As a civil engineer, Scott Ashford used explosives to make the ground under Japan's Sendai airport safer in an earthquake. Now, as the dean of the engineering college at Oregon State University, he's at ground zero of another seismic event.
In its biggest fundraising celebration in nearly a decade, Oregon State announced plans today for a $200 million center where faculty and students can plug into resources that will include one of the world's fastest university supercomputers.
The 150,000-square-foot center, due to open in 2025, will accelerate work at Oregon State's top-ranked programs in agriculture, computer sciences, climate science, forestry, oceanography, robotics, water resources, materials sciences and more with the help of AI.
A Beacon in AI, Robotics In honor of a $50 million gift to the OSU Foundation from NVIDIA's founder and CEO and his wife - who earned their engineering degrees at OSU and met in one of its labs - it will be named the Jen-Hsun and Lori Huang Collaborative Innovation Complex (CIC).
The CIC and new supercomputer will help Oregon State be recognized as one of the world's leading universities for AI, robotics and simulation, said Ashford, whose engineering college includes more than 10,000 of OSU's 35,000 students.
We discovered our love for computer science and engineering at OSU, said Jen-Hsun and Lori Huang. We hope this gift will help inspire future generations of students also to fall in love with technology and its capacity to change the world.
AI is the most transformative technology of our time, they added. To harness this force, engineering students need access to a supercomputer, a time machine, to accelerate their research. This new AI supercomputer will enable OSU students and researchers to make very important advances in climate science, oceanography, materials science, robotics and other fields.
A Hub for Students With an extended-reality theater, robotics and drone playground and a do-it-yourself maker space, the new complex is expected to attract students from across the university. It has the potential to transform not only the college of engineering, but the entire university, and have a positive economic and environmental impact on the state and the nation, Ashford said.
The three-story facility will include a clean room, as well as labs for materials scientists, environmental researchers and more.
Artist's rendering of the Jen-Hsun and Lori Huang Collaborative Innovation Complex. Ashford expects that over the next decade the center will attract top researchers, as well as research projects potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Our donors and university leaders are excited about investing in a collaborative, transdisciplinary approach to problem solving and discovery - it will revitalize our engineering triangle and be an amazing place to study and conduct research, he said.
A Forest of Opportunities He gave several examples of the center's potential. Among them:
Environmental and electronics researchers may collaborate to design and deploy sensors and use AI to analyze their data, finding where in the ocean or forest hard-to-track endangered species are breeding so their habitats can be protected.
Students can use augmented reality to train in simulated clean rooms on techniques for making leading-edge chips. Federal and Oregon state officials aim to expand workforce development for the U.S. semiconductor industry, Ashford said.
Robotics researchers could create lifelike simulations of their drones and robots to accelerate training and testing. (Cassie, a biped robot designed at OSU, just made Guinness World Records for the fastest 100-meter dash by a bot.)
Students at OSU and its sister college in Germany, DHBW-Ravensburg, could use NVIDIA Omniverse - a platform for building and operating metaverse applications and connecting their 3D pipelines - to enhance design of their award-winning, autonomous, electric race cars.
Cassie broke a record for a robot running a 100-meter dash. Building AI Models, Digital Twins Such efforts will be accelerated with NVIDIA AI and Omniverse, software that can expand the building's physical labs with simulations and digital twins so every student can have a virtual workbench.
OSU will get state-of-the-art NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD and OVX SuperPOD clusters once the complex's data center is ready. With an eye on energy efficiency, water that cooled computer racks will then help heat more than 500,000 square feet of campus buildings.
The SuperPOD will likely include a mix of about 60 DGX and OVX systems - powered by next-generation CPUs, GPUs and networking - creating a system powerful enough to train the largest AI models and perform complex digital twin simulations. Ashford notes OSU won a project working with the U.S. Department of Energy because its existing computer center has a handful of DGX systems.
Advancing Diversity, Inclusion At the Oct. 14 OSU Foundation event announcing the naming of the new complex, Oregon State officials thanked donors and kicked off a university-wide fundraising campaign. OSU has requested support from the state of Oregon for construction of the building and seeks additional philanthropic investments to expand its research and support its hiring and diversity goals.
OSU's president, Jayathi Murthy, said the complex provides an opportunity to advance diversity, equity and inclusion in the university's STEM education and research. OSU's engineering college is already among the top-ranked U.S. schools for tenured or tenure-track engineering faculty who are women.
AI Universities Sprout Oregon State also is among a small but growing set of universities accelerating their journeys in AI and high performance computing.
A recent whitepaper described efforts at University of Florida to spr
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
13/05/2026
New Adobe Premiere Color Grading Mode Accelerated on NVIDIA GPUs
Joel Pennington May 13, 2026
0 Comments
New NVIDIA RTX-accelerated features streamlin...
13/05/2026
Grass Valley announced that dB Broadcast has delivered new IP-based outside broadcast (OB) trucks for Cloudbass, featuring Grass Valley LDX 100 Series cameras a...
13/05/2026
Ikegami will exhibit the latest additions to its wide range of broadcast production cameras, control units, viewfinders and monitors on stand 5D3-1 at Broadcast...
