June 2019 CIO Update
For this month’s entry, I’d like to announce an exciting new enterprise agreement that’s been a long time coming as well as highlight Technology Services’ use of exciting new technology in the form of 3D printing.
Announcing the Adobe ETLA
VCU recently signed an ETLA (Enterprise Term Licensing Agreement) for Adobe Creative Cloud. This license provides VCU faculty, staff and students access to a full range of creative applications for digital imaging, design, web, and video. With this new ETLA, VCU negotiated licensing at a significantly reduced cost for faculty, staff, and students.
Academic Technologies staff are currently working with different departments and schools to transition existing VIP licenses to the VCU Adobe ETLA Portal. Once complete, VCU faculty & staff will be able to purchase licenses for Adobe Creative Cloud ($190/year) and/or Adobe Acrobat DC ($60/year). Licenses may be requested anytime throughout the contract year by submitting an IT Support Center ticket after the initial transition period of June – July 2019.
Student licenses will be available for purchase once all provisioning processes are in place, sometime before the Fall 2019 semester. Students have access to Spark Premium at no cost, and all students have the option to purchase a license for Creative Cloud for $60 per year, or $30 for 6 months. Students who are interested may complete this form to have their name added to a list to be notified when Creative Cloud becomes available for purchase.
Thanks to the School of the Arts for their collaboration as well as to all the schools and units who worked together to make this possible. For more information, visit the website https://adobe.vcu.edu/
3D Creations Installed in Classrooms
Inspired by a 3D printing presentation at the ACCS conference earlier this year, Mariuz Ostasz from Academic Technologies MSS Engineering and Design began prototyping a 3D bracket to meet a specific need in the classrooms. Advanced “beamforming” microphones installed in the ceilings of classrooms in the new College and Health Professions building require programmable wireless buttons that interface with the AV system in the classroom. The buttons are installed at the tables, allowing students to activate the microphone and direct the camera focus on themselves.
These buttons needed to be stationary to allow the user to utilize “muscle memory” motion to reach the button. To avoid drilling holes in the table surfaces, a bracket was needed that would allow the button to be mounted to it and then secured to the bottom of the table. Options for secure and clean mounting were limited in both physical appearance and dimensions, so Mariuz reached out to the “The Workshop”, located in Cabell Library. Immersing himself in details about plastic filament, temperature, slicing software, and 3D printer functions, Mariuz created a few prototypes. The decision was made to proceed and production setup and printing commenced. One bracket takes 3 to 5.5 hours to print depending on the material, printer, and quality settings. Mariuz printed 1-7 brackets at a time, using durable PLA or ABS plastic.
71 brackets were needed for 3 classrooms. To date, 47 are ready and more are coming off the printer daily. The cost savings were significant–brackets available on the market range from $5-$10 each, while the one Mariuz designed and printed cost on average $1 each and are just as durable.
Another Academic Technologies staff member, Houston Griffith, from Labs and Classrooms Computing designed a laptop bracket about 4 years ago. Saving thousands of dollars, this bracket also prevented installation delays caused by the 2-month delivery time from the vendor. These brackets are still used today and only require occasional redesigns.
Be sure to ask Mariuz and Houston about their 3D printing adventures!
All the best for a safe and fun July 4th holiday!
Alex