Franklin College Converts Athletics Annex into Tech Center
This building will become the new Center for Tech Innovation at Franklin College. (photo courtesy: The Daily Journal)
Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA former athletics annex at Franklin College is becoming a new technology center, which is scheduled to open this fall. Our partners at the Daily Journal report more than $400,000 is being spent to renovate the building into the Center for Tech Innovation.
The center will be an open, collaborative workspace for students and staff to explore new technologies and partner for innovative projects.
The publication says the center’s opening will tie together the college’s efforts to integrate technology into the curriculum and prepare students for post-college life.
“It is almost an unlimited array of digital applications that are evolving,” said Franklin College President Kerry Prather. “There is no academic discipline that is excluded.”
The center will be home to the college’s Esports team, a podcast and music production studio, a lab to study human movement, and rows and rows of computers equipped with software to serve a wide array of study areas.
The school says it received several private gifts, including a $200,000 gift from Franklin College Trustee Rob Brown and his wife, Ruth, to fund the project.
The college says interior work is nearly completed and exterior will take place this summer. The college’s new Director of Digital Fluency Andrew Rosner will head up the center.