(January 2008) State-of-the-art Labs

Hands-on learning has always been a big part of our engineering and technology education. UCSC Extension has been providing lab learning environment to complement classroom lectures for many years, investing resource and providing cutting-edge tools that are often not available to individuals.

We are pleased to announce that over the holidays we have upgraded several components of our labs. The VLSI Lab computers are now all Intel-based PCs while the server is 100% Linux based with quad CPUs. The Lab is open any time our Cupertino office is open (Monday through Sunday in most weeks). In our Mac Lab, the design suite has migrated from Adobe CS3 to Creative Suite 4. CS4 introduces a new user interface and offers better hardware support. All Web and Graphic Design courses will feature CS4 immediately. Our Database Lab has gone from Oracle 10g to 11g based, which is a major release in 3 years. Instructors are busy updating their teaching material to include the new features.

These investments reflect our commitment to professional learning. We want our students to practice with the best tools in the labs, which can help them gain experience and advance careers. We also want to thank our dedicated IT staff who have made this happen!