A year ago the site of the University of Idaho”s Integrated Research and Innovation Center (IRIC) was just an empty lot. Now, a three-story steel framework shows the progress of the new building that is set to be completed in just over a year.
Bob Smith, senior associate vice president for Research and Economic Development, said IRIC is expected to be completed in October or November of 2016 and should be in use by the start of spring semester 2017. Construction has gone smoothly and the building is on schedule and on budget, Smith said.
“It represents a state of the art research facility that will allow university faculty and students to take some of the research that we do to the next level,” Smith said.
The Idaho State Board of Education approved the project in 2012 and the groundbreaking took place August 2014.
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Construction is still ongoing with the Integrated Research and Innovation Center (IRIC) building.
The building”s foundation, floors and structural steel have been completed, and construction on the walls will begin this fall, Smith said. Once the building is enclosed and weathertight, the plumbing, wiring and furnishings will be added, including Internet cables and laboratory equipment, he said.
Smith said IRIC will provide UI with an up-to-date research space with sophisticated visualization capabilities. It will utilize large video displays for displaying data and may eventually have virtual reality capabilities for use in visualizing data in three dimensions, he said.
“Kind of the “Avatar” sort of experience,” Smith said.
Smith said research has become more data-intensive, and these new ways of visualizing research beyond flat charts and graphs make the data easier for everybody to understand.
The building will also house more traditional wet laboratories to supplement those the university already has. UI President Chuck Staben has pledged to increase enrollment at the university, so additional research laboratories must be constructed in order to support the increased demand, Smith said.
In addition to educating students, the building will also provide space for the research done by the university. This university-backed research can provide new knowledge that is beneficial to society in general or leads to the development of new products that benefit Idaho and the region economically.
Smith said IRIC will add a collaborative working environment to the campus where people from different disciplines or even a different institution can work side by side on the same research problem in order to bring a variety of ideas to the table.
Ryan Locke can be reached at [email protected]