Being CS

The Clark Center

The Clark Center is the center of Stanford's Bio-X program that tries to bring together Engineers, Biologists and Doctors, and encourages innovative Biotechnology and Biomedicine research. I did not think that this program would pay off, after going to some lectures about Bio-X last year, because it seemed like nobody had any detailed idea of how this would actually work.
Yesterday's visit to the Clark Center changed my mind. The building consists of three curvacious structures with walls of glass, that allow people outside too look in. All the stairs are outside, and people are almost forced to interact with each other when walking around. Everything is modern and the building is full of computers and modern instruments. It does, however, provide privacy to people working inside, but it also has lots of spaces for people to sit down together and talk about interesting research. There is a great restaurant and a nice cafe, both of which are central to the Center's purpose: Interaction.

As much I am fascinated by these great strides in Biotechnology, I can't help but be sad at how sad the Gates Building looks in comparison to the Clark center. The Gates Building is the center of Stanford Computer Science, arguably the best Computer Science program in the world. Yet the building is not at all built to encourage interaction. It is very had to meet other Computer Science majors, and almost nobody hangs around Gates' unless they have a problemset to turn in, or a lecture to attend. Most space in the building is taken up by offices, joined by narrow hallways. Computer Science majors also do not eat in Gates, they eat in their dorms, where they seldomly interact with other Computer Science majors, because unlike in Clark there are no restaurants and cafes.
I do of course know that Stanford stresses interaction with other people in the dorm, but constructing more restaurants and cafees next to academic buildings, and allowing students to use their normal meal plans to pay for them would greatly increase the degree of academic interaction.
I have two specific ideas to increase academic interaction:
1. Allow students to use their meal plans to eat in almost all campus cafes and restaurants.
2. Make interaction between professors and students on of the main architectural goals in new buildings, and try to integrate this into existing buildings.