Students and faculty returning for the 2000-2001 academic school year will be welcomed by many improvements in the campus computer. Taking full advantage of the small number of students and general campus slow down, Information Technology's Lab Management team spent the summer renovating 7 of 15 campus computer rooms. These efforts were part of the regular maintenance and the three-year computer upgrade cycle for the labs.

Approximately one-third of the computer rooms receive new computers each year to replace the old systems while major facility renovations are commonly scheduled to coincide. Decisions about the components and features of the replacement computers (e.g., amount of memory) are based on projected needs three years out. Minor room renovations are also scheduled for summer based on needs identified through Lab Management's quarterly surveys.

The most noticeable changes took place in 301A Surge IV. We completed an overhaul of the heating and air conditioning system in this room and gave it a fresh coat of paint. In addition, we made computer upgrades and will open fall quarter with 31 brand new Dell 733Mhz Pentium III workstations with 192MB of RAM and 17" monitors. Next summer, we plan to install new furniture and redesign the layout of this room.

The Station, located at 177 Memorial Union, was closed for one week this summer to allow for a room reconfiguration. Improvements included relocating the Computer Room Consultant's desk to a more accessible location in the room and redesigning the waiting area to accommodate the long waiting lines that develop. To accommodate the changes, we replaced the six seldom-used group workstations with four quick access stations and two sit-down stations. This brings the total for the popular quick access stations to 14 at this heavily utilized MU computer facility. For additional information on the Station redesign please visit http://lm.ucdavis.edu/news.

To replace aging hardware, we placed 15 new Apple PowerMac G4 450 Mhz computers and a new Media 100 digital video editor in the Media Lab in 1154 Meyer. This brings the total of Media 100 Digital Video Editing workstations to two. In addition, a brand new audio editing room will be available for reservations at the start of fall quarter. For additional information on the Meyer system upgrades please visit http://lm.ucdavis.edu/news/.

New chairs and a new projection system now greet students and faculty in the 1131 Meyer PC computer classroom. The combination of a bright, new projector and easy-to-use Smart Panel controls should make using multimedia equipment in this classroom much easier. (For more information and a tutorial on the Smart Panel, please visit Stanford University's Smart Panel pages.

The PC computer classroom in 163 Shields underwent computer upgrades this summer as well. The room now hosts 20 brand new Dell 733Mhz Pentium III workstations with 192MB of RAM and 17" monitors.

One of the most heavily impacted Mac computer classrooms, 241 Olson, received 30 new 350Mhz iMacs with 192Mb RAM.

As part of an ongoing effort to extend the life of Lab Management computer purchases, we upgraded the TB 114 open-access lab with equipment removed from other rooms. In all, we relocated 18 Gateway Pentium 200Mhz computers that were removed from 301A Surge IV and 10 Apple PowerMac G3 - 266Mhz computers that were removed from 1154 Meyer. In an effort to address the high demand for computers on campus, we also redesigned the quick access area of TB 114 to accommodate two additional quick access stations.

We made several major software upgrades this summer, as well. The Macintosh operating system was upgraded to MacOS 9.04 in all of the Mac computer rooms, and Microsoft Office was upgraded to Office 2000 in all of the PC computer rooms. In conjunction with the Office upgrade, the last versions of the Internet Explorer browser and Frontpage Web site builder were also installed on the PCs.

For the latest information on computer room usage and availability, please visit our Web site at http://lm.ucdavis.edu.