A joint venture between First Technology and Tarsus Technologies has provided University of Port Elizabeth (UPE) students with access to 118 new PCs in two state-of-the-art computer laboratories.
Twenty-one top-end Tarsus Pentium III PCs connected to an autonomous network have been installed in the Faculty of Arts computer lab, with a further 97 installed in the Computer Science Department`s Centre of Excellence (COE).
Prof Janet Wesson from the Computer Science Department at UPE explains that the Centre of Excellence was established in 1998 as part of the Telkom national COE Programme to develop national expertise for the design, development, and management of the national information infrastructure.
"UPE COE`s main aim is to conduct research into the use of technology to develop distributed multimedia applications, a new project has been initiated this year called SAMUEL (SA Multimedia Usability Engineering Laboratory). This involves research into the methods and techniques used to design usable computer systems in SA.
"The creation of this high-tech Usability Laboratory by First Technology and Tarsus - believed to be the first of its kind at any tertiary institution in SA - will enable students and staff to formally evaluate the usability of a wide variety of interactive systems," says Wesson.
"It is envisaged that the results of this research will make a substantial contribution to the understanding of the process of developing interactive systems for South African users."
According to Charmaine Cammons from First Technology Port Elizabeth: "The project was facilitated through an excellent relationship between First Technology, UPE and Tarsus. It was implemented speedily and at minimal overhead."
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