Research Teams continued…
President Pinto’s vision began to take shape in 2018 when the UC Office of Research launched phase I, the Dean’s nomination round, in which all the UC deans nominated faculty from their respective colleges to compete for a position in the new building. In 2019 the Office of Research launched Phase II which introduced a faculty-led competition in which UC faculty could compete for a position in the building. There are eighteen interdisciplinary research labs, centers, institutes, and initiatives poised to conduct collaborative, interdisciplinary, and applied research in the new building come fall 2022.
Digital Futures is designed to foster moonshot thinking and high risk – high reward applied research. We envision it will be a place where huge problems will be solved and not incrementally, but rather with radical, actionable ideas and break-through inventions. Digital Futures research is inclusive, innovative, and impactful; Cutting-edge, collaborative and computational; and the kind that leverages advanced tech to solve social, economic, and climate-related problems caused by urbanization.
Our location in the Cincinnati Innovation District is key. Digital Futures R&D requires our faculty and students to be close to their research partners in government, the non-profit and private sector, and the community. Importantly, the nature of Digital Futures research is such that requires those faculty and students be situated in close proximity to UC’s 1819 building where their commercialization and start-up efforts can be nurtured, industry partnerships fused, and advanced manufacturing can be realized.
