A ribbon-cutting ceremony held Friday marked the grand opening of a new data science and information technology building on the University of Florida campus across from the Reitz Union.
The $150 million building, called Malachowsky Hall for Data Science & Information Technology, will serve as a space for medicine, pharmacy and engineering. Its seven stories will serve as a hub to advance computing, communications and cyber technologies to further support the integration of AI across UF's curriculum.
The university said the 263,440 square meter hall is designed to set the standard for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) buildings across national and international university campuses and aims to transform the artificial intelligence (AI) and data science workforce.
“This building will not only advance the future of science, it is a symbol of what is possible when universities relentlessly focus on a future that is brighter,” UF Board of Trustees Chair Mori Hosseini said in a news release. “This building will drive AI education and research that will improve lives, strengthen industry and drive economic growth across the state and around the world.”
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The building is named in honor of Chris Malachowsky, a UF alumnus and co-founder of NVIDIA, an AI and accelerated computing company based in Silicon Valley. He collaborated with architects to design the new neck facade.
“The subjects of AI and data science are central to building a better world,” Malachowsky said in a press release. “I am honored to advance UF's world-class capabilities in these areas by supporting the talent and interdisciplinary collaboration that will allow the university to lead in this era of unprecedented opportunity.”
Malachowsky Hall was funded with $110 million from the state along with additional private and college funds. It contains workspaces, called maker spaces, for innovation in virtual reality, internet of things and robotics, as well as laboratories for AI, robotics and cyber security
In addition, the hall houses units for several units of UF, including the OneFlorida+ Clinical Research Network, coordinated by the College of Medicine; Biomedical AI Collaborative and the College of Pharmacy's Consortium for Medical Marihuana Clinical Outcomes Research. The technical spaces will serve as headquarters for the Department of Computer & Information Science & Engineering, the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, the Florida Institute for Cybersecurity Research, the Florida Semiconductor Institute and the Warren B. Nelms Institute for the Connected World.
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UF and AI
UF said it is the first and only university in the country to offer every student the opportunity to learn about AI and how it applies to their fields of study. The effort has been supported by Malachowsky and NVIDIA, which gave the university about $60 million in 2020 for HiPerGator, an AI supercomputer powered by NVIDIA technology.
UF also partners with universities, colleges and K-12 schools to effectively integrate AI into education and is nationally recognized as a model for how the US can build a competitive AI workforce. The university has about 300 faculty members engaged in AI teaching and research, and recently received support from the state to add over 110 more.
Every undergraduate and graduate student at UF will have access to data science courses through data analytics certificate programs, which build on data and software courses that facilitate interaction across colleges, at UF's Informatics Institute, the release said.
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“UF provides students and faculty with more tools and opportunities to move the needle than we have seen in a generation,” said UF President Ben Sasse. “In a space designed to create breakthroughs and boost interdisciplinary collaboration, this building is a critical component of UF's efforts to build one of the most forward-thinking and comprehensive research and teaching institutions of our time.”
To coincide with the opening of the hall, Sasse participated in a conversation about AI with NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang on Friday morning. The event was moderated by Forrest Masters, Engineering Interim Dean, and streamed live. affbeast
