Nortel donates Companion wireless in-building system to Rice University*
Nortel has donated a companion in-building wireless switching system, handsets, associated equipment and installation to a university sometimes called "the Harvard of the South."Through Nortel's Global External Research department, the [electrical and computer engineering] department at Rice University, which has an outstanding reputation for teaching and research, has received a Companion system and installation valued at $40,000.
The system is installed in Anne and Charles Duncan Hall, a new, state-of-the-art Computational Engineering Building.
Completed last year, the facility includes laboratories and classrooms for research education as well as "out-working" spaces to foster interaction and collaboration.
A huge Main Hall contains the principal outreach spaces in the building while surrounding the hall are the auditorium, two lecture halls, three classrooms and two conference rooms.
An interior street, connecting the Main Hall to a West Hall, is lined with the administrative offices of Rice's Center for Research on Parallel Computation, the Computer and Information Technology Institute, and the academic department housed in the building. The structure is a technology "temple" but with style, substance and humanity designed in.
At a Board of Governors meeting, Dean Michael Carroll, of the George R. Brown School of Engineering, stated that "with the outstanding facilities of Duncan Hall and the diverse faculty from engineering, computer science and computational mathematics that it unites, few schools in the nation can match the capabilities for research and teaching in engineering that Rice now has."
The addition of the Companion system further enhances that facility and program.
Portable Companion telephones have been provided to 18 faculty members housed in this facility; the Companion system allows them to be reached, or to make calls, anywhere in the building when they are carrying their handset.
The phones have a number of advanced features including alphanumeric display, programmable soft keys, vibro-tactile alerter, 50-item local directory, user customization, message waiting, long battery power, and wireline quality performance.
At an inauguration ceremony and training session held with faculty members in mid-December, Paul Jay, director, Global External Research for Nortel in Ottawa, presented Professor Behnaam Aazhang, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, as well as Director of the Center for Multimedia Communication at Rice, with a plaque commemorating the Companion system.
"In a very real way, the presence of this communications equipment on campus announces Nortel's name as a preeminent telecommunications industry brand to Rice engineering students," said Paul.
"But it's more than just name marketing or a financial donation," he pointed out, "it's putting current communications technology into the hands of students and faculty so they can experience the value of innovation in their communications, their education, and their directed research in telecommunications."
IT'S FOR YOU! Behnaam Aazhang, professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, was the center of attention during a ceremony held recently to celebrate the cutover of a Companion in-building wireless system donated to Rice University by Nortel. ... Professor Aazhang, who chaired the industrial affiliates program for the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, worked with Nortel, WilTel Communications, and the university's communications department to coordinate the installation of the Companion system. Among those participating were (left to right): Richard Baraniuk (ECE); Joe Cavallaro (ECE); Devika Subramanian (CS); Sarita Adve (ECE); Diane Shanahan, account executive, WilTel Communications; Jan Odegard (ECE); Behnaam Aazhang (ECE); Robert Lukshis, manager, Companion Customer Engineering, Nortel (Ottawa); Paul Jay, director, Global External Research, Nortel (Ottawa); Don Johnson (ECE); David Mann, district sales manager (WilTel), Nortel (Houston); Bob Anderson, WilTel Communications; and C. Sidney Burrus (ECE/CITI).
"The phones were distributed to faculty in three departments with research interests in telecom," said Professor Aazhang. "The Companion system has already been extremely valuable to the faculty, helping to improve productivity and efficiency. We also plan to incorporate it as a tool for education and research."
"For instance, we have assigned one phone to our undergraduate Communication System Lab. We plan to equip the lab with appropriate software and hardware to be able to monitor handoff, traffic, mobility, and usage -- data which will be very useful to students in their research projects for the lab," he noted.
Dhawal Moghe, senior manager, global external research for Nortel in Richardson, said: "We hope that the donation of this system will increase our visibility with Rice electrical engineering and computer science faculty and students.
"We would like to attract some of these talented students to Nortel. And if they are to utilize the system in telecom and wireless courses for their research projects, they will also come to us with a stronger understanding of wireless technology.
"Not only will they have increased exposure to Nortel and its broad portfolio of innovative, digital telecom networks and services, they will realize the increasing impact that wireless communications technology has on our lives," he added.
Although Dhawal was the external research prime who brought this project to completion, he was quick to credit others in Nortel, some of whom had started the process even before Duncan Hall had begun construction.
"In particular, Deborah Stokes, George Brody, Dave Robertson, and Dave Murashige, as well as Joanie Larkin from the Global External Research group, all contributed to this system donation at different stages of this project," he said.
| Robert Lukshis of the Companion customer engineering group in Ottawa,
provided technical assistance in the project. Working closely with
WilTel installation staff, he performed radio system propagation studies
and mapping of the building for placement of the base stations
(antenna).
"The system could not be installed until the building was completely finished because even the placement of concrete pillars or large banks of filing cabinets could affect the radio frequency coverage characteristics." "The high ceilings and the need to place the base stations unobtrusively so as to complement rather than stand out from the distinctive wall colors and architectural elements, affected the positioning of equipment," Robert added. "But full radio system coverage of the offices, classrooms, labs, lecture halls and auditorium on the three floors of this 20,000 square foot facility was achieved, enabling handset users to be reached and to make wireless calls anywhere in Duncan Hall." |
 At the back wall of [McMurtry Auditorium], Professor Behnaam Aazhang (left) and Nortel's Paul Jay, director, Global External Research, check out the positioning of a base station for the Companion system donated to Rice University. |
David Mann, Nortel's district sales manager for WilTel in Houston, commented on the implementation: "It was a joint effort involving the account and installation team from WilTel, the North American distributor of Nortel's products, and Nortel engineers.
"In addition, we were excited about the enthusiasm of the Rice people, including faculty, university facilities and engineering, as well as telecom, computer and information technology staff, in using this application, and seeing the immediate and future benefits of wireless communications," said David.
"Because of the height and architectural design, this building was so different from a standard office structure, creating challenges not only in making the Companion system work, but also in being very careful not to cause any kind of damage or detract from the uniqueness of the building." David praised WilTel for the excellent quality of its installation.
"Through the friendship and shared mission that Nortel and Rice have enjoyed for many years, we have gained notable advantage over our respective competitors, advantages we aim to keep. There is a shared commitment between Rice and Nortel to prepare students for the challenges of the 21st Century," said Carole Baker, Director of Corporate Relations for Rice.
* From One Vision, published by Internal Communications for Dallas-area employees of Nortel, February 23, 1998.
