Proposal

Narrative

The Psychology department is seeking to upgrade the computer labs located on the Boca Raton campus (Behavioral Sciences, Building 12, Rooms 103 and 108). These rooms are used on a weekly basis for teaching Social Behavioral Lab, Cognition Lab, Introduction to Deep Learning, Life Sciences Lab, Experimental Design, Neuro Cognitive Neuroscience, Applied Statistics for Behavioral and Social Science, along with other courses continuously added. When not used for class it is used by Psychology students as a computer lab for undergraduate and graduate student research to perform computational studies and data analysis. Physical Psychology courses are required to be taken by all Psychology majors in the fall and spring semesters. The typical class sizes are ~40 students. In these classes students are required to perform computational Psychology using SPSS, Matlab, R and R Studio, along with access to virtual machines and servers. The students also use the computers in this facility to perform data analysis for, and preparation of, laboratory reports and homework assignments. Microsoft Excel, Word and PowerPoint are also routinely used by the students for lab report and homework production. Psychology laboratory students (~40 students per class during spring and fall) also utilize this facility for laboratory report production. The BS-103 computer lab also caters for ~30 students (per semester) Directed Independent Study (DIS) undergraduate researchers as well as ~30 Ph.D. and M.S. students in the department of Psychology. SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences is also used by students. It provides advanced statistical analysis and integrates with Big Data. The BS-108 computer lab is a vital support facility for both undergraduate and graduate teaching and research. The current computers being used in these labs are over five years old and rapidly becoming obsolete and are beginning to experience memory and power issues. This computer lab is maintained by the College of Science IT support staff and not managed or supported by OIT. In conclusion, upgrading this computer lab with new state of the art computers will greatly improve student learning and undergraduate and graduate student research. In addition, we will be able to place more classes in our labs since they are currently underutilized due to some computers not working.

Facilities

Hardware Requirements

All proposed computers fully comply with OIT standards. The 75 student work-stations will cost $925 per computer. Processor: i7 Storage: 500 GB HD Ram: 8 GB

Software Requirements

SPSS 24 for Student Labs: Cost is $35 for each computer as well as $10 for installation media (1 per 3 year)

Personnel Costs

N/A

Other Costs

N/A

Timeline

In the event of this proposal being funded the installation will be completed by the College of Science IT support staff during the 2018 summer break ready for use for fall 2018.

Sustainability

The Psychology Department in-conjunction with the College of Science IT support staff will provide continuing support to sustain this lab.

Resource Matching

N/A

Implementing Organization

In the event of this proposal being funded the installation will be completed by the College of Science IT support staff. No additional costs are anticipated for this project.