LLC Streaming Media

Language Learning Center

Requested:

$13,080

Status:

Funded

Awarded:

$15,183

Abstract

Demand for streaming media Is at an all time high and continues to increase. Language students in particular are in need of high-quality, well organized, resources that can support their language learning efforts. This proposal seeks to expand the offerings and improve the accessibility of language resources for students at the Language Learning Center. This proposal continues and expands on the 2015-25 proposal which renews the licenses and support for Wirecast and Wowza and includes the continued use of the UW virtual servers. Since shifting to this new platform in the 2014-15 academic year the use of this streaming media is up 65% and last year had 14,451 Streaming Media Views and approximately 3,000 Streaming TV Views.

Supporting Access to Laser Cutting in the School of Art + Art History + Design.

School of Art, Art History, and Design

Requested:

$50,677

Status:

Funded

Awarded:

$50,677

Abstract

The School of Art + Art History + Design (SoAAHD) is seeking to replace a failing and out of date laser cutter purchased in 2006 with a new large format laser cutter. The current demand for laser cutting and digital prototyping among some 800+ students in the school far exceeds the capacity of some of the schools aging digital tools. If funded, this grant would directly support and enhance the abilities of students to explore the use of digital tools in their art and design studio projects.

UDRIVE - campus-wide student personal storage

Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology

Requested:

$31,500

Status:

Funded

Awarded:

$31,500

Abstract

This proposal continues the wildly successful UDrive. U Drive is a university wide storage service that provides 50 GBs of non-sync based, mappable, UWNETID Single-sign-on based storage. Students can access it from any university or personal owned machine on campus via SMB/CIFS and via off campus over SFTP or the HuskyOnNet VPN. UW-IT Service page is here: https://itconnect.uw.edu/wares/online-storage/u-drive-central-file-storage-for-users/ It is notable that UW-IT has committed to further invest in the technology behind the U-Drive service - there is going to be a conversation throughout 2019 to define "UDrive 2.0" and gather requirements from campus IT units to develop a modern replacement for the UDRIVE service. It is anticipated that UDRIVE 2.0 will roll out in summer 2019. Note that this service modernization effort will not change the UDrive cost - the rate will remain as advertised.

First Nations' Annual UW Spring Powwow Equipment

Minority Affairs and Diversity

Requested:

$5,002

Status:

Funded

Awarded:

$7,891

Abstract

First Nations is seeking funding for essential technology to host our annual Spring Powwow. First Nations at UW would like to purchase fryers in order to teach cultural traditions, the history, and importance of indigenous foods in tribal communities. This technology would be used for future events, fundraising and cultural traditions. In addition, First Nations would like to purchase technology such as an iPad mini, Square technology, and an electric cash counter to support us in furthering our outreach and to sustainably maintain our RSO mission statements as a legacy group on campus.

Terrestrial Lidar package for Student Geospatial Research

School of Environmental and Forest Sciences

Requested:

$109,708

Status:

Funded

Awarded:

$109,708

Abstract

The students in the Geospatial club at the University of Washington and the Precision Forestry Cooperative (PFC) at the University of Washington wish to expand the geospatial opportunities for all UW graduate and undergraduate students by purchasing highly mobile terrestrial lidar scanners. There are currently no such scanners available for open student use at the UW which limits research opportunities for students in a wide range of geospatial disciplines including forestry, landscape architecture, landscape ecology, archeology, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The two scanners in this proposal preform distinctly different functions that complement each other. The first is a FARO focus S150 terrestrial lidar that is tripod mounted and the other is a Green Valley International LiBackpack D50 which is a wearable lidar unit that preforms scans while the user is walking. The potential applications of these scanners includes forest inventory, plant physiology, geology, archeology, surveying and engineering, landscape architecture, geography, earth sciences and GIS. The equipment will be housed in the Remote Sensing and Geospatial Application Laboratory (part of the PFC) in the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences and will be administered by the geospatial club, which includes students from many areas of campus.

