May 2009 - Sound & Communications

TailoringTechnologyTo TeachingCoppin State’s HHSB nurtures potential, transforms lives.Coppin State Universityin Baltimore MD.By Dawn AllcotCoppin State University in BaltimoreMD uses the words “Nurturing Potential,Transforming Lives” as its motto.But it easily could add the phrase“Through Technology” and create acomplete description of the educationexperience for Coppin students andfaculty.A liberal arts college located in alow-income area, the school also makescommunity outreach part of its educationalmission, hosting nursing clinicsand rehab programs, among otheroutreach activities, for area residents.State-of-the-art technology across thecampus helps the school fulfill thesegoals, but nowhere is this more evidentthan in the school’s newest addition,the 160,000-square-foot Health and HumanServices Building (HHSB).Integrated IT And AVThe HHSB sports integrated IT andAV systems that set the benchmark intechnology for the rest of the campus,with extensive AV and presentationsystems, teleconferencing and distance-learningcapabilities. Accordingto Dr. Ahmed El-Haggan, Vice Presidentof Information Technology, CIOand Professor of Computer Science atCoppin State, “The building’s technologysystems show deep analysis of thefaculty’s teaching and student’s learningneeds.”He talks about the building’s systemswith passion and enthusiasm:“Not only is the Health and HumanServices Building setting the technologystandards for the school, but forhigher education at large. I’m veryproud of the work done here.”He noted that the systems design,as well as the communication betweenConvergent Technologies DesignGroup (CTDG) of Baltimore, whichdesigned the systems, and El-Hagganand his staff, was “just superb.”Dawn Allcot is a freelance writer specializing in the audiovisual and health and fitness industries.50 Sound & Communicationswww.soundandcommunications.com