- Posted 01/09/2001
Contact: Andrew Svec, 218-281-8435
UMC Receives Ubiquitous Computing Pioneer Award
| The University of Minnesota, Crookston (UMC) was recognized with the Pioneer Award at the Fourth Annual Conference on Ubiquitous Computing, held January 4-6, 2001, at Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey. The Pioneer Award acknowledges ground-breaking efforts of colleges and universities that have made commitments toward offering students ubiquitous—or “anytime, anywhere”—access to computer technology. It also distinguishes those same institutions because they have consistently participated in the Ubiquitous Computing Conference and have openly shared their pioneering experiences with others. |
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According to the awards program, “As a result of risks, sacrifices, and commitments made by these schools, the promise of technology for the enhancement of higher education has become a reality for those institutions that have followed. These institutions not only made investments at their own campuses, but offered counsel and discussion in the spirit of academic sharing to other campuses. Without these pioneers, higher education would not be where it is today.”
UMC was one of eleven colleges to receive the Pioneer Award. Other colleges and universities recognized with the award included Acadia University, Clayton State College and University, Drexel University, Drew University, Houghton College, SUNY College at Morrisville, United States Air Force Academy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, West Virginia Wesleyan University, and Wake Forest University.
Diane Moen, Chief Information Officer at UMC, and David DeMuth, Assistant Professor of Physics and Math, represented the campus at the conference. DeMuth accepted the award on behalf of UMC Chancellor Don Sargeant and served on a panel with other faculty from Pioneer Award winning schools. Members of the panel shared their perspectives on implementing a ubiquitous computing environment.
Widely regarded as the first college to provide every student and faculty member with a notebook computer, UMC began its technology initiatives in September of 1993. Since that time, representatives from more than 150 colleges and universities from across the globe have visited the campus to tour its facilities and observe its technology-rich environment. More information about UMC’s technology initiatives is available at the college’s website www.umcrookston.edu.
The Fourth Annual Conference on Ubiquitous Computing was hosted by Seton Hall University and cosponsored by EDUCAUSE. EDUCAUSE is an international, nonprofit association whose mission is to help shape and enable transformational change in higher education through the introduction, use, and management of information resources and technologies in teaching, learning, scholarship, research, and institutional management.
Over three hundred practitioners of higher education--faculty, administrators and executives--from over one hundred and sixty colleges and universities throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Asia attended the three-day conference.