The six-story, 100,000-square-foot, $65.5 million building -the newest addition to the School of Engineering and Applied Science – was the star attraction at the Friday November 19th,  ceremony, attended by hundreds of engineering benefactors, supporters, faculty and students.

The opening of the Rice Hall Information Technology Engineering Building coincided with the 175th anniversary of the UVA Engineering School. The building facilitates research and learning in areas that include high-performance computing, computer visualization, computer security, energy conservation, wireless communications, telemedicine, virtual reality, distributed multimedia and distance learning.

In the Lacy Engineering Lab,  students and faculty can monitor its advanced operating systems, such as heat, air conditioning and energy consumption, and conduct experiments to improve performance. Trane, a manufacturer of home and commercial heating and air conditioning systems, was a lead partner in the development of this “living lab.”

Rice Hall broke ground in 2009, along with the neighboring Physical and Life Sciences Building, dedicated last month by the College of Arts & Sciences.

Colleges and universities have an excellent opportunity to offer solutions to the problems we are facing. The research done in Rice Hall is the kind of work that affects people in their daily lives.”  - Teresa A. Sullivan, UVA President

*Photo by Brian Bremner