Provided by York News Times
At York University’s new Edge of Innovation Lab, previously named the Sound and Vision Studio Suite, anyone can create a video at the push of a button. But the lab is also about, “pushing the boundaries of what’s possible,” interim President Jared Stark said at an open house on Friday. Officials from across campus and across the community gathered to hear a presentation on the new space and check it out for themselves.
The Edge of Innovation Lab features four resources — the One Button Studio, where users can easily save a video to their own storage device; a studio for recording and producing podcasts; a virtual reality suite; and two flight simulators.
Stark said the university worked with Collins Aerospace in York to “make this dream sprout legs and come to life.”
Collins provided a $23,000 grant for the lab, which is on the upper level of the Phyllis Mackey Center on campus.
Stark heralded the cooperation between the two entities, which demonstrated “no separation between the campus and the community.”
Tim Westbrook, who will become York University’s 22nd president on July 1, struck a similar tone.
“I’m very excited for York to be able to have this kind technology not only on the campus of York University but also for the community, the City of York,” Westbrook said. “These are the kinds of things that a lot of communities wish that they would have.”
Someone using the lab’s VR suite could visit a historic site, conduct music or ride a roller coaster, “all in the same room,” said Leanna Hawley, director of the university’s library, known as the Academic Resource Center at Levitt. The cutting-edge technology in the podcast studio can be used “not just to create podcasts but connections,” she said. “It’s about empowering people.”
Hawley said she had already used the One Button Studio to create a video on how to use library resources, and professors who teach online could use it to make instructional resources. Book talks and weather forecasts were other examples she gave.
Doug Rood of Collins Aerospace called the Innovation Lab an immersive learning environment, “a space where ideas will flourish.”
During the open house, Hawley showed how someone using the video studio could literally push one button to start and another to stop, then store the information on their own flash drive. “Plug it in and walk away with it,” she said.
A monitor on the left can display a script while one on the right shows what’s being filmed, backgrounds and other elements of a video. The public will be able to reserve the One Button Studio and other spaces by contacting the university, Hawley said.
“These are the kinds of skills that students need as they enter into the workforce,” Westbrook said.