PCE News
GVSU's Master Plan includes creating a new tech center, the Blue Dot Lab
April 24, 2023
Grand Valley State University plans to repurpose the Eberhard Center at its downtown Grand Rapids Pew campus. The tech center, named Blue Dot Lab, is included in GVSU’s 2022 master plan update, which the school’s board of trustees approved in February. The facility would house computer science, data science, and transdisciplinary degrees in business, computing, and the humanities.
The university plans to demolish a portion of the academic building, which opened in 1988, and construct a new addition in its place, increasing the building’s square footage to 175,000 square feet. Construction could take three years, according to GVSU’s most recent capital outlay plan. The university is requesting $35 million in state funding to support the project and would fund the remaining $105 million of the project, according to the capital outlay plan.
Creating the Blue Dot Lab aims to achieve three goals: Enhance students’ digital skills across all majors; increase the number of graduates with technical, computing, data, and A.I.-related expertise; and facilitate increased collaboration between GVSU, startups, entrepreneurs, and corporate partners.
GVSU added digital literacy as a required outcome for all of its undergraduate students starting in 2022, regardless of their area of study. School officials expect faculty from every department to integrate resources from the Blue Dot Lab into their coursework to carry out this goal. The lab would be managed by an internal team from a range of degrees, departments, and colleges at GVSU to ensure the lab is accessible to every student.
The development plan calls for audio and video studios, fabrication labs, collision spaces, research labs, and presentation spaces. Audio and video editing software, graphic design, data visualization and three-dimensional modeling also would be integrated into the tech hub. As well, the center would be a collaborative space where students, faculty and local corporate partners and entrepreneurs could work together. A startup and community partner space planned at the tech hub is specifically designed for GVSU and industry partners to work together on projects and give GVSU partners access to faculty experts and students with a passion for studying the latest technologies.
Blue Dot Lab aims to build competencies in computing, data science, cybersecurity, machine learning and adjacent fields, which are growing in demand among local employers, according to a survey released last year by The Right Place Inc. The survey of more than 100 local businesses found that 72 percent of respondents said they plan to increase tech hiring over the next five years, which could add 3,200 new hires in the region.
Meanwhile, The Right Place has been leading an effort among local organizations to advocate for more investments in the tech industry, and rolled out a plan in 2022 to make technology a focus for the greater Grand Rapids region over the next 10 years.
“Key to the DNA of the Blue Dot Lab is its ability to create hands-on, experimental learning for the GVSU community,” according to GVSU’s capital outlay proposal for the project. “Students, faculty and staff will have the same access to these tools to further the research and innovation of their education and coursework. There are places and spaces for teams to work on innovating new technology, and spaces ‘to find other big idea thinkers.’ There are places for people to see what others are doing and to be seen by others. This will build a community of innovation that gives GVSU students an advantage in their future pursuits.”