2009 Campus Technology Innovators
Social Networking: Hofstra University
Project: [email protected]
Project lead: Fred Burke, Career Services Director
Vendor/product involved: MyWorkster
With [email protected], Hofstra University is providing tools and services to foster strong advisor relationships among its community of students and alumni, helping to increase job placement for students in this difficult economy.
IT Funding: University of Missouri
Project: Interdisciplinary Innovation Fund
Project lead: Michael McKean, Chair, MUIT Committee; Director, RJI Futures Lab
Vendor/product involved: In house
The University of Missouri’s Interdisciplinary Innovation Fund leverages existing student-assessed technology fees to provide seed money for student-centered, interdisciplinary projects that helpdemonstrate leadership in innovative teaching, research and service with the support of information technologies.
Portals: George Mason University
Project: Research Portals
Project lead: Wally Grotophorst, Associate University Librarian, Digital Programs & Systems
Vendors/products involved: Wordpress, Deep Web Technologies, CWIS
At George Mason University, discipline-targeted research portals--combining database resources with subject-specific search widgets, blog postings, and more--are changing the way librarians provide services to researchers and students.
Online College Planning: Virginia Community College System
Project: Virginia Education Wizard
Project lead: Craig Herndon, Director of Career and Educational Services
Vendors/products involved: Chmura Economics & Analytics, CodeBaby
The Virginia Education Wizard is a one-stop online resource that provides information to help users select careers based on personal interests, local salary, and local projected demand; determine the specific major at a community college that leads to their desired career; compare the cost of attending colleges and universities throughout Virginia; find and apply for financial aid and scholarships; identify pathways from Virginia’s Community Colleges to four-year institutions; and apply for admission to Virginia’s Community Colleges.
Career Services: Rochester Institute of Technology
Project: Career Services Reporting System
Project lead: Jim Bondi, Assistant Director, Office of Cooperative Education and Career Services
Vendor/product involved: Symplicity
RIT’s Career Services Reporting System combines data from multiple sources to standardize reports and deliver vital information to the web with near-real-time data, streamlining the process of reporting for accreditation, placement results for specific academic departments, employer and student activity, and co-op evaluation data.
ePortfolios: Fashion Institute of Technology
Project: Admissions ePortfolios
Project lead: Reuben Marcus, Manager, Portal and Web Services
Vendors/products involved: Xythos Software, SunGard, Oracle, Sun Microsystems, IBM
FIT’s prospective art and design students now can submit their entire portfolio online, and have their work accepted, reviewed, evaluated, and graded in minimal time, simplifying the admissions process.
ERP: Kent State University
Project: Project KEYS
Project lead: Ed Mahon, Vice President/CIO
Vendor/product involved: SunGard
Project KEYS was a 30-month project to put in place an enterprise resource planning solution across 8 campuses and within a highly robust portal--and Kent State was able to complete the implementation on-time, on-budget, and with enhanced functionality of workflows, imaging, single-sing-on authentication, and best-of-breed third-party bolt-ons.
Curriculum Design: Minnesota State University, Mankato
Project: Curriculum Design System
Project leads: Brenda Flannery, Assistant VP of Academic Affairs, and Brenda Hanel, Lead Web Application Director
Vendor/product involved: In house
Minnesota State University, Mankato replaced an antiquated, paper-based curriculum approval process with a transparent, web-based, user-centered Curriculum Design System that allows faculty and administrators to create, review, track, access, and approve curricular proposals from anywhere.
Immersive Learning: Media Grid Immersive Education Initiative
Project: Immersive Education Mixed-Reality Table
Project lead: Aaron Walsh, Director, The Grid Institute, and Faculty Member, Boston College
Vendor/product involved: Sun Microsystems, realXtend, Cobalt
The Media Grid Immersive Education Initiative, an international nonprofit consortium of education institutions, has developed an Immersive Education Mixed Reality Table that allows users to interact with 3D virtual objects and worlds that are "mixed together" with physical objects from the real world. The organization's goal is to offer the table as a commercial-grade technology free of charge to the global academic community.
High-Performance Computing: Purdue University
Project: DiaGrid
Project lead: John Campbell, Associate Vice President for Information Technology
Vendors/products involved: Condor, CycleComputing
Purdue’s DiaGrid is a large, high-throughput, multi-institutional distributed computing system that provides a means for researchers and students worldwide to run programs on large numbers of otherwise idle computers in various locations, including both high-performance resources momentarily under-utilized and desktop lab machines not currently in use.
Emergency Notification: Carnegie Mellon University
Project: SMART Warning Project
Project lead: Madelyn Miller, Director, Environmental Health and Safety
Vendor/product involved: Metis Secure Solutions
Carnegie Mellon’s SMART Warning system is an integrated hardware/software platform that delivers emergency notifications to classrooms, labs, even basements across campus by utilizing a digital RBDS sub-carrier on commercial FM bandwidth and wireless mesh network--50 times faster than cellular/text messaging, and not dependent upon cell, WiFi, or Ethernet communications.