As reported by Potomac Tech Wire, The University of Maryland on Saturday officially broke ground on a new 215,000-square-foot computer science building named after the CEO of virtual reality company Oculus, who made the project possible with a $31 million gift. The university said its Brendan Iribe Center for Computer Science and Innovation — expected to open in 2018 — will focus on cutting-edge developments in virtual reality, augmented reality, computer vision, robotics, artificial intelligence and computing platforms. Michael Antonov, Oculus’ chief software architect, also contributed $4 million to the project, along with $3 million from Elizabeth Iribe. The Iribe Center will anchor the Michael Antonov Auditorium and the Andrew Reisse Park, two features named for Oculus’ co-founders, who met while students at Maryland. Brendan Iribe, who attended the College Park campus for just one academic year in the late ’90s, made his gift — the largest in school history — in 2014, about six months after selling his company to Facebook in a deal valued at approximately $2 billion. “Students will be able to walk into the Center and have access to everything they need to build the next great company or breakthrough technology,” said Brendan Iribe. “I’m excited to see what future engineers, entrepreneurs and CEOs come out of UMD and these new facilities.”

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