A sneak peek at our new building

The CS department will be moving into its new home in the Center for Engineering and Computer Science in Fall 2021.

The Call to Lead campaign website has a new article providing a sneak peek of the new building, including the video above and the details below:

Dartmouth is redefining how technology education can be a fundamental component of the liberal arts experience. This transformation is taking place at the West End of campus, where we are breaking down barriers between departments and schools.

The new Center for Engineering and Computer Science (CECS), adjacent to the MacLean Engineering Sciences Center, will be a hive of discovery and entrepreneurship that invites faculty and students from all disciplines to explore how technology can inform their scholarship and expand the impact of their work. The CECS and the nearby Arthur L. Irving Institute for Energy and Society, also under construction, will fuel interdisciplinary teaching and research.

Opening in the fall and scheduled for dedication in the spring of 2022, the CECS will accommodate expanded faculty for engineering and computer science, two of the fastest growing majors at Dartmouth. Importantly, the building will provide the opportunity for all undergraduates to take at least one technology course and to apply their tech knowledge to whatever careers they may pursue. Scholarship in the CECS will build on areas of institutional distinction such as cybersecurity, biotechnology, product design, imaging, and machine learning—with activity organized by research interest, not by departments.

The 160,000-square-foot CECS, for which Dartmouth will seek LEED Gold certification, will be the second-largest academic building on campus. Including the parking garage underneath the academic spaces, it is the largest construction project in Dartmouth history. The landmark structure will house:

• the Department of Computer Science
• the Magnuson Center for Entrepreneurship
• the Digital Arts, Learning & Innovation (DALI) Lab
• the College's electron microscope 
• a large portion of Thayer School of Engineering

The new center is a major element of the reimagined West End. This portion of campus, which includes the Tuck School of Business, is poised to be a dynamic crossroads of learning that prepares all undergraduates to fully embrace technology literacy as a fundamental element of a 20th-century liberal arts education.

The $200-million CECS, funded entirely through philanthropy, and related investments in faculty recruitment are central elements of the vision advanced by President Philip J. Hanlon '77 to foster interdisciplinary, inter-school, and intergenerational collaborations that prepare wise leaders.

The unifying theme behind this drive to erase barriers and push the boundaries of knowledge? To imagine and create human-centered solutions to many of the world's most complex and most pressing challenges. While the CECS will incubate cutting-edge technological advancements, the work taking place within its walls will build upon and amplify the Dartmouth liberal arts tradition.

The building is within $32 million of its fundraising target, meaning there is still time to be part of this transformative project.