well as a gateway to the campus' West Quad.
The 110,000-square-foot facility, designed by lead architect
Goody Clancy and local architecture firm
McGill Smith Punshon Inc., is made up of a central Informatics Common and "digitorium," flanked on two sides by four-story loft-style academic buildings.
One
enters the structure through the Informatics Common, designed to serve
as an intersection between the social and digital worlds contained
within the center. This space will house a "genius bar", complete with
a multi-discipline technology help desk, research flex space, and a
café.
Within the Informatics Common sits the impressive
two-story glass digitorium, the fully reconfigurable technological
heart of the center equipped with audio/visual technology using
high-quality LED, digital projection, and intelligent digital displays
that allow users to watch, interact with, create and share information.
The digitorium's transparent skin is designed to reflect the center's
purpose by allowing those outside to witness human interaction, the
most basic – yet most complex – of information sharing systems.
"With
the digitorium we are going to be able to create or recreate anything
digital including simulations of war rooms, gaming contests, 3D film
festivals, mercantile trading houses or even a performance space," says
Dr. Perry.
What does the College of Informatics need with a
performance space? Dr. Perry is happy to explain that his vision for
informatics goes well beyond the "hardcore bit-level computer science."
Although that research is important, Dr. Perry wants to reach much
further… "all the way to a whole human-affected domain – including
writing, communication, music, performance, even dance."
Preliminary
conversations have taken place with area arts leaders including
Cincinnati Ballet CEO and Artistic Director, Victoria Morgan about
using the College's resources in new and different ways.
"The
digitorium will be saturated with high definition cameras that can take
images of a performance, synthesize, render into a new image, and
project onto the digitorium wall, all in real time. The artistic
possibilities are endless," says Dr. Perry.
Opening things we
take for granted into a realm of endless possibility is at the very
heart of the study of informatics. Dr. Perry continues, "We want to
transcend the college to offer something so unique that it will draw in
as many people as possible. I want people to walk in and understand
immediately what informatics could mean to them."
Lining the
Informatics Common sits a pair of glass and metal lofts housing
classrooms and labs arranged on the lower two floors, administrative
functions stacked on the third floor, and faculty offices on the fourth
floor.
Construction of the Center for Informatics is expected to
begin within the next two months, with completion occurring by July
2010.
The Kentucky legislature has approved $35.5 million for
the new center, with the remainder being funded by a mix of grants and
private, government, and corporate funding.
"Currently there are
very few colleges of informatics in the country," says Dr. Perry. In
fact NKU can boast it has one of less than a dozen like it around the
nation.
"The University conducted a study five years ago where
they looked at the surrounding economy and area and said, 'where can we
go from here?'"
The study showed that NKU was already graduating
a number of students in the informatics field even without a program
dedicated to it.
"The real reason we got the program started was because of the surrounding business community," says Perry.
It
turns out Northern Kentucky's industries and businesses possess a very
real and practical need for talent honed in programs such as these. "85
percent of our graduates stay right here," says Perry who believes the
new facility will help supply the skilled workforce needed for the
region's information economy by attracting and retaining artists,
musicians, entrepreneurs, and scientists.
Currently a leader in
Kentucky's e-health network through the modernization of the delivery
of health care through technology, the college is looking to expand its
study of electronic information to other disciplines. A $2 million
investment into a virtual "cave" will open doors to a number of area
companies wanting to perform simulated market research. "Most
companies, even the larger ones, can’t make that kind of investment
into that kind of technology," says Dr. Perry. "We'll be the only
facility in the region that will be able to offer this kind of space to
a wide array of companies."
Writer: Kevin LeMaster and Jeff Syroney
Source: Northern Kentucky University College of Informatics
Rendering provided