The purpose of the Center will be to provide wide-ranging opportunities for all members of the Stanford campus community—from students to emeritus faculty—to learn and exchange ideas. The Center will provide a supportive environment for the school’s new curriculum and transform how students learn by offering state-of-the-art, interactive, experiential and team-based learning opportunities.

The Center incorporates many unique features, including a state-of-the-art Center for Immersive and Simulation-based Learning that is believed to be one of the most comprehensive in the country. The immersive learning center will include a simulated operating room, intensive care unit and emergency room with mannequins that breathe and bleed, enabling students to experience the complex clinical world first-hand.

The Center will feature other innovative technologies, such as a virtual reality facility where students can view 21st Century anatomy technology, including a skull that rotates in space to reveal various parts of the brain. Large, high-resolution display walls in the classrooms will allow students to view small molecules or tissues in widely expanded views on a screen.

The building also will house the latest information technology and flexible classrooms, allowing students greater mobility and opportunities to work in teams. The new building will be equipped with three lecture halls, including one for team-based learning, and a 350-seat conference center for major functions.

Scheduled to be completed by the spring of 2010, the structure will be constructed on Campus Drive on the site of the former Fairchild Auditorium.