Lucent Technologies & Univ. Team for Solutions
The University of Arizona and Lucent Technologies have teamed up to form the UA/Lucent Technologies Alliance for Learning, an initiative to create high-technology solutions to problems confronting American higher education. Through the Alliance, professors from the UA will team with researchers and design specialists from Lucent Technologies' Bell Labs to create learning opportunities that meet students' needs. Specific projects include creation of a "virtual classroom," where students from remote locations will interact visually with each other and their professors. The Alliance team will design instructional software tools and collaborative environments based on research in learning, memory and communications underway at the UA. The software will be based on the PERSYST multimedia software platform developed by Bell Labs. PERSYST technology makes it easy for users to create, customize, manage and control access to Web-based multimedia collaboration environments. The Alliance will also develop user-friendly multimedia systems for student recruitment, admissions, registration, curriculum and financial aid, and will create a plan to integrate the UA's telephone, data and video equipment and services into a network connecting buildings, homes and businesses for round-the-clock learning capability. Lucent Technologies, Basking Ridge, NJ.