525,000 Square Foot Zachry Center Transformed
to Support College’s 25,000 Engineering Students by 2025
Initiative
Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company (NYSE: HPE), today
announced that Texas A&M University (TAMU) College of
Engineering has completed a full-scale expansion and modernization
of its Zachry Engineering Education Complex using Aruba wired,
wireless, security and location services solutions, to create an
innovative, high-tech learning environment for undergraduate
engineering education. The unique complex, which is the largest on
campus, is part of TAMU College of Engineering’s 25 by 25
initiative to support 25,000 engineering students by 2025 in
response to the country’s need for more engineers.
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Texas A&M University College of
Engineering completed a full-scale expansion and modernization of
its Zachry Engineering Education Complex using Aruba wireless,
security and location services solutions. (Photo: Business
Wire)
According to Ed Pierson, CIO and Director of IT for Texas
A&M’s College of Engineering, the scale of the new Zachry
Building sets it apart from other projects that the University has
undertaken.
“Different classroom designs and technologies have been used at
Texas A&M for many years, but outfitting a 525,000 square foot
building with 30 classrooms required us to think long and hard
about the technology we needed to support the size and scale of the
project. We also needed to make sure we had the best technology
partners to not only deliver these solutions, but ensure they were
implemented correctly and would work the way we’d envisioned,”
Pierson said.
Creating a Vision for the Future of Engineering
Education
The TAMU College of Engineering IT team conducted formal Proof
of Concept tests, but Pierson noted that much of the technology
they needed to implement at the opening of the complex in late
August wasn’t available two or three years ago when they began the
planning process. Although the IT team built several prototype
rooms on campus, a key factor in their decision to partner with
Aruba was a shared vision for what the technology should look like,
how it should perform and most importantly, how it could adapt over
time.
The College of Engineering used Aruba’s location-ready 300
Series Access Points with built-in Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)
beacons for indoor and outdoor access and location services across
the Zachry Building and Engineering Quad – or E-Quad – an outdoor
area that provides space for students to meet, relax, eat and
study. They also deployed Aruba 3810 Switches with SmartRate,
ClearPass for policy management and AirWave for network
management.
Incorporating Distinctive Design Elements to Deliver a New
Style of Teaching and Learning
The new Aruba network was crucial for delivering the kind of
reliable, high speed connectivity and flexibility that Pierson and
his team needed for the Zachry Building’s distinctive design and
operation. Unlike traditional cinder block academic buildings, the
architectural design is based on light and glass, and the old
row-by-row classrooms have been transformed into a hub and spoke
design to enable a more interactive and collaborative learning
style. For example, the new design allows instructors to pull
content from students’ monitors to project and share with the rest
of the class, allowing for more dialogue and creative
problem-solving.
Ensuring Easy, Secure Connections for a Wide Range of Mobile
and IoT Devices
The Aruba network provides simple and secure connectivity for
all engineering students at Texas A&M College of Engineering’s
main campus, as well as remote locations where much of the student
growth is occurring. Using ClearPass, the IT team can manage the
growing number and types of devices that students are bringing onto
the network. In addition, because Texas A&M has one of the
world’s leading engineering programs, their lab environment is also
using a variety of IoT devices, many of which need to connect, but
must be segmented securely, so they don’t affect the rest of the
network.
“Tools like ClearPass are very important to us for segmenting
the delivery of our services and ensuring the quality of those
services to our users,” Pierson noted. “With ClearPass, we can
begin to match and shape the experiences to the actual needs of the
users and their particular devices.”
Leveraging Built-in BLE Beacons and Mobile Apps to Address
Current and Future Student Needs
Having Wi-Fi access points that are location-ready was also a
critical feature for the College of Engineering’s IT team. The
built-in beacon capability allowed them to leverage the placement
of the APs for mobile engagement, and ensure that they can easily
augment coverage with standalone beacons as they move forward.
Today, the beacons are used in conjunction with an updated mobile
app called “EngiNEARME” that delivers a mapping system to help
students, faculty and visitors navigate within the Zachry Building,
and Pierson is excited about the potential for adding new
capabilities.
“We’ve really just scratched the surface for what we can do with
these built-in beacons,” he said. “We’re working with our students
to enable more functionality, such as delivering push
notifications, to provide students with important information and
resources customized to their major focus.”
Although the center officially opened just a few weeks ago, the
Texas A&M College of Engineering is already seeing positive and
enthusiastic reactions from both students and faculty who recognize
that the unique combination of architecture, artwork and technology
can truly change the engineering education experience.
Noted Pierson, “Even some of the folks that we thought would be
more traditional in their approach have become the biggest fans of
our new environment and the possibilities it opens up for teaching
and learning. The Aruba infrastructure has been a key component in
enabling this environment.”
Partnering to Usher in the Next Generation of
Engineers
An important showcase for the new Zachry Building will be the
Aggies Invent event on September 29th. Although the College of
Engineering hosts multiple events each year, this year’s event
titled “Smart Campus Experiment’ and sponsored by Aruba, will be
the first in the newly renovated facility. Event participants will
use the BLE technology in the building to invent and prototype an
engaging indoor mobile experience. Participants can create apps
that are not just limited to the college campus, but could be
designed for a corporate campus, hospital, museum or other public
venue.
Said Pierson, “The Aggies Invent event is a good example of why
we chose Aruba for the Zachry Engineering Center modernization
project. It’s really symbolic of the partnership that Texas A&M
and Aruba have, which goes well beyond a vendor-customer
relationship.”
About Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company
Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, is a leading
provider of next-generation networking solutions for enterprises of
all sizes worldwide. The company delivers IT solutions that empower
organizations to serve the latest generation of mobile-savvy users
who rely on cloud-based business apps for every aspect of their
work and personal lives.
To learn more, visit Aruba at http://www.arubanetworks.com.
For real-time news updates follow Aruba
on Twitter and Facebook, and for the latest
technical discussions on mobility and Aruba products visit Airheads
Social at http://community.arubanetworks.com.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180912005024/en/
Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise companyPavel Radda,
+1-408-419-0294pavel.radda@hpe.comorLori Hultin,
+1-818-879-4651lori.hultin@hpe.com
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