Not only did Tech Tonic, Western’s technology exposition and trade show, get to exhibit many of the technology options already on campus, but it got to show off the new products such as the “Smartboard” electronic whiteboard.

Tech Tonic ran from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Feb. 22. The expo was a combined effort of the Student Technology Center (STC) and the Associated Students, said David Hamiter, one of the managers of the event.

It was created as a way to showcase student technology work and let students interact with the technologies available at Western purchased though the Student Technology Fee, Hamiter said.

A few of the 41 booths were set up to show off the Smartboard, said John Farquhar, manager of multimedia for the Academic Technology and Users Services.

The Smartboard allows users to write with  “digital ink,” upload computer images, and save all their work to a hard drive.

A proposal has been sent for the Student Technology Fee to go to the purchase of some of the boards to put in the library and the Academic Instructional Center, the new building on campus, Farquhar said.

Western student Rochelle Gagg works for ResTek, the technology services for Western’s on-campus housing.

Having a booth at Tech Tonic was great for exposure, she said.

“A lot of students don’t know that ResTek is available to them,” Gagg said. “We’re kind of behind the scenes so we wanted a chance to let people know that we’re out there.”

Demonstrations went on throughout the day for an added dynamic to the expo, such as lego robots battling, which happens to be part of the class curriculum in Computer Science 172: Intro to Robotics, said Josh Gains, teaching assistant for the class and one of the facilitators for the demonstration.

The event not only displayed student projects, but also set them next to big-name companies, such as Adobe and Apple who were also presenting works, Hamiter said.

Peggy  Tirk, Western’s regional territory manager for Adobe, ran a booth showcasing Adobe products students have access to on campus.

Tirk said it was a great way to promote Adobe’s student license for the products, the biggest discount the company offers. The discount is available through the bookstore, Tirk said.

Kevin Dixey, creator of Tech Tonic, said the idea for the event was conceived when he found out the University of Washington was thought of as the biggest technology school in Washington state.

“Which is funny because Western is great for technology, it just doesn’t have a lot of exposure,” Dixey said.

The second part of the event was a silent auction, with the money benefiting the Advancing Technology Education Endowment, a scholarship for students who teach others about technology, Hamiter said.

“There is a student who teaches a Photoshop class for free, and others who will stop doing their own work to help other students when in a lab,” Hamiter said. “And that’s the kind of generosity we want to reward.”

Farquhar said it’s great to see the various departments coming and showing support and making use of technology on campus and to see the things the students are involved in.

Comments (1)

Posted by jonsayer, on Feb. 26, 2008 10:34AM This article does not even begin to describe how cool Tech Tonic was. What about the video and photoshop competitions? What about the free stuff? Guitar Hero? Peggy Watt's presentation in the evening about file sharing?     This article seems to suggest the whole thing existed as an expo for the smartboard, which was easily the uncoolest thing there. Except for Microsoft. And maybe Dell.     Well, the linux table was the "uncoolest" in the most literal sense, but at least they had an OLPC to show off. Report

Only registered users can post comments.
Please login or register.