Alumni who return to UC, especially after lengthy absences, often express amazement over how campus has changed over the years. But it’s not just the physical environment that keeps evolving. While not as readily apparent, learning itself is rapidly transforming — the strategic approach, the teaching methods, the definition of “classroom,” who is involved, and more.
The greatest evidence may be the nearly completed home of UC’s Digital Futures, the 180,000-square-foot, $100 million investment in interdisciplinary research at the corner of Martin Luther King Drive and Reading Road. This new anchor facility of the thriving area known as the Cincinnati Innovation District, which is also home to UC’s 1819 Innovation Hub, represents a de facto expansion of UC’s traditional campus, and its work promises to be a huge catalyst in higher education’s metamorphosis. As a central part of UC’s Next Lives Here strategic direction, innovation agenda and Research 2030 initiative, Digital Futures will embrace ultra-collaborative thinking toward next-level, real-world problem-solving. Regular tours of the facility are being scheduled. The public grand opening is set for Sept. 23.
In building on UC’s 200-year history of excellence, leadership and community partnership, Digital Futures offers alumni one more stirring reason to be proud of our alma mater and its rich heritage. Its stated Objective is just one word — impact — explaining that its people won’t be doing research for research’s sake, but rather harnessing creativity, technology, science and the imagination within its many team members in order to tackle issues that truly matter to our local and global communities.
Come to think of it, that’s what a UC education has always been about!
Go Bearcats!
