SUMMER 2023 | 39 floor’s Bosland Financial Services Lab, which includes a teaching wall that features a 6-by 20-foot LED display. In larger classrooms the direct view LED monitors are 20 feet wide; in smaller classrooms the screens measure 16 feet wide. They’re also accompanied by confidence monitors, screens in the back of the room that mimic the main display on a smaller scale so the professor can see without having to turn around or look down at a computer. In the Bloomberg Lab, students can learn to use Bloomberg terminals to monitor and analyze real-time financial market data and place trades. The student study areas, open spaces, high-tech meeting rooms and classrooms were all designed to facilitate student learning and faculty innovation, Phillips says. The classrooms, equipped with advanced camera and sound systems, are built to handle students on-site, remotely or a combination of both. The project, which was largely funded by philanthropic gifts—nearly $25 million was donated by 122 alumni and friends, as well as corporations and foundations—was greenlit in 2020. Lehigh broke ground in May 2021 following a pause due to the pandemic. The structure’s official grand opening was March 3 inside the building’s Tauck Family Lobby. Within weeks, following spring break, some professors in the College of Business began moving their classes into the new building to finish out the Spring 2023 semester. Among the first to use the new spaces was Patrick Zoro, program manager for the Master of Science in financial engineering and assistant teaching professor. He says the desk setup allows for better interactions. “It enables me to move around the students, breaking that invisible barrier you have in standard classrooms,” Zoro says. Zoro did just that in his Security Analysis and Portfolio Management class held in Room 107, where tables ranged in size, seating two to five students. He moved seamlessly from the front of the room, where he addressed the entire class, to working more intimately with individual student groups. First, he grabbed a chair to sit down at a two-student table to answer a question before sliding over to assist a group of four students seated at another table and then returned to address the class as a whole. About six to eight classes moved into the building after spring break, including one taught by Nevena Koukova, associate professor of marketing. BY THE NUMBERS 74,000 square feet of new space for business education 16 new teaching spaces for undergraduate, graduate and executive education, all equipped for remote and hybrid learning 1st startup accelerator at Lehigh for preseed and seed-stage enterprises—Lehigh Ventures Lab 35-foot-long stock ticker 3 inches of rain held by the green roof 22,000 square feet of glass and 1,000 tons of stone on the building’s exterior 5 miles of cable for the building’s technology The Business Innovation Building's Classroom in the Round features state-of-the-art video and audio capabilities, including a full-circle LED screen display.
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