Columbia U., Northern Kentucky U. Start Construction and Renovation for Technology Projects

A $40-million infomatics center at Northern Kentucky U. will feature a glass-enclosed “digitorium.” (Northern Kentucky U. image)

Two projects focusing on technology centers caught the eye recently. Northern Kentucky University is betting that a new infomatics center will help raise the institution’s image, according to a story in the Cincinnati Enquirer.

“Its dominant feature will be a two-story glass-encased ‘digitorium,’ essentially a black-box theater packed with digital, high-definition, and three-dimensional screens and cameras. Inside the space, students will be able to re-create everything from a network operations center to a traditional Broadway show,” the Enquirer story says. The building will cost $40-million, and another $12-million will go to technology in the building, including a $5-million virtual-reality “cave.” Northern Kentucky still needs to raise $4-million for the building. (The paper also reports that the university is cutting 16 jobs to handle a blow from state cuts.)

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority has given Columbia University a $447,000 grant to help transform a 40-year-old data center into a green-IT hub. The grant will be used in part to install technology that will monitor power usage. The data will be shared with other institutions. A news release about the project says that electricity use at the center has tripled in the past eight years.