With a three-dimensional, ascending graph at the entrance to the new Coenraad Bron Center growth is now also visualised: both the growth of Campus Groningen ánd the growth made possible by the high-quality data storage and computing capacity of the data centre of the University of Groningen (UG). The so-called 'Capital Steps' were installed at the beginning of February.

"In collaboration with Campus Groningen we have found a nice way to display in the outdoor area what the data center stands for and what happens there," says Anke Breeuwsma, technical director at the University's Centre for Information Technology. "The Coenraad Bron Center provides a strong infrastructure for innovative IT solutions that allows academics to collaborate at an international level on major groundbreaking research."

Coenraad Bron Center

The name of the new data center was announced in December 2021 and work is currently in progress on the interior layout. Professor Coenraad Bron was the first professor in the UG's Computer Science department. The name Bron ('source' in Dutch) is also a symbolic reference to the data center as a source of knowledge.

Campus Groningen continues to grow

The 'Capital Steps' represent the uniform growth on and of Campus Groningen. "Together with creative agency Buenaparte, we developed the Capital Steps and it is very nice that they have been given a visible first place at the Coenraad Bron Center," explains Amber van der Schaaf of Campus Groningen. "The Capital Steps visualise the step to the world of tomorrow. That message fits exactly with the new source of knowledge that the data center will form." The Capital Steps will be moved several times a year to different locations on Campus Groningen. They can currently be viewed at the corner of Grouwelerie and Zernikepark.