Archive for the 'Computer Labs' Category
October 5th, 2008 by Son Nguyen
Last fall, NACS brought three new instructional computing labs up, and we want to be sure faculty, staff, and students are aware of them.
The first lab, dedicated to faculty and staff training, is in the Anteater Instruction & Research Building (AIRB). Priority is given to NACS and the Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE) events, but it is available free of charge for other faculty and staff training on campus. Equipped with 16 Windows workstations in addition to an instructor’s station, this room also features the same console and other equipment found in UCI Smart Classrooms.
You can view the availability of the training lab in Oracle Calendar, or request reservations online (login with your UCInetID).
NACS@Student Center Lab
Two drop-in labs opened as part of the upgraded Student Center and Cross-Cultural Center. The NACS@StudentCenter lab has approximately 44 Windows and Macintosh workstations and a print station. The NACS@CCC lab has another 6 Windows workstations. Additional seats are available for students with their own laptops, with access to UCI’s wireless network. Hours of operation, as well as hardware and software details can be found on the NACS Drop-in Labs web page.
April 28th, 2006 by Lyle Wiedeman
You might think, in these days of ubiquitous laptops and wireless Internet, that the traditional instructional computer lab has had its day, but labs remain an essential resource for instruction at UCI.
Distributed through 9 rooms in six buildings, NACS manages over 300 computers dedicated to instructional use. NACS continuously invests in the lab computers to keep them current, and systems in any of our labs have a consistent, predictable configuration.
All lab computers have an array of academic and productivity software, and all labs have printing facilities (most through NACS’s Payprint system, and Gateway Study Center computers through the Library.)
Instructional labs fill two principal roles: allocation to faculty while teaching regularly scheduled courses, and “drop in” use. Some labs are always available for drop-in use, and all labs are available for drop-in use when not being used for a course.
Faculty interested in having a computing lab allocated to a course may make their request online.
In addition to course use and drop-in use, some of our computers are available at night as a computational resource. From 10pm to 7am, systems in the MST and SST buildings reconfigure themselves as a computational cluster. If you’re interested in access to this cluster, please contact NACS.
Instructional labs:
http://www.nacs.uci.edu/computing/labs/index.html#instruct
Request a lab for your course:
http://www.nacs.uci.edu/computing/labs/schedule.html
Drop-in labs:
http://www.nacs.uci.edu/computing/labs/index.html#drop
December 10th, 2004 by Dana Roode
NACS has implemented a number of new features and services related to the public PC and Macintosh computer labs NACS supports, including some labs managed in cooperation with other UCI departments.
The ArtsTEC Mac Lab in the Claire Trevor School of the Arts has been upgraded with 23 new dual-CPU Apple G5s with 1GB of memory and 160GB disk drives running OS X. Video Art students will once again have access to high-speed external (portable) Western Digital hard drives for spring quarter.
The MSTB Lab A (MSTB 210) 46-workstation lab has been upgraded to all-in-one computers with integrated 19″ LCD displays, 3 GHz Pentium-4 CPUs, 1GB of memory, and 160GB disk drives. Both MST Labs (A and B) are available for any UCI courses or for drop-in use when not scheduled for classes. 21 computers in the NACS Engineering Gateway Lab B were upgraded to Compaq 1.7 GHz Pentium-4 systems.
The Instructional Technology Center (ITC) Lab A and Lab B have been upgraded with all-in-one computers with 1Ghz Pentium-3 systems. The Library – Gateway Study Center 25-workstation Lab has been expanded to 50 workstations.
25 more SmartClassrooms have been installed, bringing the total to around 60. In addition to the SmartClassroom media equipment, the newest rooms feature new Dell GX270 2.8GHz Pentium-4 systems with 512MB of memory and 17-inch LCD monitors. Smartclassroom systems are configured according to campus lab standards.
For a list of SmartClassroom installations, see:
http://www.irc.uci.edu/ClassroomSupportMain.html
For a description of SmartClassroom software, see:
http://www.nacs.uci.edu/computing/smartclass/
For more info on NACS-supported labs, please see:
http://www.nacs.uci.edu/computing/labs/
April 23rd, 2004 by Dana Roode
ArtsTEC Lab
The ArtsTEC Lab is a new computer-equipped classroom developed and maintained by the Claire Trevor School of the Arts and NACS.
Located at AITR 190 (building number 714 on the campus map), ArtsTEC is available for all regularly-scheduled UCI classes. ArtsTEC is equipped with a video projector, a DVD/VHS player, and 23 Macintoshes with Microsoft Office as well as applications such as Final Cut Pro, Photoshop and Illustrator. ArtsTEC is particularly well suited for the digital arts curriculum. The public lab (”Lab A”) in Engineering Gateway which offers similar systems is about to be retired.
When not scheduled for classes, the ArtsTEC is available for general drop-in use. UCInetIDs are required to gain access to the computers. During the school year (Fall/Winter/Spring quarters), lab hours are:
Mon-Thur 9am-9pm
Fri 9am-4pm
Sat 1pm-6pm
For equipment specs or complete list of installed s/w, please see http://www.nacs.uci.edu/computing/labs/artstec190-details.html . If you have any questions, please contact NACS.
March 21st, 2003 by Dana Roode
An Open House will be held in Rooms 210 and 226 of the Multi-Purpose Science & Technology Building on Wednesday, March 26, from 12:00 noon to 2:00p.m. This event is being co-sponsored by NACS and Gateway Computers and will highlight the NACS MST computer lab.
Free food and beverages will be available at this event.
March 28th, 2002 by Dana Roode
There are many times when it would be convenient to conduct a small workshop or seminar in a computer-equipped facility, but such rooms are few at UCI, and most are configured for larger numbers of participants.
Recognizing this, NACS acquired and implemented a “Mobile Computing Lab” (MCL). The MCL consists of 16 laptop computers equipped with wired and wireless networking capability. Now workshops and seminars which would benefit from computers require only an available room.
The NACS Mobile Computing Lab comprises 16 IBM Thinkpad a22m laptop computers, with 256MB memory, 20GB disks, CD, DVD, and floppy disk drives, 15″ screens, and 850MHz Pentium III CPUs. Also included are wireless ethernet (802.11b) PC cards, a 100 megabit/second hub, and a high-resolution LCD projector, all of which can be readily transported to any building and any room on the main campus.
With as little as a week’s notice, if the laptops are not already booked, a Windows 2000 or Windows XP configuration will be copied onto the systems, along with the majority of popular academic and productivity applications. With more time, any application needed can be licensed and installed as well.
The MCL has been successfully used many times, for uses ranging from Microsoft Office or CorporateTime training, to EEE seminars, through Windows XP system administration training. If you have a room, NACS can help you make it into a computer lab.