CT Briefs
:: NEWS
PUBLISHING UPDATE. More than 100 students who manage and produce Duke University’s independent newspaper, The Chronicle, and its website, DukeChronicle.com, can now collaborate in real time and integrate editorial content more efficiently. The newspaper is using SoftCare K4 publishing software, integrated by Database Publishing Consultants, to modernize workflow operations. The publication, in production for over 100 years, has a circulation of 15,000 and gets more than 70,000 hits on its website daily.
MOBILE RESEARCH. Ball State University’s (IN) Center for Media Design (CMD) is integrating the iLoop Mobile mFinity platform into its research program. CMD is a research and development facility focused on the creation, testing, and practical application of digital technologies for business, classroom, home, and community; the center plans to utilize mFinity to study consumer use of mobile communication devices in areas such as mobile marketing, entertainment, content and information delivery, social networking, and commerce.
ASU’S VIDEO WALL video wall greets Biodesign Institute visitors in the building’s main lobby.
BIG DISPLAYS FOR BIOSCIENCE. On Arizona State University’s campus, you’ll find the largest single investment in research infrastructure in the state: The Biodesign Institute. With a dual mission of multidisciplinary research and outreach, the facility boasts a high-end AV media and digital signage solution from Focus Enhancements that supports a mix of research collaborators, student groups, tours, and other education events. Administrators can schedule several media elements to run in different combinations on an 18- by 4-foot video wall and numerous displays throughout the facility.
THINKING DEEP. Forty kilometers of fiber-optic cable are now laid in the Strait of Georgia near Vancouver, BC, for the second leg of one of the most challenging ocean floor observatories ever attempted. The installation is poised to become operational with the addition of nodes and instruments this summer. Led by the University of Victoria (BC), the expanding seafloor observatory, dubbed VENUS , provides researchers and educators with round-the-clock sensing of biological, oceanographic, and geological data, via the internet.
MEASUREMENT MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE. At Chippewa Valley Technical College (WI), an institution recognized by the US Department of Education as one of the fastest-growing technical colleges in the country, performance management drives strategic planning, allowing for an improved confidence level for investments such as a $4.5 million nanotechnology facility. In particular, data on recruitment, retention, and placement are factoring into decisions about service to the institution’s 11-county area. “We get Department of Labor statistics that help us measure the landscape in terms of the local job market,” explains Bruce Barker, VP of operations. Reports are generated with the Cognos 8 Business Intelligence application, which is integrated into the college’s SunGard Banner administrative system.
WIRELESS SECURITY FOR TWO. Both the Swainsboro and Statesboro campuses of East Georgia College (a two-year institution, part of the University System of Georgia) have secure wireless access since this summer’s upgrade to an Enterasys secure network. The new technology supports mission-critical initiatives, including a VPN that enables identical technology services across both campuses, and an innovative VoIP application designed to make the institution’s nursing program more widely available.
:: PEOPLE
Stephen Hess
UTAH NAMES NEW CIO. The University of Utah has named Stephen Hess its top information technology executive. Hess, who previously was the school’s associate academic VP for IT, will become chief information officer and will preside over a new, unified IT department. Read more here.