Hi-tech Thomas St celebrates major milestone
October 2014
UTS will soon celebrate another major construction milestone for 2014, with the Thomas St Building reaching Practical Completion (PC) this month.
The completion of the future home to Science and Graduate School of Health (Building 7) follows that of Building 11 and the Library Retrieval System (LRS) earlier this year.
The Thomas St Project, which includes the Thomas St Building, LRS and Alumni Green, also celebrates the completion of the Green in October.
What a year it has been! And there are more celebrations to come with the completion of the Dr Chau Chak Wing Building – the third major building for 2014 – just around the corner.
A big congratulations to UTS’s Program Management Office (PMO) team who led the project with Savills Project Management, as well as architects Durbach Block Jaggers and BVN Architecture and building contractor Richard Crookes Constructions for achieving this final construction milestone for the Thomas St Building.
An official opening event for the building is being planned for early 2015.
View of the Building 7 facade from Jones St with its neighbour The Tower!
View of the Building 7 facade from Jones St with its neighbour The Tower!
Science and GSH get ready to move
Final preparations are currently underway ahead of the first relocations on October 31, including commissioning of the building’s complex AV and IT equipment (see below).
Staff and HDR students from both Science and the Graduate School of Health will move from Building 4 and 1 to Building 7 over five weekends. The biggest move weekend will commence on October 31 and involve 123 people.
The last of the moves for Science will not take place until early 2015.
Building access
Given the complex relocation and commissioning program, and security requirements for the laboratory areas, there will be NO general or public access to the building until the start of teaching in Semester 1, 2015.
There is also some minor construction work taking place until this time, namely the fitout of the new café on level 3.
Science, GSH and other authorised staff will have access to the building via their UTS staff cards following their relocation.
UTS appreciates everyone’s patience as the project teams work hard to make sure staff and students settle into the building while ensuring its smooth operation for the start of teaching in 2015.
Behind the scenes - commissioning the Thomas St Project
As one huge project comes to an end – the completion of the building – another starts, with UTS staff from AVS and ITD now commissioning and testing all the complex equipment throughout the building.
In total, 50 spaces have AV capabilities, including the Super Lab which boasts 220 touch-screen PCs across its 26 workbenches.
Rob Hardy, senior project manager in AVS who is leading the commissioning project in Building 7, says the Super Lab brings both opportunities and challenges for his team.
“It’s a really interesting, exciting project to be a part of, but it’s really complex,” he says.
“If you went in now, you’d be amazed by the sheer size of the space, which is about 52 metres end-to-end, and the amount of screens, and you’d probably think it looks finished. And you’d be right to an extent. Everything has been installed but now the fun part begins.
“The Super Lab is a highly flexible, collaborative space and our job is to ensure all the technology works seamlessly together.”
Super Lab in action
To put this in perspective, the Super Lab has 26 workbenches and 12 possible teaching positions. When a teacher arrives, they can select the workbenches they want to be a part of their lesson, which could be two benches of eight students (minimum) or the entire 220-person space. Once the selection is made, those workbenches connect to the teacher’s presentation and, via wireless headsets and microphones, the teacher and students can communicate. (See diagram below which shows what the teacher will see on their screen).
Sophisticated programming means multiple classes of different sizes and disciplines can run simultaneously in this space.
“For those using the space, this will appear to be all very simple and straightforward,” explains Hardy.
“It’s setting up the back-end to all of this to allow the space to be dynamic, flexible and collaborative that’s difficult. We’re the first university to have wireless, two-way communication in a lab of this size, which gives a sense of just how cutting-edge this space is.”
New spaces, new technology
A number of spaces for the Graduate School of Health including the collaborative Health Professional Teaching (HPT) spaces on levels 2 and 3 and the simulation rooms, also involve complex AV commissioning.
The set-up of the HPT spaces are similar to the ‘pod’ classrooms in Building 11 with each pod formed around an LCD screen. And like CB11, all the pods can communicate with each other, creating a highly collaborative teaching space.
The simulation rooms, where Pharmacy and Clinical Psychology students will run real-life professional scenarios, are fitted with cameras and microphones to record the sessions.
“Again, this all seems fairly straightforward, and it will be for the user, but on the back-end we need to program a whole range of different ‘presets’ based on the particular professional scenarios that will take place in the room,” Hardy explains.
“Three preset scenarios will be available to the users in each room. For instance, if both student and patient are sitting at the desk the cameras will automatically move to show their faces.
“The recordings can also be streamed in the HPT ‘pods’ which adds another level of complexity.”
Hardy anticipates the commissioning program to be ongoing until Christmas, with further testing to take place in the New Year ahead of teaching commencing.
“We’re asking that staff bear with us when they first move in,” says Hardy. “It will take some time for everything to be working as it should, which includes the AV in meeting rooms.”
Training and support for staff
The client services division of AVS will be tasked with training staff who will be using the AV in the new teaching spaces. Training will be conducted prior to the start of semester 1, 2015.
Staff requiring AV training will be given more information following their relocation.
A number of different groups will need training in the Super Lab including technical support staff, demonstrators and academics. Following an introductory session in mid-December, it is anticipated that formal training for these groups will kick off in mid-January.
Staff with questions or concerns are asked to contact AVS client services manager, Kathy Grattan on ext. 1111.
