———- Forwarded message ———- From: Hank Levy <levy@cs.washington.edu> Date: Thu, Oct 12, 2017 at 12:19 PM Subject: Announcing the Bill & Melinda Gates Center for Computer Science & Engineering
Dear Allen School family,
I am excited to share with you that the building going up across the street, which we have affectionately been referring to as “CSE2,” officially has a name! This afternoon, the University of Washington Board of Regents approved naming our second building the Bill & Melinda Gates Center for Computer Science & Engineering. The building was named in the couple’s honor thanks to the generosity of Microsoft and a group of local business and philanthropic leaders who refer to themselves as the “Friends of Bill & Melinda.” Together, this group contributed more than $30 million toward the building to support our school’s expansion and express their gratitude and admiration to the Gateses.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Center will stand as an enduring tribute to the couple’s vision and leadership in applying innovation to the world’s most intractable problems in education, health care, and global development — problems that the Allen School community tackles every day in the labs and out in the field. From mobile apps for disease screening and management, to games that support personalized learning, to robust tools for managing data collection and analysis, our work demonstrates the potential for technology to improve lives around the world. I cannot think of a more fitting association for our second home.
Microsoft president Brad Smith, a member of the Friends of Bill & Melinda who has spearheaded our building campaign, called it “wonderful symbolism” to have the Bill & Melinda Gates Center across the street from the Paul G. Allen Center. I could not agree more. I am tremendously grateful to Brad and all of the Friends of Bill & Melinda for investing in the future of our program in the Gateses’ name.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Center is on track to be completed in December 2018. We will, of course, organize events and activities to mark that occasion and celebrate the building’s grand opening. In the meantime, you can read more about today’s Regents action and the Friends of Bill & Melinda in the UW media release here.
Warm regards,
Hank
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