UCF will also officially dedicate the Partnership I building at the same ceremony in the Central Florida Research Park, adjacent to the university. The ribbon-cutting ceremony for the building, also known as the Center for Public Safety and Security, was originally scheduled for September 2001 but was postponed because of security concerns after the terrorist attacks.
Both buildings are partnership ventures between the federal government, the Department of Defense, the State of Florida and UCF.
Partnership II will help UCF continue the advancement of research and development of simulation learning technologies in conjunction with military partners, said Mark Yerkes, associate director of External Development for UCF's Institute for Simulation and Training. This technology developed for the military is transferable to other areas.
"If you can create an environment in which people can learn quickly and effectively through simulation, that technology can be applied in many areas," Yerkes said. "We can transfer the things we're going to learn here to other teams -- law enforcement, emergency management, education -- and other learning environments."
The five-story, 75,000-square-foot Partnership II building will house the UCF Immersion Lab, which will include UCF's Team Performance, Cognitive Science and Simulation and Distributed Learning labs; offices for U.S. Navy, NAVAIR Orlando; the U.S. Army's Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation; and the U.S. Marine Corps Program Manager for Training Systems. The building will cost $20.5 million to plan, construct and equip.
The Partnership I building, at 41,000 square feet, houses simulation research of the U.S. Navy, NAVAIR Orlando, a National Guard classroom and UCF's National Center for Forensic Science, among other departments. The building, which cost $9.1 million, hosted the meetings of the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI Executive Institute this month with 40 of the top law enforcement executives from around the world reviewing homeland security research and projects presented by UCF, industry and the military.
UCF partners with other agencies outside these two buildings, including the U.S. Air Force Agency for Modeling and Simulation, the Army Research Institute, the U.S. Coast Guard and the U. S. Army Simulation Technology Center, an element of the new Army Research Development and Engineering Command, also located in the Research Park.
UCF President John Hitt will introduce Congressman Feeney at the groundbreaking and ribbon-cutting ceremony, scheduled from 8:30 to 10 a.m. Wednesday at the Center for Public Safety and Security, Partnership I, 12354 Research Parkway in the Central Florida Research Park.