DAVE HILL/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Fourth-year biology
student Robert Tryon uses one of the many
computers in the ATS Lab in the Math Science Building Thursday
afternoon.
By Hemesh Patel
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
After serving students for seven years, the Academic Technology
Services computer lab will close at the end of the quarter, which
may lead to more students using the computing facility in the
College Library.
When the facility in Math Sciences shuts down, it will leave the
College Library Instructional Computing Commons as the only lab
completely accessible to all UCLA students who have a Bruin Online
ID.
The ATS lab currently houses 58 computers and will close to make
room for a new facility for technologists called the Technology
Sandbox.
“We’re hoping to set up an environment where
different technologists can work on different problems,” said
Marsha Smith, director of ATS.
The new Technology Sandbox will be used to test and study
different technological pilots, including advances such as wireless
Internet and videoconferencing projects.
According to Smith, in the past, projects such as these have
taken place, but in an isolated setting where technologists were
not able to communicate with one another.
But despite the potential for new technological advances
resulting from the Technology Sandbox, many students are unhappy
with the fact that the computing facility will close.
Lan Tran, a fifth-year physiological sciences student, comes
into the ATS facility three times a week.
“It will be sad to see it close,” Tran said.
“CLICC lab is so hard to get into and it’s always
busy.”
According to lab administrators, the CLICC lab receives between
1,000 to 3,000 logins per day.
Audrie Madden, a third-year European studies student uses the
facility each day to check e-mail and do research. She said the
closing of the facility will mean having to either wait in the long
queues in the CLICC lab or until she gets home, where the computers
are much slower.
“I think its stupid, there’s never a line
here,” said Madden, who is also pre-med. “This is the
only place where its convenient for South Campus majors to
go.”
Although officials at the CLICC lab expect more students to make
use of their facility, they are supportive of ATS’s decision
to close its facility.
“They kept their lab open beyond the amount of time they
need to ““ its been a very hard decision for them,” said
Lisa Kemp Jones, CLICC manager. “ATS needs to focus on what
it needs to do.”
Jones said while it will be an adjustment to students, they are
looking into options, such as acquiring more laptops, to balance
out the influx of students who will use the facility in the College
Library.
“We’d love to build more computer labs but finding
space is difficult,” Jones said.
Additionally, officials at CLICC said they will make efforts to
raise awareness of the 14 other computer laboratories on
campus.
Unlike CLICC, many of the other computing facilities are
restricted to students affiliated with different departments.
While the majority of the remaining labs, such as the Science
Learning Center, are restricted to students based on the classes
they are taking or their major, additional labs are still available
for disabled and AAP students.
The Chemistry Instructional Computing facility and the Center
for Digital Humanities is open to any undergraduate with a Bruin
Online ID but priority is given to chemistry students and
humanities students respectively.
The chemistry facility houses 21 computers, and the CDH 40,
compared to the 178 computers and 80 laptops available through
CLICC.
“I’m not in the business of providing generalized
computing resources ““ I’m in a business of supporting
the campus with new technology,” Smith said.
Val Poliuto, manager of the Information Technology Alliance,
explained the philosophy of the Technology Sandbox as a place to
play with and collaborate on different ideas.
Poliuto said ATS plans to create student internships for the
Technology Sandbox.
“Students will have access to the technology available
today as well as the technology available tomorrow,” Poliuto
said.
Two years ago, ATS helped set up a live, long-distance learning
project between UCLA and Kyoto universities.
Despite a 17-hour time difference, professors from both
universities jointly taught a physics course in real time.
ATS officials hope the new Technology Sandbox will allow the
university to integrate different advances in technology.
“Our intent is to make it all global to benefit the campus
as a whole,” Poliuto said.