Research Computing Club's Cloud Credit Program

Research Computing Club

Requested:

$22,020

Status:

Funded

Awarded:

$22,020

Abstract

The Research Computing Club (RCC) facilitates student access to computing resources, whether these be local to UW (Hyak supercomputer) or on the public cloud (AWS, Google, Azure, etc). The RCC cloud chapter has a cloud credit program that funds student-originated research projects by providing access to public cloud computing platforms such as Amazon Web Services (AWS). Here we propose to continue and grow the cloud component of the RCC program in support of students remote computing needs.

Next Generation Development & Manufacturing Equipment for Student Robotics

Advanced Robotics at the University of Washington

Requested:

$342,929

Status:

Funded

Awarded:

$342,929

Abstract

Advanced Robotics at the University of Washington is requesting funds to acquire next generation, which will help to launch an era where the UW can lead in both robotic technology development and hands on technical education. This proposal is targeted at resolving specific issues experienced by students in ARUW and in other communities across campus. Additionally, we are requesting funds which will be used for technology aimed at significantly increasing the overall capabilities of ARUW and the opportunities we provide as an organization. ARUW is one of the University’s host of elite engineering clubs and organizations. Like many other engineering teams on campus, our operations are centered around a regular competition season. The competition we compete in every year is called RoboMasters. The event itself takes place in Shenzhen, China, and is one of the fastest growing and most technical engineering competitions in the world. Each year, graduates and undergraduates in ARUW are tasked with creating 7 highly complex robots from the ground up, including a heavily modified drone. Students in ARUW research, design, and manufacture all aspects of each robot, while also managing a budget and conducting outreach. We are proud to say that we do all that while also being 100% student lead and organized. While creating our robotic systems, ARUW members try to stay on the cutting edge of technology development. We often consult with industry partners and attend technical conferences to gain the knowledge that is not available in a classroom or on the internet. In addition to our technological endeavors, ARUW aims to provide students with a premier hands on education while they attend UW. During their time in ARUW, students learn leadership, teamwork and other technical skills that will be highly coveted by their future employers, but are not available in a traditional classroom setting. Through this grant, students will have access to the newest technology in their industry. This will allow them to be better equipped in tomorrow’s workforce, and also to be far more successful during their time here at UW. Funding from this proposal will go towards two categories: Technology for Advancing Operations and Next Generation Equipment. The specific equipment within the first category will attempt to make working within ARUW easier and more accessible. New computers will allow students to have access to highly capable computing solutions without requiring them to spend thousands of dollars on their own high powered laptops. Additionally, current students who are unable to take part in CAD & design because they do not own such machines, will finally have access to suitable equipment. Furthermore, the computers purchased through this grant will allow ARUW software engineers to push the boundaries on the current computer vision and deep learning software we have developed. Also within this category is an attempt to relieve current constraints on student manufacturing spaces across campus. We recognized that our manufacturing efforts take up a massive proportion of the 3D printing time available to students. In the spring of 2018, we estimate that we used almost 90% of the total available 3D printing capacity for nearly two weeks. To solve this problem, we hope to purchase and maintain a 3D printer bank within our own facilities. We hope to do something similar for certain industrial manufacturing machines currently only available in the ME Machine Shop. The second category of funding would be focused bringing new cutting-edge technology to campus. In particular, we are requesting funding for a set of non-traditional-material 3D Printers. These industrial machines represent the next step in industrial manufacturing with the capabilities of printing steel, carbon and kevlar shapes with highly complex geometries. Experience with these machines will give UW students an upper hand in the job market.

