U of I pulls plug on Discovery Partners Institute plan at The 78
This excerpt is reprinted with permission from Crain’s Chicago Business. Read the full article here.
The University of Illinois is scrapping its plans to build a $285 million research and teaching facility called the Discovery Partners Institute (DPI) in the South Loop on the proposed site of The 78.
Instead it wants to split the project in two, with a presence at the new quantum technology campus on the Far South Side at the former U.S. Steel plant, and classroom and office space downtown.
The decision came just after preliminary construction had begun on the 1.5-acre site near 15th and Wells streets, the south end of the 62-acre neighborhood development known as The 78, when the university abruptly stopped the work to reconsider.
The facility was expected to include a marijuana research facility among its tenants.
“This is an unprecedented moment. The quantum opportunity is a game-changer for the state of Illinois,” said Tim Killeen, president of the U of I system, in an interview with Crain’s.
“We feel a responsibility to lead it, so we’re now expanding our vision for DPI to emphasize global leadership in computing, digital transformation and AI, without walking away from our pillars of business-building: applied R&D and workforce development,” he added.
U of I has already spent $25 million in design, engineering and other costs on the project. Killeen said the university asked the Capital Development Board, which was overseeing the buildout itself, late last week to halt the project and notified the governor’s office that it plans to switch gears.
Killeen said there are likely to be additional costs to wind down the project, though he didn’t attempt to quantify them.
The abrupt change of plans at The 78 is the latest twist for DPI, a project launched seven years ago when Bruce Rauner was governor and Rahm Emanuel was mayor. The idea was to connect the students, faculty and researchers at U of I’s highly ranked college of engineering with the companies and money in Chicago in hopes of creating the sort of economic juggernauts that Stanford provided to Silicon Valley and that MIT and Harvard gave Boston.
Sharper focus
The basic concept of DPI – bringing more of Champaign-Urbana’s talent to Chicago – has been talked about among alumni and others in the Chicago business community for years. But the details of exactly what that would look like have proved amorphous.
It’s not clear how much traction the idea got from faculty or students in Urbana. But Killeen has made strides. DPI is home to the City Scholars program, which allows undergraduate engineering and computer science students to study in Chicago and do internships at companies here. U of I also launched a master’s in computer science program in Chicago, as well as research around wastewater monitoring and cannabis. It embraced workforce training, too.
The focus on quantum, AI and the future of computing should bring the vision for DPI into sharper focus.
“We have a lane that’s not occupied that clarifies what DPI is,” Killeen acknowledged. “It’s not abstract. That should be very attractive to donors and faculty.”
High-profile corporate partnerships for DPI have proved elusive so far, and it’s far from certain that quantum will deliver on its promise as a revolutionary technology.
