Facilities

The VR facility is used for both research and courses.

The Pioneer mobile robot offers a testbed for a wealth of research areas.

Our students have access to a wealth of educational computing facilities, providing experience with most of the hardware and software used today by industry and post-graduate academic institutions.

• Electronic classrooms are the norm within the Computer Science Department.  These classrooms permit students to gain hands-on experience in courses at all levels.
• Student computer labs are located throughout the Ithaca College Campus. These readily accessible facilities include  networked sun workstations and several labs containing Dell PC and/or Macintosh computers.  Each computer contains a full compliment of hardware peripherals, application software and software development tools.  Most computers within the Computer Science Department also run both the Windows and Linux operating systems.

In Addition, our faculty have established several research facilities that are often used by students both in advanced courses and in projects mentored by faculty members.

• Virtual Reality Laboratory:  The VR and Visualization laboratory is a state of the art facility for research in VR and related areas. The laboratory hosts a variety of VR hardware and software, including:  an SGI Onyx graphics engine, several high-end PCs with professional graphics cards, two stereo-capable head-mounted displays, Ascension and Polhemus motion tracking systems, a 5DT posture-tracking glove, and a SensAble PHANTOM Omni force feedback device.
• Robotics Laboratory:   The centerpiece of our robotics effort is an ActiveMedia Pioneer 3-DX mobile robot platform with an on-board computer and fore and aft sonar rings.  Additional equipment includes a 480X640 pixel color camera with a pan-tilt base and a 5 degree-of-freedom robot arm with a 2 degree-of-freedom gripper.  Additional robotics devices include Handyboard robot kits and a sizeable collection of Lego Mindstorms kits and accessories.
• Networks and Systems Laboratory:  Windows and Linux PCs on a dedicated LAN provide a "playground" for exploring issues in computer networks and security, and systems development.