Project Name: Hicks Honors College Ingenuity Center

Project by Faculty Innovation Fellows Candidate Jeff Chamberlain

Why is this project important to you, your department, & your Fellows?

To develop the Honors program around innovation, we need a space that will be a home for honors students, a connector to the whole university, and that fosters creativity and ingenuity.

Description

Our desire is for a brick-and-mortar Honors living and learning center with housing, classrooms, collaboration space, maker space, and faculty offices that is net zero on energy and (preferably) a living building. Failing a new building, however, we will work to repurpose other space on campus and incorporate virtual spaces as well (a central area that has a maker space but also a tech hub for collaboration and innovation).

Stakeholders served

Honors students, students across campus who are interested in innovation
UI Fellows, Millennium Fellows
Faculty from every college (but champions particularly in Engineering, Building Management, Environmental Science, Public Health, Biology)
Honors alumni
Dean’s Council
Local advocates of sustainability

Key Milestones

December 2020: Key stakeholders consulted--dean’s council, faculty champions, students, alumni, architect
March 2021: Cohort of UN Millennium Fellows to focus on sustainability on campus
June 2021: Key partners and champions (dean’s council, faculty champions, students, alumni) united and allied; renderings created, and begin to be used for fundraising
September 2021: Major donor lined up; architect firm contracted; alternately new campus space (and technology for virtual connections) identified
December 2021: New/revised building plan developed; alternately new campus space undergoing renovation and technology purchased
March 2022: Construction date set; alternately, new space opens and technology activated