Applause and bagpipe music echoed throughout the Weimer Hall Atrium on Thursday as the UF community celebrated the Bruno E. and Maritza F. Ramos Collaboratory’s soft opening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
The event planned for homecoming weekend came three years after crews broke ground on the 50,000-square-foot building located at 1481 Stadium Rd. With more work to be done, the university expects the $50 million space to be fully operational by spring 2026.
The Ramos Collaboratory aims to merge education, research and industry collaboration across the College of Design, Construction and Planning (DCP) by offering technology-based laboratories and common spaces encouraging collaboration among students and faculty.
Thursday’s celebration included a variety of appetizers, photo opportunities with a 3D printed rendition of the building and tours featuring virtual reality demonstrations of what the completed space will be like.
Attendees heard comments from DCP’s Executive Director of Advancement, Seth Watts, and Dean Chimay Anumba, Board of Trustees member David Brandon, BEA Architects principal and the building’s namesake, Bruno Ramos, as well as UF Interim President Donald Landry, participating in his first ribbon cutting since stepping into his new role.
“I can’t think of a more auspicious beginning than to participate in a ribbon cutting for an enterprise that involves design, construction and planning that sits at the three-way intersection of art, engineering and humanity,” Landry said. “This addition not only safeguards our past, it charts our future.”
Brandon said the idea for the Collaboratory came from Anumba during his first year as DCP’s dean in 2016.
The idea started turning into reality as more board members and university staff bought in. Eventually, former President Kent Fuchs and Provost Joe Glover promised that if the leaders of DCP could raise half the funds needed for the project, UF would work with the state to raise the other half.
The state did grant $25 million, while over 30 donors funded the rest, including the last $1 million coming in this week. Brandon said it’s the first building on campus with 50% of the capital raised through private support.
Ramos, a UF alumnus, said the collaboration that was required to see the building come to fruition represents the spirit of collaboration the space hopes to instill in “future Gators,” whether personally in marriages or professionally, as “collaboration is the bridge between ideas and achievement.”
“Working together teaches us more than a textbook could ever,” he said. “When we collaborate, we remind ourselves that we are stronger and more connected than divided. So this Collaboratory has been set up to allow us to work together, to listen, to share and build, not alone, but together. Because collaboration isn’t just how we succeed. It’s how we create a better world.”
Fernanda Reinheimer Carnero, a third-year DCP student, gave tours of the Ramos Collaboratory during Thursday’s ribbon-cutting and said she remembers when UF broke ground on the project. She said along with having the material lab on campus, she’s most excited about getting to gather and mix with other majors in the space.
“I’m in architecture, so I’m really busy,” she said. “I like having a dedicated space where we can go that’s so close to the studio to take a break and just meet someone else and bump into a new friend.”
According to a press release, the Ramos Collaboratory will feature various labs, including the Siemens Lab for Technology and Innovation, to help faculty, students and industry collaborators refine building systems and sustainability models.
The Kornblau Family Virtual Design and Construction Lab will offer immersive, large-scale simulations enhancing the visualization, analysis and refinement of complex building systems, while the Fabrication Lab, formerly located off campus, will accommodate advanced 3D printing and digital modeling.
DCP’s wood shop has been relocated to the Collaboratory and the college’s research centers and institutes will be centralized in the Jon and Jodi Kurtis Research Hub. A new visible construction robotics lab will showcase the latest smart automation technologies to both academic and public audiences.
NVIDIA’s Omniverse computing platform will power the Collaboratory’s digital ecosystem with live sensor feeds and maintenance records to produce an interactive, predictive model of the building. The system will allow researchers and students to run simulations while doubling as a training environment for artificial intelligence applications in construction and facility operations.
Siemens, which recently opened an office in Alachua at San Felasco Tech City, will service a Digital Twin platform of the Collaboratory. The building’s virtual counterpart will track and optimize real-time building performance to gather data on energy efficiency, air quality, occupancy and lighting as a teaching platform.
Siemens also donated a robotic dog to the project, which will autonomously patrol the building and collect information on operational performance and environmental conditions.
The Collaboratory’s areas, like the Stellar Creative Commons, aim to be DCP’s “living room” for informal gatherings, creative exchange and community building. The Multipurpose Hall offers a venue for lectures, symposia and professional events with a capacity for up to 200 participants.
