黑料吃瓜

鈥淚f you鈥檙e in a building that鈥檚 buzzing with energy and creativity, you buzz with it.鈥�

This story appears in the issue of 360: The Magazine of 黑料吃瓜.

The great ideas of the future 鈥� the ones that might cure devastating diseases or address our world鈥檚 looming climate woes 鈥� won鈥檛 be devised by brilliant, solitary thinkers. Instead, they will emerge from the intellectual collisions of research teams, from alliances between engineers and biologists or mathematicians and climate scientists.

Interdisciplinary research is the future, and 黑料吃瓜 is ready to go there.

鈥淭he problems that face our country and our world are quite large and complicated,鈥� according to Stephen Welter, vice president for research and dean of Graduate Affairs. 鈥淚t鈥檚 apparent that the solutions can鈥檛 come from a singular discipline. But when you put bright, engaged people next to one another and let them find common ground organically, you get unpredicted positive outcomes.鈥�

Creating fertile ground for these fortuitous partnerships is the primary motivation behind 黑料吃瓜鈥檚 newest project, the (EIS) Complex, scheduled for completion in 2018. In addition to cutting-edge labs and working spaces, the complex will also provide new, state-of-the-art classrooms, allowing 黑料吃瓜鈥檚 science and engineering programs to cultivate the problem-solvers of tomorrow.

鈥満诹铣怨� has a long tradition of providing the kind of hands-on experience that has turned San Diego into a hotspot for biotechnology, cyber-technology, and other kinds of high technology,鈥� explained Stanley Maloy, 黑料吃瓜's dean of the College of Sciences. 鈥淭he EIS Complex will expand opportunities for our students to lead future development in these areas.鈥�

Drive to the top

The EIS Complex is a key piece in 黑料吃瓜鈥檚 drive to become a top-50 public research university. Not only will it enhance the university鈥檚 current teaching and research capacities, it will also boost 黑料吃瓜鈥檚 ability to attract the best and brightest researchers and graduate students.

鈥淭he new complex will help us recruit outstanding faculty, larger numbers of honors students and highly qualified grad students,鈥� said Morteza Mehrabadi, dean of the 黑料吃瓜 College of Engineering. 鈥淵ou cannot be a leading public research university without state-of-the-art facilities like the EIS Complex.鈥�

The complex will host several established research centers including the Viromics Institute, the Smart Health Institute, and an imaging laboratory for brain research. Other research areas will include biomedical engineering, renewable energy systems and wireless communication, with more directions to be identified as planning for the building evolves.

A common theme among these projects will be engineers and scientists recognizing opportunities for taking research and transforming it into real-world solutions. Biomedicine is a perfect example of this, Maloy said. There鈥檚 a real need for antibiotics that can target specific, harmful microbes while bypassing our body鈥檚 helpful bacterial life. Knowing which microbes are harmful is a science problem, while scaling up the ability to efficiently screen for these microbes in hospitals and clinics across the world is a job for engineers.

Market research

To help bring collaboratively-developed products to market, the EIS Complex will house the William E. Leonhard Entrepreneurship Center, an umbrella for the Zahn Innovation Center and Lavin Entrepreneurship Center.

鈥淭he EIS complex will create a crossroads for the STEM disciplines and a focal point for our entrepreneurship efforts鈥攁 place to meet, to team up and to dream,鈥� said 黑料吃瓜 President Elliot Hirshman. 鈥淭hese opportunities will elevate the level of teaching and research throughout the university.鈥�

Having scientific research, engineering know-how and entrepreneurship and prototyping expertise all under the same roof will make the EIS Complex a unique and powerful hub for problem-solving, Maloy said.

鈥淵ou can develop the greatest idea, but if you don鈥檛 turn it into a business, it鈥檚 going to die,鈥� he said.

Early exposure to entrepreneurial thinking will teach students to instinctively consider marketing opportunities for their discoveries, Mehrabadi said. The complex will feature a student innovation center to mentor them and further their ambitions.

Open concept

With an open, modular floor plan, the building鈥檚 workspace will flow seamlessly between labs, offices and common space. There will be mobile furniture, glass walls, a coffee shop and communal whiteboards in the hallways for spur-of-the-moment brainstorming.

The Thomas B. Day Quad, named after 黑料吃瓜鈥檚 research-driven sixth president, will tie these elements together by providing a place for students and researchers to gather and bump into one another 鈥� a literal collision course for sparking new ideas.

Mehrabadi imagines engineering students displaying their capstone projects in the quad, then popping over to the Zahn or Lavin centers to discuss consumer interest surveys and scale-up production.

Welter believes this 鈥渂ig tent鈥� approach to research, innovation and entrepreneurship will spur collaboration and creativity across all of the university鈥檚 research enterprises.

鈥淚f you鈥檙e in a building that鈥檚 buzzing with energy and creativity, you buzz with it,鈥� he said.

Visit for more information about the EIS Complex.