Advanced Extended Reality and Additional Support for the MakerSpace

CoMotion

Requested:

$41,708

Status:

Funded

Awarded:

$41,708

Abstract

The CoMotion MakerSpace is a social, multidisciplinary, and collaborative environment that connects creative communities at the University of Washington. Students, staff, and faculty have the opportunity to create the best solutions to do more good in the world - be it a prototype, a community, a connection, or mentoring. The MakerSpace has a wide range of capabilities with augmented reality (AR) / virtual reality (VR) headsets, woodworking tools, sewing machines, and 3D printers under one roof for makers to create their next great idea! Our scope is to grow our capabilities in order to meet the needs of the MakerSpace community and the UW community. This proposal asks STF to support two main components. The first is funding for innovative Extended Reality equipments, and advanced 3D scanning capabilities to further enhance the MakerSpace capabilities. Second, we would like to request funds for new 3D printers which would further support student’s technical skills and expertise in additive manufacturing. For the sake of simplicity, we will call any AR/VR/MR and other forms this technology Extend Reality (XR). This request comes from our collaboration with students, such as the Extended Reality Association (XRA) and UW SuperBike, two Registered Student Organizations (RSO), whose aim are to expose students to XR and build motorcycles to broaden the spectrum of these experiences for the UW community.

Aeronautics & Astronautics Computer Lab Upgrade 2018

Department of Aerospace and Astronautics

Requested:

$38,940

Status:

Funded

Awarded:

$150,255

Abstract

Students in the Department of Aeronautics & Astronautics have a need of computing equipment that is capable of running demanding engineering and mathematical applications. Since the vast majority of students have access to their own computing equipment, we have determined that the best direction to focus our efforts, would be the expansion of our remote computing offering, and limit the number of local machines to a few, higher powered, specialized machines (flight simulation, engineering design, etc.). We are looking to fund the creating of a remote computing cluster to provide up to 50 high-resource Virtual Desktops. Additionally we are requesting funding for 8 specialized, high-powered, local machines to be located in GUG 212, and the other 35 seats in the computer lab to be populated by Wyse thin client machines to utilize the space of GUG 212 while leveraging our robust remote computing capabilities.

Sample Preparation Equipment for Trace Element Analysis of Natural Materials

School of Oceanography

Requested:

$108,915

Status:

Funded

Awarded:

$108,915

Abstract

The Trace Element Analysis Lab (TraceLab) in the College of the Environment is requesting automated sample preparation equipment to make chemical analysis of trace elements an accessible tool for student research. Trace element analysis has the power to uncover the geological and biological processes that shape our planet, reconstruct past climate, track animal migration, and trace contaminants in the environment. For example, analyzing a small piece of a fish ear bone can answer important resource management questions like the fish’s age, in which river it was born, and the timing of migrations into the ocean. Similarly, the composition of a piece of fossil coral can indicate the temperature of the ocean tens of thousands of years ago, data that can be used to test models of climate dynamics. Metals locked within pottery from an archeological site can even be used to reconstruct ancient trade networks. The TraceLab is a new interdisciplinary plasma-source mass spectrometry facility (http://depts.washington.edu/tracelab/) that was created to give the UW research community cutting edge trace element research capabilities. This facility was built through the generous support of an external foundation, the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, together with matching contributions from 13 researchers across 7 different units within the UW research community. While high accuracy trace element analysis is a powerful approach used by a wide range of disciplines, it can be challenging to make these measurements. Because trace elements are easily contaminated, sample handling requires meticulous care and typically occurs within specially built clean rooms. Elaborate standardization schemes are often necessary to account for the varied behavior of natural materials during analysis. This standardization requires time intensive sample preparation steps. High-resolution atomic mass spectrometry may also be necessary to resolve trace signals from a complex matrix of other elements. At the TraceLab we carefully identified the main bottlenecks that limit student accessibility and productivity when conducting these complex measurements. The major factors that limit student use of these new mass spectrometers are the time required for sample preparation; limited throughput; and uncertain access to the clean room. To target and overcome these bottlenecks, we propose an integrated set of new research equipment that will automate sample preparation, free students from working in the clean lab, and increase throughput.

Funding Status: Funded