University of Queensland creates a collaborative academic experience

The University of Queensland is working with Cisco to become Australia’s most connected tertiary institution, deploying the largest 802.11n wireless network in the world to create a collaborative environment. The university is also deploying the largest tertiary Cisco TelePresence network in Asia–Pacific to facilitate international and cross-campus collaboration. This network also includes the 7 millionth Cisco wireless access point deployed worldwide.

The University of Queensland is one of Australia’s premier learning and research institutions. The university serves close to 38,000 students from more than 110 countries and has around 15,000 staff and 774 buildings. There are four major campuses, with another 45 sites throughout Queensland, including two islands in the Great Barrier Reef region of Queensland. By providing a seamless connected campus experience previously unseen in a university environment, this multimillion-dollar investment will transform the academic experience for students and staff.

Nick Tate, Director of Information Technology Services and AusCERT at the University of Queensland, said: “This significant network upgrade will help the University of Queensland enable our vision of a connected campus environment, filled with mobile students and teachers communicating and collaborating at any time from wherever they happen to be. The flexibility this provides means busy students will be able to more easily keep up with university demands whilst staff will have a world-class network to support their teaching, research and administrative endeavours. The University of Queensland is extremely proud to be leading the way, internationally, with this substantial technology investment.”

The network, coupled with advanced mobility and video technologies, will eliminate physical barriers and encourage flexibility by providing students, teachers and staff with access to university resources anytime, anywhere from any device. With 4000 Cisco 802.11n wireless access points across campuses, including those on the ‘City Cat’ ferry in Brisbane, students will be truly mobile with next-generation ubiquitous access to resources whether they are at home, on campus or travelling to and from the university.

This unprecedented network access and connectivity will also bridge the geographical divide between the main campus and the university’s remote locations. The network will extend to the university’s working mine site at Indooroopilly, the marine research centre on Herron Island, 80 kilometres off the coast of Queensland, and the agricultural and veterinary science campus located in Gatton, also situated 80 kilometres away from the main campus at St Lucia.

The implementation of the largest Cisco TelePresence network for education in the Asia–Pacific region will facilitate improved learning outcomes and teaching experiences by fostering collaboration between local university campuses and overseas institutions. The Cisco TelePresence technology, which allows for live face-to-face interaction over the network, will be used across the multiple university campuses to deliver remote lectures and enhance personal contact for students and teachers in the more remote locations. TelePresence will also provide researchers with better mechanisms for collaboration and innovation by disseminating research to extended teams on university campuses and other education and research institutions.