Oregon State Ups Efficiency of Equipment for Disabled Students with Real Time Tracking

  • By Kevin Hudson
  • 03/21/13

Oregon State University (OSU) has deployed a new system for tracking its specialized equipment for disabled student use.

OSU chose the AeroScout Real-Time Location System and Asset Tracking and Management solution for the task and has completed campus-wide implementation, according to a release.

The University's Disability Access Services (DAS) will track specialized furniture such as SurfaceWorks tables, lumbar support chairs, podiums, and interpreter and transcriber chairs across the campus. DAS facilitates access to the school's programs and services for students, faculty, staff, and visitors with disabilities.

"Before deploying the AeroScout solution, there were times when 75 percent of DAS assets were unaccounted for," said Jennifer Gosset, DAS coordinator at Oregon State University, in a release. "Now, we know exactly where every item is."

The solution includes Wi-Fi tags that are attached to the specialized furniture. The tags send location information for each item over OSU's Wi-Fi network to AeroScout's MobileView software, which has a graphical map of the campus that shows the real-time location of each item.

This real-time tracking is intended to enable the DAS team to immediately locate needed items across the 1,800-acre OSU campus, comprised of 40 buildings and more than 450 classrooms, and reposition the items where they're needed.

"As a result, we're able to provide a much better experience for our disabled students and we've significantly improved asset utilization and staff productivity," Gosset said.

OSU is located in Corvallis, OR, about 90 miles south of the Portland metropolitan area. Founded in 1868 as Oregon Agricultural College, OSU now includes 12 colleges, 15 Agricultural Experiment Stations, 35 county Extension offices, the Hatfield Marine Sciences Center in Newport, OR, and OSU-Cascades in Bend, OR, with a statewide economic footprint of $2.06 billion.

AeroScout Industrial is a part of Stanley Black & Decker and has offices in Redwood City, CA, as well as in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Australia, and Latin America.

About the Author

Kevin Hudson is a freelance journalist based in Portland, Oregon. He can be reached at [email protected].

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