If video killed the radio star, then communications technology has a contract out on the “sage on the stage.” Increasingly, an engaging lecturer is not enough. The classrooms themselves need to become players—stimulating, exciting, and provoking active minds. So we’re meeting today’s students with smartboards that sync with laptops, demonstration cameras, and high-tech video conferencing. Last year, our Information Services & Technology department reengineered several classroom spaces in an effort to send even more competitive graduates into a hyper-connected job market. It’s complicated work, requiring highly technical expertise, but it’s a challenge we relish.
“The Interactive Studio Classroom is used in four Physics classes, one Biology class, one Chemistry, and one Engineering, reaching almost 1,000 students per year. The impact has already been demonstrated: In its first year, it reduced the drop-and-withdraw rate in introductory STEM courses by a factor of three over traditional lectures.”
Campus, untethered
The three-year wireless rollout across campus was completed in 2014.
$2.7M Total three-year investment
$969K FY2014 wireless spending
The total investment since FY2010 was $3,887,299, including wireless access in classrooms and residence halls that were completed earlier at a cost of $1,139,075.
Research Support
Our technicians and support staff have loaned their technical know-how to scholars, researchers, professors, and students across the University, helping with everything from 3D visualizations to remote pictorial assessments, even with the programming of a virtual hallway to study how Parkinson’s affects gait.
Habib Khan (ENG’14)
For computer engineering major Habib Khan, it started with an app-development workshop on campus in 2012. It ended this year with a job offer upon graduation from General Electric. Here’s what happened in between: The fateful workshop, organized by a School of Management faculty member, brought together teams of students, who built mobile apps for four nonprofits in five days. Khan was hooked. That fall, he and a friend started the Global App Initiative at BU. By last year, GAI had grown to 500+ students building over 17 apps for 17 nonprofits such as Harlem Hospital, Peer Health Exchange, and Students Helping Honduras. “It’s thanks to my experience with the Global App Initiative that I have my first real job,” Khan says. “And even though I’ve graduated, GAI lives on. I’m excited to see where it all goes from here.”