New Videoconferencing Lab: Eli Lilly's Generous Donation Promotes Communication
Think of it as a great way to say thanks. When Eli Lilly and Company recently donated $400,000 for a new video conferencing center in the computer sciences department, the gesture was the pharmaceutical giant’s way of rewarding the University for producing outstanding graduates and job recruits.
If you go to Lilly’s IT department, you’ll find 38 Pitt grads there,” says Tom Crawford, assistant vice chancellor of corporate and foundation relations. Some of those people have worked their way up to high positions in the company. In terms of recruiting strength, we’re among the top three schools in the country [where Lilly recruits]. In a nutshell, Lilly is rewarding us for supplying them with excellent graduates.”
To be located in the new Sennott Square building at the intersection of Forbes Avenue and Bouquet Street in Oakland, the video conferencing center will allow Pitt computer science students and faculty to have real-time, face-to-face meetings with colleagues around the world-without ever leaving Pittsburgh. Equipped with cutting edge capabilities, the center will contain wall-mounted 42-inch video monitors, table- and wall-mounted cameras, ceiling speakers, table microphones, and other audio/video gear. While the center will help reduce travel costs and times, its potential for use is limitless.
We can use it for almost anything we want,” says Rami Melhem, chairman of the department of computer science. Along with video conferencing, we can use the center for webcasting conferences, courses, and other events. And the possibilities for teaching are good, too. We can offer classes to students in other locations, as long as they have access to a video conferencing center. We can do all that and never even be in the same room with the other parties involved. It saves time and money. It’s a much better way of conferencing.”
As the first facility in the new building to be named after a corporation, the Eli Lilly Video Conferencing Lab will improve the department’s conferencing efficiency and effectiveness. Previously, 1977 Pitt graduate Debbie Gillotti established a fund in her name to provide equipment for the Interactive Learning Suite of the Sennott Square building.
While the relationship between Pitt and Eli Lilly is a long one, the new video conferencing center will strengthen the commitment between the University and the company.
There’s a history of interaction between Pitt and Lilly,” says Crawford. Lilly commercialized the Salk vaccine for polio. And the Lilly family and endowment have supported the Stephen Foster collection and other things on campus. This unprecedented grant will help build a more formalized research relationship between us and Lilly.”
A strategic plan for that relationship is already in the works. Every two weeks, Bill Swisher, director of outreach technology, places a conference call to the Lilly company to review goals and plans. He says the ongoing communications help increase the breadth and depth of the relationship.
We’d like to establish a broader relationship with Lilly,” Swisher says. Right now, Lilly deals with us in specific areas such as information science, telecomm, computer science, and computer engineering. But there are multiple points of mutual interest and benefit throughout the University which may be further developed.” Those points of opportunity include the chemistry and biological sciences departments as well as health sciences, pharmacy, and the business school.
Scheduled to open in September, the video conferencing center will provide members of the Pitt staff with a more immediate method of conducting business with their counterparts at Lilly’s Indianapolis, IN, headquarters.
For instance,” explains Melhem, we can have a meeting with the Lilly people while they are in Indianapolis and we are in Pittsburgh. We can discuss recruiting strategies, research, and other issues. The potential is endless.”
Initially, Pitt approached Lilly with the video conferencing center idea about a year and a half ago. Though Lilly representatives immediately warmed to the center, plans idled until recently. When the proposal was raised again, the company was ready to fund the project. The timing couldn’t have been better. Along with moving to its new home in Sennott Square, which also will house the psychology department and undergraduate business school, the computer sciences department will be upgrading its equipment and capabilities because of the money.
The center will be a state-of-the-art, Lilly sponsored laboratory,” says Crawford. It’s the next wave of doing business. And it exemplifies Lilly’s commitment to helping the University of Pittsburgh student have access to the newest and best technology available.” When you think of rewards, they don’t get more valuable than that.
Reprinted from "World of Giving: A Publication of the Campaign for the University of Pittsburgh", Spring 2002.