PHILADELPHIA -- Drexel will operate as a fully wireless CyberCampus as of this fall, University President Constantine Papadakis recently announced.
Becoming a wireless university gives Drexel students and faculty Internet access from anywhere on the CyberCampus in an environment of continuous Internet connectivity.
"A CyberCampus will improve our students' overall college experience by giving them greater freedom and mobility," Papadakis said. "With Internet access from anywhere on campus -- dining halls, outdoors on campus benches or in classrooms -- there will also be greater collaboration among students.
"Going wireless is a major trend in higher education. Other schools will be following our lead in the near future," said Papadakis, who presides over a 60+ urban acre campus that is 10 minutes from historic Independence Hall and has more than 12,000 students.
The key to logging onto the CyberCampus network is a wireless Ethernet adapter, which transmits high security 128-bit encrypted radio frequencies through a system of campus-wide hubs and antennae wired into the Drexel network, on which the University has invested $5 million over the last five years. The adapter retails for about $175 and plugs into any notebook computer.
"A CyberCampus environment is an 'anywhere, anytime' networking system, in which communications operate up to 200 times faster than when using a modem. We have upgraded Drexel's network so that it operates at a speed of 150 megabytes per second," said John A. Bielec, University Vice President of Information Resources and Technology.
Drexel's wireless CyberCampus has been tested over the past two years, beginning in 1998 with the W.W. Hagerty Library, which became the first wireless university library in the U.S. Joining the library in already being "unwired" are the LeBow College of Business, the CyberCafe in the student union and the University's most frequently used classrooms and lecture halls.
"Based upon the success of this test and the overwhelmingly enthusiastic response of our students," Papadakis said, "we have made the commitment to make Drexel a fully wireless campus. "
"Our network now links three campuses: Drexel in University City and MCP Hahnemann School of Medicine in East Falls and MCP Hahnemann University in Center City, both of which Drexel operates. The MCP School of Medicine, the largest private medical school in the country, will be the first wireless medical school in the U.S.," Papadakis added.
Drexel is a member of the Internet 2 consortium, a group of over 170 universities working to develop advanced network applications and technologies for tomorrow's Internet. Drexel is Philadelphia's co-operative education, technological university and a leader in curriculum innovation. In 1983, Drexel became the first university to mandate that all students have access to a microcomputer.
In 1996, Drexel launched the first full master's degree program in information systems delivered entirely online via its Asynchronous Learning Network (ALN). That first cohort of online students is graduating on Saturday. In spring 2000, Drexel launched the first Techno-MBA online.
News Media Contact: Kevin C. Kaufman, Drexel University News Bureau, 215/895-2705 (office), 215/275-1662 (cell) or [email protected]
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