Home > About > Bob and Betty Beyster Building

Bob and Betty Beyster Building

The Bob and Betty Beyster Building, completed in 2005 and built with alumni funds, is the home of CSE and a destination for events and gatherings on the U-M North Campus. Designed to bring in and reflect natural light and featuring a spacious four-story atrium along with 100,000 square feet of lab, office, and meeting space, the Beyster Building encourages and precipitates interaction, creativity, and collaboration.

Named for four-time U-M alumnus, entrepreneur, and philanthropist Dr. J. Robert Beyster and his wife Betty, the Beyster Building features a spectacular four-story spiral staircase that winds by lounge areas on each floor; those spaces offer faculty and students places to mingle or hold spontaneous conversations and impromptu meetings.

Inside the diag entrance to the atrium, visitors will find one of the most significant remaining displays of the ENIAC – announced in 1946 and widely considered to be the first electronic general-purpose computer – which was built in part by Arthur Burks, founder of the program in computing at Michigan.

The Bob and Betty Beyster Building is located at 2260 Hayward Street, Ann Arbor, 48109-2121.

Building Quick Links

About the Beysters

Bob and Betty Beyster

The late Dr. J. Robert Beyster was 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 founder of the Foundation for Enterprise Development. Dr. Beyster passed away at the age of 90 in December 2014. His wife, Betty, is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, a member of the ARCS Foundation, and an active volunteer and philanthropist.

In recent years, the Beyster family has contributed to the College of Engineering at Michigan in the areas of experimental biofuels, cloud computing and security, and gene therapeutics. They have also funded a class on employee ownership through the College’s Center for Entrepreneurship. In April 2012, the Beyster Building was dedicated in appreciation for the Beysters’ gift of $15M to the College. A substantial portion of that gift endows the J. Robert Beyster Computational Innovation Graduate Fellows Program, which funds up to 10 engineering doctoral students each year.

For more information about the Beyster’s philanthropy, visit the Michigan Engineering Beyster Impact website.