The new Siebel Center for Design sets the bar globally for design thinking in education, says Thomas Siebel, the three-time Illinois alumnus who provided a $25 million lead gift to establish the center.
The new 59,000-square-foot facility is located between Huff Hall and the Art and Design Building. It features five team-based collaboration studios for up to 400 students, including one studio for large-scale construction and graded access for full-scale prototypes; a large workshop for 3D printing, metal fabrication, laser cutting, water-jet cutting, and computer-controlled machining; two digital media studios for video and audio recording; immersive technologies for virtual reality applications; and public gathering spaces, meeting rooms and galleries to encourage informal interaction.
Provost Andreas Cangellaris said the Siebel Center for Design will take the culture of interdisciplinary research represented by the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology and develop a culture of interdisciplinary education that will transform the experience of every student on campus.
Siebel said he hopes the center will be a place where students gather “to collaborate, to ideate, to create, to imagine the impossible, to advance the process of design thinking, to invent and reinvent the future, and to make miracles happen.”
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