Officials at Carnegie Mellon University are preparing for the opening of a new home for its engineering college that brings with it a strong focus on research and discovery efforts relating to artificial intelligence, robotics and tissue culturing.
With 85,000 square feet of space, the new Alan Magee Scaife Hall is more than double the size of its predecessor, which held the same name from its opening in 1962 until its demolition in October 2020.
A formal ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrating the opening of the new $75 million home for CMU's College of Engineering is expected on Thursday afternoon.
The Allegheny Foundation provided the lead funding grant for the building's construction, which began in January 2021.
The facility is tasked with reinventing research collaboration and engineering education. It will work to do this via five central focus areas: AI engineering testing space, development area for softbotics—small, flexible robots that are embedded into cushiony materials, a two-story tall robotics drone arena, tissue culturing sites and a saltwater aquatics facility for the testing of biohybrid robotic materials and aquatic robotic platforms.
