Each month, about 4,800 students use the computer lab on the first floor of Middleton Library next to Community Coffee House.
But the lab computers have recently been relocated to the Information Commons to begin renovations for the new LSU Visualization Services Center.
Beginning in the fall, the Center will offer hardware, software, training and support to help students and faculty. The goal is to improve their data analysis and presentation skills by visualizing the data and results from surveys, modeling and simulations.
The Center will enable students to take their presentations to a higher level, said Sheri Thompson, Information Technology planning and communications officer.
Students can schedule a time to work on their class projects, conduct research or come because of interest. Instructors can reserve a time to use the resources for class demonstrations.
“We hope, through the Center, to greatly enhance the level of knowledge, skills and interest in visualization tools and techniques among LSU students and faculty,” Sheri Thompson said.
The Center will boast work stations with a variety of visualization software and systems for 3-D viewing, scanning and powerful projection and display.
This will be the first support center of its kind on campus. Some faculty members and certain research groups have visualization tools and centers with similar equipment available, but this will be the first open to all faculty and students.
Trained graduate assistants and two full-time staff members with visualization systems experience will work in the Center.
“Of course, some majors are easily suited toward visualization because of the nature of the data they generate to work with,” she said. “But really, we hope to cater to students of any and every major at LSU.”
The Center will host training sessions this fall on the popular visualization software and techniques used to make data display in a visual model.
Student tech fee money is not being used for this, Thompson said.
—-Contact Leslie Presnall at [email protected]