Columbia University has changed the way it educates engineers for the future by designing, creating, and integrating a new Unix-based multi-media interactive learning laboratory, the Botwinick Gateway Laboratory, into the undergraduate curriculum. The laboratory reached operational status in November 1994 and is the most advanced educational technology facility on the Columbia campus.

For undergraduates, the facility has unprecedented capabilities for leading edge digital information creation, manipulation, and transmission. The lab is capable of producing quality video portfolios and CDs for student projects, tutorials, and other new curriculum practices. The emphasis in the laboratory is on the use of interactive tutorial and learning modules with the instructors serving more as mentors than lecturers.

The laboratory was designed and implemented by Columbia faculty to provide enabling technology that is critical to usher engineering education into the 21st century. The facility provides an educational environment that is tailored to individual teaching and learning styles and that places the student at the center of the learning process. A major feature of the laboratory is its extensive use by all engineering freshmen. The goal is to immerse students in engineering design, practice, and philosophy at the earliest possible point in their education. In addition, a sizeable number of students from Columbia College, the University's undergraduate liberal arts college, have enrolled in engineering courses given in the Gateway Lab.

The facility is comprised of:

• A studio-style electronic classroom with 42 (180Mhz) Silicon Graphics (SGI) fully networked O2 workstations, each with CD ROM, a 1.2 gigabyte harddrive, and other capabilities.
• A high speed/high capacity server linking the 42 workstations.
• An electronic courseware preparation studio that contains an ONYX Reality Engine super computer for real-time multi-media authoring and rendering.
• A 45-seat lecture-style electronic classroom with state-of-the-art audio equipment and multi-media display facilities with high-resolution monitor and projection capabilities.
• Electronic network links to all parts of the University (and WANs) through a high speed fiber network including an ATM (fractional gigabit speed) switch.

The powerful user-friendly software has also generated a high level of interest in pursuing reform by faculty and students campus-wide. The on-going development of new course materials is a collaborative effort involving students, engineering faculty and faculty from the sciences, mathematics, and architecture. The Botwinick Gateway Learning Laboratory represents a major commitment to undergraduate education by the University. ¨

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