UT unveils world-class Applied Computational and Engineering Sciences building
In October UT dedicated the new 180,000-square-foot Applied Computational and Engineering Sciences building designed to provide a state-of-the-art setting for interdisciplinary research and graduate study in electrical and computer engineering, computer sciences, and computational and applied mathematics.
Worth more than $30 million, the ACES building was built and donated by the O’Donnell Foundation of Dallas. The structure boasts the latest in equipment and systems with a highly flexible infrastructure that can efficiently handle advances in technology.
Calling ACES “a facility of incalculable value,” UT Austin President Larry R. Faulkner said he expects the building “to become a highly visible symbol of the University’s leading-edge computing-intensive activity.”
The ACES building was constructed under an unusual arrangement in which the O’Donnell Foundation leased the one-story Taylor Hall Annex and the land underneath. The foundation hired contractors to tear down the annex and build the new structure in its place, with hands-on supervision by foundation chief Peter O’Donnell, Jr.
The building’s feature attraction is the Visualization Lab. This 2,900-square-foot high-performance interactive facility uses a 10-foot, 180-degree cylindrical projection screen.
Another key asset is a 196-seat auditorium with Ethernet ports at every chair and a Dolby digital sound system. There are eight seminar rooms with leading edge, user-friendly audio/visual equipment.