13/05/2026
FISE, working with the founding members of the XR Sports Alliance (XRSA), Accedo, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and HBS, have collaborated to develop an immersive...
13/05/2026
Canon Unveils New EOS R6 V Full-Frame EOS Camera and RF20-50mm F4 L IS USM PZ Bu...
13/05/2026
Boston Conservatory at Berklee Honors Beth Morrison and Moses Pendleton at Comme...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Creative software developer Foundry today announced the latest developments on Nuke Stage. A purpose-built application for end-to-end virtual production and in-...
13/05/2026
A definitive portrait of one of Ireland's most influential musicians
New TV documentary airs Monday 18 May on RT One and RT Player at 9.35pm
Watch the...
13/05/2026
Agentic AI is changing the way users get work done. Following the success of OpenClaw, the community is embracing new open source agentic frameworks. The latest...
13/05/2026
Reinforcement-learning agents - AI systems that learn by trial and error - can c...
12/05/2026
Beyond the Hype: A Strategic Post-Hoc Analysis of NAB 2026 If NAB Show 2026 had an underlying theme, it was a quiet, industry-wide pivot from the high-energy sp...
12/05/2026
Guntermann and Drunck (G&D), a Panoptec Technologies Group company, and CT Square, led by Chandresh Shah, have announced a joint venture to distribute G&D and V...
12/05/2026
With 30 days until the start of the FIFA World Cup 2026, Telemundo, the exclusive Spanish-language home of the tournament in the United States, has announced th...
12/05/2026
The NHL has announced the return of Stanley Pup for its third consecutive year, a 90-minute special featuring adoptable rescue dogs competing on a miniature rin...
12/05/2026
NBCUniversal presented its 2026 Upfront to advertisers at Radio City Music Hall, detailing upcoming programming across NBC, Peacock, Bravo, and Versant properti...
12/05/2026
FOX Sports has announced funding for the Fandom and Social Connection Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Publ...
12/05/2026
TNDV and Live Media, both divisions of Live Media Group, supported live broadcast coverage around NCAA Final Four weekend in Indianapolis, including the March M...
12/05/2026
The European Football Alliance (EFA) has announced a content distribution agreement with Fubo Sports Network, the free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channel ...
12/05/2026
For the first time, Spanish-speaking fans in the U.S. will have two separate tel...
12/05/2026
CP Communications led a comprehensive spectrum management initiative on behalf of Churchill Downs during Kentucky Derby week, coordinating RF assets across the ...
12/05/2026
LiveU has announced a strategic partnership with DRONERESPONDERS, a 501(c)3 non-...
12/05/2026
Open Broadcast Systems has announced that BMC TV, a specialist in IP transport of broadcast content, has selected the Open Broadcast Systems 5G Flyaway solution...
12/05/2026
NEP Europe, part of NEP Group, has announced it will deliver broadcast solutions...
12/05/2026
Grass Valley has announced continued collaboration with Ravensbourne University ...
12/05/2026
Stats Perform has announced the launch of Opta Pulse, an AI-assisted video creation and distribution platform for leagues, rights holders, and broadcasters. The...
12/05/2026
FOX Sports has announced a collaboration with Sesame Workshop to integrate Sesame Street characters into FOX Sports' FIFA World Cup 2026 programming. Conten...
12/05/2026
To date, NHL Productions has produced 19 broadcasts with commentary in American Sign Language
NHL in ASL (American Sign Language) may be just one show, but the...
12/05/2026
Google's Brian Albert: creators, athletes, highlights, nostalgia, second-scr...
12/05/2026
A still from Past Lives by Celine Song, an official selection of the Premieres program at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. (Courtesy of Sundance Institute | p...
12/05/2026
Spotify is where fans and artists come together, turning discovery into somethin...
12/05/2026
Features patented Marco-MMC clocking technology
Black Lion Audio's latest release combines the company's expertise in clocking with their renowned p...
12/05/2026
New Track Panel, sequencer upgrades & more
Following their recent public beta release, Reason Studios have announced the full release of Reason 14. With the...
12/05/2026
One month to go! SBS reveals expansive FIFA World Cup 2026 lineup beyond the pi...
12/05/2026
Rohde & Schwarz presents its advanced solutions for power electronics testing at...
12/05/2026
aconnic AG (ISIN: DE000A0LBKW6), Munich, has developed a modified fund raising p...
12/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/05/2026
Tyrell Corporation, specialists in high-end live sports and entertainment broadcasts, was tasked with delivering compelling broadcast coverage of premier equest...
12/05/2026
Registration is now open for IBC2026 as the global media, entertainment and technology community prepares to converge on the RAI Amsterdam from 11 14 September ...
12/05/2026
Ross Video, a global leader in live video production technology, will present its latest innovations and integrated production workflows at BroadcastAsia 2026, ...
12/05/2026
500 selected leaders from around the world across start-ups, corporates, and venture capital. Over 50bn in assets under management among attending investors, a...
As a civil engineer, Scott Ashford used explosives to make the ground under Japan's Sendai airport safer in an earthquake. Now, as the dean of the engineering college at Oregon State University, he's at ground zero of another seismic event.
