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A State-Of-The-Art Home for Science and Technology
The dust is settling, and a new era is being ushered in for the Artis College of Science and Technology.
Following in the footsteps of the Center of the Sciences, Radford University’s Reed and Curie Halls, the long-time home to the majority of the departments that comprise the Artis College, have been renovated with a keen focus on the needs of the students, while keeping an eye on developing technologies.
The exciting renovations to the two buildings reinforce Radford University’s commitment to STEM education, while supplying ultramodern facilities for students, faculty and staff alike.
“We are incredibly excited to move into our renovated home,” said Artis College of Science and Technology Dean Orion Rogers, Ph.D. “This is an ultramodern building designed with intricate detail to meet the needs of both our students and faculty. The learning spaces housed inside these walls will facilitate even more advanced research.”
When classes resume in the new decade, students will be greeted by the familiar foyer of Reed Hall, which includes the classic wood paneling. Beyond that, however, everything is entirely new.
The main floor includes a new collaboration space off the main entrance, found one floor above where the old planetarium used to be.
One of the high-tech additions to Reed and Curie Halls is the Geohazards and Unmanned Systems Research Center, allowing for up-close viewing of drones by passersby and a lab for drone research. Drones are in glass displays and easily viewable from the hallways for anyone to see.
“It is important to show that technology is accessible to everyone,” Rogers said. “By having the drones on display, we are hoping to increase the visibility of our drone research and collaborations across departments.”
Just beyond the renovated buildings is a familiar sight: the greenhouse. Inside, however, are updates that are not limited to plants and other specimens. The greenhouse itself has been renovated, complete with a modern and updated look.
One of the driving reasons for the renovations to Reed and Curie Halls, though, was the significant attention to cybersecurity, a growing national security issue.
The Capture the Flag event, a competition for high school and community college students that challenges participants in topic areas, such as anatomy of a cyberattack, an introduction to networking, cryptography, forensics, web security and operating system security, now has its own space for events and simulations.
Just last year, the final round of the popular event was livestreamed on Amazon’s Twitch.tv, a leading livestreaming platform for gamers. The event brought thousands of online views to campus. With the renovation of Reed and Curie Halls, the event will be hosted in its own space, complete with the ability to livestream future iterations of the popular event.
“Having a modern, beautiful space, combined with unparalleled functionality, will allow us to hopefully expand upon these community-based events,” Rogers said. “Our goal is to fully realize the capabilities of our renovated home for both current and future generations of Highlanders.”
On the ground floor of Curie Hall is a space dedicated to geospatial science, with a GIS and Remote Sensing Lab and a GIS Center, complete with a Virtual Reality Lab.
If you walk up the stairwell, you will reach the second floor of Reed Hall, where the office spaces for geology and geospatial science are located, as well as faculty and student research spaces, giving students even more opportunities to work in close collaboration with faculty members.
Nearby lounge spaces further increase these collaborations with faculty members, keeping with Radford University’s dedication to student success.
Housed nearby are three geology teaching labs, two for the general geology courses and one for advanced research opportunities.
Also, in the renovated buildings are biochemistry labs, one for teaching and one for research. Between the two labs are a stockroom and a tissue and cell culture space.
The modern and enhanced research facilities allow for students to engage in advanced undergraduate research, said Rogers.
“It gives students the opportunity to learn by doing and to ask original questions, while exploring research projects and possibilities they may have never before considered,” Rogers said. “The new academic learning spaces and applied labs allow students hands-on experience, which not only boosts their undergraduate research opportunities, while enrolled at Radford University, but also gives valuable career experience and unique advantages as undergraduates that are valued in corporate settings and graduate programs. The equipment that we have in Reed and Curie Halls is representative of what is used in the field, and our students could begin their scientific careers using equipment they had used previously to learn science in their laboratory courses here at Radford.”
Each of the specialized academic learning spaces fosters student growth and exploration, which are pinnacles of the Radford University student experience.
