When it comes to getting a leg up in the race to attract research grants and top scientific talent, universities task designers and builders with providing as much pow for the punch as possible on their new facilities. To that end, the team behind the University of Arizona’s $99-million Grand Challenges Research Building endeavors to wrap up a seven-level lab structure that will house around a half-dozen different cutting-edge functions and programs in an extremely tight footprint within just 2.5 years.

To achieve these goals, the team is relying on the efficiency of a prefabricated facade system as well as astute anticipation of supply chain issues that have snarled many other projects around the U.S. They also enlisted the help of a little robot to shave days off mundane carpentry tasks.