Tilburg University has moved into new MindLabs building
At the end of January, the new MindLabs building was completed and it is now being fitted out. In the week of March 27, Tilburg University took possession of the building, situated in the heart of hipster hotspot Spoorzone. The four shared labs on the ground floor will be managed by the university. On the first floor, office space and three lecture halls will be available to Tilburg University.
Apart from being a building, MindLabs is also an association, set up in 2019 by Fontys University of Applied Sciences, ROC Tilburg, Tilburg University and the City of Tilburg. The association’s objective is to drive and facilitate innovation in the field of artificial intelligence and interactive technology, for instance, by connecting relevant parties. MindLabs has already built a divers partner network, consisting of startups, established enterprises, social and knowledge institutions, and authorities.
Lab facilities
Apart from the Virtual & Mixed Reality Lab, the MindLabs building will also accommodate a Serious Gaming & Learning Lab, a Robotics & Avatar Lab, and a Natural Language Processing & Data Science Techniques Lab. Some of the equipment is new and some of it has been moved over from Deprez building, MindLabs’ earlier home.
The labs will become available for both education and research purposes. Requests to use the labs will be assessed by the lab coordinators: senior researchers of the Department of Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence of the Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences (TSHD), who know much about the application of the available equipment.
Advantages of the new building
“The new building offers lots of space to MindLabs’ partners: not only the knowledge institutions and DPG Media will take up residence, publisher Zwijsen and other businesses affiliated to MindLabs rent office space there. We see each other every day, which allows us to easily exchange knowledge and benefit from each other’s input,” says MindLabs program manager Mirjam Siesling. “For the university, the new building is a great forward position in the heart of Tilburg, showing that we are actively involved in the city and contribute to the further development of Spoorzone as an innovation district. Compared to Deprez building, there will be much more space for the lab facilities, which means even more opportunities for researchers and students to conduct state-of-the-art research projects.”
TSHD closely involved
The Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences (TSHD) is closely involved in MindLabs. Jolien Peeters, Managing Director of TSHD, on the importance of MindLabs: “The MindLabs ecosystem brings us into contact with socially relevant parties with whom we can set up and develop research projects. This offers interesting collaboration opportunities for us to have a positive impact on society.”