IDEA Center

About IDEA Center

IDEA Center is Austin College's major science, mathematics, engineering and research facility in Sherman. The approximately 103,000-square-foot building includes 32 laboratory classrooms, 40 offices, 16 lecture rooms, a 108-seat auditorium, the W. M. Keck High-Performance Numerics and Graphic Computing Facility and Adams Observatory. Beyond its academic role, the center supports public science outreach, lectures, special events and astronomy programming. Its Oscar C. Page Atrium contains a solar observatory and meridian line that uses a beam of sunlight passing through a gnomon hole in the roof to mark solar noon, equinoxes and solstices. The rooftop Adams Observatory houses a 24-inch research telescope and opens to the wider public for recurring star parties.