Brendan Iribe knew he wanted to give back to the university that had changed his life. He just wasn’t sure how.
It took a recent visit to one particularly unkempt restroom inside the A.V. Williams computer science building to solidify his decision to donate $31 million toward the construction of a new computer science building and the creation of a department scholarship at this university.
“How do students get inspired when they have to use that bathroom?” Iribe, CEO and founder of Oculus VR, said Friday afternoon when he officially announced his gift. “I really felt like it was the right thing to do.”
At the announcement ceremony in the parking lot behind the A.V. Williams Building, Iribe told a crowd of students, faculty and members of the media the story of how his one short semester at this university helped him rise to success in the field of virtual reality. It was in the dorms on this campus where he met his two best friends and future business partners, Michael Antonov, Oculus’ chief software architect, and Andrew Reisse, co-founder of Oculus.
“You really do make these incredible relationships [at college],” he said. “It’s where we met; it’s where we fell in love in a nerd kind of way.”
A part of the donation will go toward funding a student scholarship in honor of Reisse, who was killed in a hit-and-run car accident last year.
Zachary Siegel, physics and computer science major, was the first student to receive the scholarship last year.
“I can’t wait to see what the future holds for virtual reality,” Siegel said. “This is a future that the University of Maryland is now intimately tied to.”
In addition to the $31 million donated by Iribe — the largest gift this university has ever received — Iribe’s mother, Elizabeth Iribe, and Antonov donated $3 million and $4 million, respectively. Each signed an official pledge during the ceremony.
“I don’t need to tell you how this will transform the computer science department,” said university President Wallace Loh. “We won’t be in the top 15; we will be the best computer science department in the country as a result of this investment.”
He then raised his fist and sang the university’s alma mater as the audience sang along and shouted “Maryland!”
The new building, the Brendan Iribe Center for Computer Science and Innovation, will boast state-of-the art technology and tools relating to a variety of fields, such as robotics, data analysis, cyber security and virtual reality, and will provide comfortable work spaces for faculty and students.
“This building is going to be a Mecca for innovation, collaboration and creation of new ideas,” Provost Mary Ann Rankin said.
She also stressed the importance of completing the project quickly while technology is rapidly revolutionizing — virtual reality in particular.
“This needs to happen fast because this is an opportunity that is extraordinary, and we need to ride the wave while it’s with us,” she said.
Though students in the audience weren’t expecting the project to be completed during their time at the university, they said they’re excited about the possibilities for future students.
“It’s really going to make huge strides,” said Tyler Barrett, freshman computer science major. “It’s going to help people show up and mess around creating things.”
Given this year’s sale of Iribe’s Oculus VR to Facebook for $2 billion, Barrett said he envisions virtual reality technology advancing in unexpected ways, such as integrating the technology with Facebook and other methods of online communication like video chat to make the experience more realistic.
Most importantly, the new center will provide a foundation for students to create groundbreaking innovations that will one day change the world, said computer science emeritus professor William Pugh, who is involved in the development of the center.
“This is more than a celebration; it’s a call to action. We are being called on to be heroes,” he said. “One of our most important and enduring legacies is not our research, but our students.”
