ATAC evolves into incubator for emerging technologies.

There is nothing hidden when it comes to development taking place at the Advanced Technology and Academic Centre (ATAC) at Thunder Bay's Lakehead University.

Robert Angell, director of the technology services centre, happily takes people on a grand tour of his ATAC office, even if they are hundreds of kilometres away. The camera, providing a view of his reasonably cluttered desk from a vantage point just over his left shoulder, pans. The image goes from a snowy scene outside his window, panning to take in a bookshelf, a decorative pendulum clock, to a gift box sent from grateful engineers in Japan.

The impromptu tour is courtesy of information technology being perfected at ATAC.

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Angell says ATAC is a facility incubating new videoconferencing technologies and information technology with its private-sector partners by assessing technology developed for the classroom and providing honest and straightforward assessments of what they come up with.

"There's contact between them, faculty and students, issues being brought forward and the development of solutions collectively," Angell says. "Lakehead participates. Our corporate partners participate. It's a really strong partnership that's not heard of normally."

"I'm very impressed with the dedication companies like Nortel, Sony and Bell have brought to the process," he says.

Built last year and officially opened in October, ATAC is a 9,117-square-metre, $44-million fusion of learning and technology development. Corporate partners such as Sony, IBM Canada, Nortel Networks and Bell Canada are working with ATAC as an incubator for new technologies for use in developing "Smart classrooms."

"From a pedagogical standpoint, we're trying to develop centres that faculty can maximize the use of the technology and minimize the work to get there," says Angell. "So far, it has been a very exciting initiative, and, although nothing is ever perfect, our facilities have been received very well by our faculty and we are working enthusiastically with our corporate partners to make adjustments as students and faculty advise us.

"It is putting us in a very strong position to teach effectively with the technology that is available to us today," he says.

The backbone of ATAC is a communications infrastructure that incorporates the largest installation of voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephony in North America. It includes 2,100 IP phones and integrates Lakehead University's voice and data information into one common network.

"When you think of a technology centre, don't think of it being restricted to a single faculty like engineering or computer science," says Angell. "That isn't the focus of the building. It's the technology itself and the aiding in instruction. The thrill of all this is that, not only do you get to have your overhead and your computer technology integrated into your classroom, you also get video-conferencing and video streaming and you can do this with up to 300 students. It's a pretty big step forward."

Starting from the podium in the classroom, the instructor can access a variety of media, including VHS and DVD, and run their presentation from that single location. It also includes a flatscreen video panel with an imbedded camera, which allows the instructor to continue to address the students who are present, as well as address students who are receiving instruction elsewhere in the network.

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Often the issues are one of compatibility in getting different systems to work together, says Angell.

"I'm trying to get to the point where I can have a professor totally control his environment without having technical support crews having to sit there and baby him," he says. "We want the professor to be able to sit there and say 'I want videoconferencing for these four centres, touch those four centres on a screen and hook them up immediately."

The goal, he says, is for each vendor of equipment and software to configure that equipment and software to be able to talk to one another to create a seamless integration.

Lakehead University is Nortel Networks first large-scale IP/Telephony customer with the ATAC focusing on that method of data and voice transmission.

www.lakeheadu.ca

By ANDREW WAREING

Northern Ontario Business