New IUPUI Building Drives Teaching, Learning and Research Initiatives

Indiana University has added a technology-rich building at Indiana University — Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) that will provide a major boost to information technology (IT) in the state of Indiana — as IT becomes evermore critical to advances in research, teaching, and learning — and daily living. The 213,815-square-foot, $43.6 million Informatics and Communications Technology Complex (ICTC) will be dedicated during a public ceremony at 3:30 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 13, in the ICTC auditorium, IT 152, 535 W. Michigan St.

IU President Adam W. Herbert will preside over the ceremony, which will include remarks by IUPUI Chancellor Charles R. Bantz and IU Vice President for Research and Information Technology Michael McRobbie.

Designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects, LLP, the ICTC houses the Indiana University Schools of Informatics, Journalism and Music; the Pervasive Technology Labs of Indiana University, and University Information Technology Services (UITS) — just steps away from IUPUI’s science and engineering buildings and within minutes from downtown.

“This building is a key step in IUPUI's coming of age,” said IUPUI Chancellor and IU Vice President for Long-Range Planning Charles R. Bantz. “It brings together our information technology operations with what is most important: a teaching and learning environment that serves more than 29,000 students with classrooms, computer stations, mediated lecture halls, a performance hall and homes for three academic programs. Our faculty, staff, and students have better access to the information technology resources essential to the future of Indiana.”

From the early shared vision of Michael McRobbie and former IUPUI Chancellor Gerald L. Bepko, the ICTC was foreseen as an IT-intensive building that would house some major academic programs at IUPUI such as journalism and music, as well as the newly emerging IU School of Informatics, whose development is a major part of IU’s strategy to become a national leader in IT.

With the support of a $36 million contribution from the state of Indiana, this world-class media and research facility adds major new resources to the campus. The ICTC is equipped with new technology for every classroom, one of the nation’s most powerful supercomputers and can accommodate massive computing data storage for the university’s students, staff and faculty.

“The building is among the finest of its kind in the country,” said IU Vice President for Research and Information Technology Michael McRobbie. “It provides a remarkable environment for students to experience the very best in IT and instructional resources. The scientific resources and the technical support and training that are available here will help build a new economy in Indiana by educating the current and future workforce and supporting statewide IT initiatives.”

The building also provides much-needed classroom space — 33 classrooms and two auditoriums, which can accommodate 1,500 students at any given time. This additional space will help facilitate growth of academic programs and civic engagement. It also brings together 300 highly trained IT professionals responsible for the support, operation and management of IUPUI’s and IU’s nation-leading IT infrastructure. Furthermore, the building features a Student Technology Center that is accessible to the IUPUI community 24 hours a day — 365 days a year.

Given Indianapolis’ central location, the ICTC serves as a hub for telecommunications and I-Light, the optical fiber infrastructure that links IUPUI, IU-Bloomington, and Purdue University to each other and to the Internet. IU also manages nationwide networks such as the Internet2 network — an advanced research and education network used by more than 200 U.S. university, industry, organizational and government members. It also manages global higher education network connections from the United States to to the Asia Pacific and other countries. Through these major projects and the ongoing development of “smart devices” to enhance teaching, learning and other industries, IUPUI and IU-Bloomington has positioned itself as a leading technology corridor — similar as to what can be found in other technology-driven states.

McRobbie said that the ICTC brings researchers and IT professionals together to collaborate on projects as diverse as digital music composition, computer-based character animation, and analysis of human organs captured in an MRI, using 3-D visualization.

“By making supercomputing technology, advanced visualization technologies and technical support available to roughly 1,000 research scientists on all eight IU campuses, this environment enables scientists to analyze vast amounts of information — visually and literally, while enabling technology transfer and commercialization of innovations.”