City Council agreed yesterday to accept $5 million in state funding for a new computing center on Carnegie Mellon University's campus.

The funding will go toward the Gates Computer Science Center, according to Marc Knezevich, senior project development specialist at the city's Urban Redevelopment Authority. The URA will pass the funds on to Panther Hollow Development Corp., which includes CMU and the Carnegie Institute, Knezevich said.

The 200,000-square-foot center's total price tag is expected to be $50 million, Knezevich said. The state funding will be matched by $5 million that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation pledged to CMU.

One component of the center will be the Planetary Robotics Laboratory, which will develop machines for use in exploring other planets, Knezevich said.