By Josh James
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wuky/local-wuky-990530.mp3
Lexington, KY – Another part of University of Kentucky's new "Digital Village" was officially dedicated today. The center houses some of the most impressive technology on campus.
"This place will be a place where great things happen," Davis Marksbury, a graduate of UK's College of Engineering and lead donor, said during the dedication Thursday. The 19-million dollar center, which opened earlier this year, is the first LEED-certified building on campus and contains no traditional classrooms. Instead students and staff from engineering, computer science, and other departments interact in open spaces, designed to facilitate communication between the disciplines.
"We have a multi-touch table, six projectors blended with a touch surface, so everybody can use that. Then we have an immersive environment here so you're actually wrapped in the image," Bill Gregory with the VisCenter explained during a tour of the facility.
That wrap-around environments have been used to train troops using virtual missions -- just one of the many hi-tech projects UK officials hope signal the university's commitment to research and innovation.
