Dedication Ceremony Held for Bob and Betty Beyster Building

On Wednesday, April 11, the College of Engineering held a dedication ceremony for the naming of the Bob and Betty Beyster Building, which is the home of the Computer Science and Engineering Division.

The building has been named in recognition of a $15 million gift to the College of Engineering by the Beysters. In addition to entrepreneurship programs and capital improvements at the college, the gift provides a minimum of $9 million to endow the J. Robert Beyster Computational Innovation Graduate Fellows Program, which will fund up to 10 engineering doctoral students each year.

The event opened with a welcome “tunnel” formed for the Beysters by pom-pom waving students. David Munson, Robert J. Vlasic Dean of Engineering, welcomed the Beysters and visitors and hosted the event. Remarks were made by Marios Papaefthymiou, Professor and Chair of Computer Science and Engineering; Shamik Ganguly, graduate student research assistant in CSE; Mary Sue Coleman, President of the University; Dr. Beyster; and his daughter, Mary Ann Beyster.

The dedication ceremony concluded with the unveiling of the new name on the front of the building to the accompaniment of the Michigan fight song played by the Michigan marching band.

Dr. Beyster is a four-time U-M alumnus, founder of the largest employee-owned research and engineering firm in the United States (Science Applications International Corporation), and is the founder and president of the Foundation for Enterprise Development. His wife, Betty, is a graduate of the University of New Mexico, a member of the Achievement Rewards for College Scientists Foundation, and an active volunteer and philanthropist.

In recent years, Bob and Betty have contributed to the College in the areas of experimental biofuels, cloud computing and security, and gene therapeutics. They have also funded a class on employee ownership through the Center for Entrepreneurship.

College of Engineering website: The Bob and Betty Beyster Building is Dedicated