On April 30th, a one-of-a-kind groundbreaking ceremony took place at the University of Maryland. President Loh joined Oculus VR co-founders Brendan Iribe and Michael Antonov to break ground on a new computer science building using virtual reality headsets. Like this event, the Brendan Iribe Center for Computer Science and Innovation looks to the future.
Set to open in 2018, the Iribe Center will be prominently located near the main gate at the corner of Baltimore Avenue and Campus Drive. Designed to bring together UMD’s top-ranked Department of Computer Science and its renowned Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS), the building's six floors of specialized labs will support research in virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence, robotics, computer vision, algorithms, and programming languages and systems. The building will house nationally recognized centers of interdisciplinary research in cybersecurity, computational biology, quantum computing, data science and other fast-growing tech fields.
The new center was only an idea in 2014, when Iribe and Antonov visited the Department of Computer Science while in town for UMD’s annual student hackathon. Accompanied by the department chair, Dr. Samir Khuller, they visited the building where they had taken classes as students. Since 2009, enrollment in the department has tripled to approximately 2,300 students, and it is expected to continue growing in the next decade. So the department’s building had been in use for far too long and, given soaring enrollment, it was no longer able to support the number of computer science students. Dr. Khuller even warned Iribe against using the building’s bathrooms.
When Iribe suggested he would be willing to help the department get a new building, Antonov warned him that it would be expensive. But Iribe stuck to his word and pledged $30 million later that year for a new computer science center at the University of Maryland. He also pledged $1 million for scholarships. Antonov pledged $4 million for both the building and scholarships, and Iribe’s mother, Elizabeth, pledged $3 million for new professorships in the Department of Computer Science. The state of Maryland later gave $104 million to support the project.
Brendan Iribe’s famed generosity and determination has distinguished him throughout his career as an entrepreneur, CEO, and technology evangelist. He believes that college is not just about going to school – if that were the case, he says, it would be more streamlined.
“Going to college is about the social experience of being on a campus and meeting people,” Iribe says. “There’s something personally and emotionally important about going to college.”
The Iribe Center will unite computer science students and faculty, who are currently spread across four different buildings on campus, in a single facility. Bringing people together is an important part of Iribe’s vision. With the new building, he wants to foster creative collaboration, an important part of innovation.
“I want it to feel like Silicon Valley just hit College Park,” he says.
The center will feature six floors of specialized labs, collaborative spaces, seminar rooms, a large auditorium, and a rooftop garden. These creative spaces will allow students to use sensors, microcontrollers, 3-D printers, robots, quadcopters, and other high-quality components to create new hardware and software. The center will be open to students 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Andrew Reisse, the Oculus co-founder for whom the rooftop garden will be named, passed away in 2013. He was in a crosswalk when a car fleeing the police struck and killed him. He was an avid photographer, known for taking pictures that contrasted quiet land and the forceful, chaotic movement of water. The Iribe Center’s rooftop garden, commemorating Reisse’s love of nature, will contain native plant life and natural water features – a nod to his breathtaking photographs.
“Brendan's and Michael's gifts will completely transform Computer Science at Maryland,” says Dr. Khuller. “The impact will be felt by our students, faculty, staff, and the state for decades to come. It will help us achieve greatness, move into new research areas, and provide an unparalleled experience for students.”
To learn more about the Iribe Center, visit https://iribe.cs.umd.edu.
