Arts & Sciences is celebrating the opening of Boston University’s new Center for Computing & Data Sciences, which will be home to the departments of Mathematics & Statistics and Computer Science, along with the Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences and the Rafik B. Hariri Institute for Computing and Computational Science & Engineering.
The building, a 345,000-square-foot 19-story carbon-neutral facility, was designed to foster collaborative work and cross-departmental conversation, helping to “inspire and inform the pursuit of new directions of foundational research in computer science and mathematics and statistics” and potentially lead to “new breakthroughs and insights in applied areas of computing data science,” said Arts & Sciences Dean Stan Sclaroff.
“This remarkable design will provide a wonderful new home for our Departments of Computer Science and Mathematics & Statistics, with state-of-the-art teaching spaces and student spaces that will bring a focal point for the multidisciplinary community of students, faculty, and staff who are advancing their work in computational and data sciences — both its foundations and applications,” said Sclaroff, who is a professor of computer science. “There is an important synergy and creative energy that comes from having foundations and applications in the same building, which is designed to maximize opportunity for interactions and collaborations. For our students to experience this synergistic connection, through their classes and hands-on experiences, will be incredibly valuable.”
Floors one and two feature classrooms and study areas, as well as BU CS BUILD, a student makerspace. The Department of Mathematics & Statistics will be primarily on floors 3, 4, and 5 while administrative staff for both math and computer science will share the sixth floor.
This arrangement reflects the foundational role of mathematics in the computing and data sciences, said Glenn Stevens, chair of Mathematics & Statistics. “These foundations must be strong and uplifting,” he added, “and we look forward to playing those roles, both literally and figuratively.”
Stevens said the center will further the development of core mathematics disciplines like algebra and number theory and will expand on emerging fields like computational arithmetic geometry, algebraic and differential geometry, and mathematical physics “in state-of-the-art classrooms with students and in generous collaborative spaces specially designed to encourage interactions among research colleagues working across the spectrum of the mathematical, computing, and data sciences.”
He added that the new facilities will support the department’s interdisciplinary teams working at the intersection of math and dynamical systems, biology, neuroscience, network analytics, finance, environmental science, and other fields.
The Department of Computer Science will occupy floors 6 through 10, in addition to part of the basement data center. With undergraduate computer science majors now exceeding 1,300—a 400 percent increase over a decade ago—chair Abraham Matta said the “world-class” center will give his department additional space for teaching, research, outreach, and community building.
“I am most looking forward to having our teaching labs and community building spaces co-located with faculty and staff offices, so we have more direct contact with our students,” Matta said. “I am also very excited about bumping into colleagues from mathematics and statistics and computing and data sciences and leveraging our shared spaces for fruitful and exciting collaborations.”
Boston University will celebrate the grand opening during a ceremony on Thursday, December 8. The building will officially open in January 2023.
“What I look forward to the most is the energy that will be in that building, by virtue of the students,” said Azer Bestavros, associate provost for computing and data sciences and the William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at Arts & Sciences. “The bottom part of the building is like the boiler; it’s where the energy comes in and just pushes up. That’s, to me, going to be the most exciting piece.”
Read more about the Center for Computing & Data Sciences Building in BU Today
Read a reflection on the Center for Computing & Data Sciences Building by Poet Karl Kirchwey, College of Arts & Sciences professor of English and creative writing and a former associate dean for the faculty for the Humanities.
Read a version of this story in arts & sciences magazine.