Academic Computing Labs

The ITS department provides academic computing lab services to support the curriculum taught at the University. Faculty often reserve labs to provide hands-on experience for their students. 

Access to the computers is handled by user code and password.

All computers in all labs contain the exact same computing image and allow students who frequently use a specific lab for their course to utilize any other lab available.

When classes are not using the labs, current students with a valid ID may use the classes for academic-related work. In total there are over 117 computers available for usage.

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    Policies

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    Courseware

    The installation of software is prohibited by all users. Faculty may request the installation of courseware eight weeks in advance of the start of the semester. More information for faculty is detailed in the Courseware Installation and Removal Policy listed below.

    The following software is available in all Academic Computing Laboratories:

    ACD/Labs 2022 Freeware in C:\Program Files\ACD64FREE\
    Adobe Acrobat
    Alice 3 3.7.0.0+build.876
    Audacity
    Bridge Designer 2016 (2nd Edition)
    CutePDF Writer
    EV3 Device Manager
    Examplify
    Faronics Data Igloo Cloud
    Faronics Imaging
    Faronics Remote Connect
    Faronics Software Updater Cloud
    FileZilla
    GIMP
    Google Chrome
    Google Earth Pro
    GPL Ghostscript
    IBM SPSS Statistics
    IIS 10.0 Express
    Intel® Hardware Accelerated Execution Manager
    Java 64
    LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3
    LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT x64 Driver
    Microsoft Azure Authoring Tools
    Microsoft Azure Compute Emulator
    Microsoft Azure Libraries for .NET –
    Microsoft Azure PowerShell - April 2018
    Microsoft Azure Storage Emulator
    Microsoft Build of OpenJDK with Hotspot 11.0.16.1+1
    Microsoft Edge
    Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime
    Microsoft ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server
    Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2019 - en-us
    Microsoft OneDrive
    Microsoft PowerBI Desktop
    Microsoft SQL Server 2016 LocalDB
    Microsoft SQL Server 2019 LocalDB
    Microsoft System CLR Types for SQL Server 2019
    Microsoft System CLR Types for SQL Server 2019 CTP2.2
    Microsoft Update Health Tools
    Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 x86 Redistributable
    Microsoft Visual C++ 2013 Redistributable (x64)
    Microsoft Visual C++ 2013 Redistributable (x86)
    Microsoft Visual C++ 2015-2022 Redistributable (x64)
    Microsoft Visual C++ 2015-2022 Redistributable (x86)
    Microsoft Visual Studio Installer
    Microsoft Visual Studio Setup WMI Provider
    Microsoft Web Deploy
    MIT App Inventor Tools
    Mozilla Firefox
    Mozilla Maintenance Service
    MySQL Connector C++
    MySQL Connector J
    MySQL Connector NET
    MySQL Connector Python
    MySQL Connector/ODBC
    MySQL Documents
    MySQL Examples and Samples
    MySQL for Visual Studio
    MySQL Installer - Community
    MySQL Router
    MySQL Server
    MySQL Shell
    MySQL Workbench 8.0 CE
    Notepad++
    Oracle VM VirtualBox
    PowerShell 7.3.7.0-x64
    PowerShell 7.3.8.0-x64
    PuTTY release
    Python
    Python Launcher
    R for Windows
    Respondus LockDown Browser 2 - Lab Edition
    Strawberry Perl
    SuperLab 6
    SuperLab X6
    Telemet Orion
    Visual Studio Community 2019
    VLC media player
    vs_CoreEditorFonts
    Winamp
    Windows SDK AddOn
    Windows Software Development Kit - Windows

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    Role of the Lab Assistant

    All academic computing laboratories are staffed by lab assistants who have the responsibility for oversight and management of the lab.  The lab assistants are responsible for:

    • Validating user identification to ensure only valid users are using the computer
    • Addressing general questions of usability such as logging in, printing, and saving of documents
    • Labeling unusable equipment and reporting the outage to the Academic Computing Laboratory Manager
    • Opening and closing the lab
    • Verifying all equipment is operational
    • Maintaining a peaceful and quiet study environment
    • Reporting issues of safety directly to the Public Safety office
    • Directing students to other resources for assistance

    The lab assistants are not connected to any faculty or courses and therefore are unfamiliar with homework assignments and projects. The student employees are present to help and are instructed not to answer course-related questions. Course related questions should be directed to the instructor or teaching assistant.

    The lab assistants are not available for contract services during their work shift.

    The position of lab assistant can be a very rewarding role and one that ties closely into fulfilling the mission of the University. Lab assistants have the privilege of helping others in their educational pursuits. For more information on employment opportunities, please see the employment page.

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    Printing

    PaperCut, a pay-for-print solution, is designed to help students make environmentally friendly choices about printing and significantly reduce paper waste. A 400 page per academic year allotment is provided for all students to support their course printing requirements. Additional pages may be purchased if needed. Users will be asked to confirm their print requests by entering their My Portal credentials at the time of print. Once successfully entered, the print job will be sent to the printer. Printing instructions will be available in all Academic Computing Labs and the Lab Assistants will be available to address any questions.
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    Recommended Practices

    General Use

    The Academic Computing Laboratories are designed for academic purposes. Students may use the internet for research, group academic projects, typing papers, and accessing email accounts.

    Saving Documents

    When creating documents in the lab, students should become familiar with how to save documents on a USB Flash Drive or on a cloud hosted solution. It’s always much easier to save to the particular machine that a student is working on. However, in the Academic Computing Laboratory setting, students must remember that the machines are frequently reset and documents that may have been saved locally will no longer available. It is recommended all documents are saved on a personal USB Flash Drive or on a cloud hosted solution. It’s easier to try to think of these machines as the property of the University and not the student's very own personal PC.

    Don't forget two things when using a flash drive:

    • Remember to make a backup copy to a second flash drive or to a cloud hosted solution.
    • The student should label the flash drive with his/her name and other pertinent information.

    When creating those long documents, SAVE, SAVE, SAVE.

    Priority for Academic Related Work

    As a courtesy to the educational pursuits of fellow classmates, please keep in mind that academically related tasks take precedence over non-academic usage. During peak usage times, it may be necessary to ask those students working on non-academic projects to defer to those students who need to work on academic projects. Students working on non-academically related tasks are most welcome to return to the labs during non-peak periods. Students working together in this manner help create and support the team spirit approach to the Ó£ÌÒÊÓƵ academic process.

    Limitations on Users

    The Academic Computing Laboratories are designed and intended for the use of currently enrolled Ó£ÌÒÊÓƵ students and Alumni. Spouses, children, parents, other family members and friends of currently enrolled Ó£ÌÒÊÓƵ students are not permitted to use these labs.

    Suggestions

    Please feel free to contact the Academic Computing Laboratory Manager or the Associate Vice President for Information Technology with any additional recommendations.

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    Lab Reservation Requests / Calendars

    After reading the Lab Reservation Policy, a faculty, staff, or administrator may request to reserve the lab by sending an email labres@udmercy.edu with a subject stating "LAB RESERVATION REQUEST."  Please make sure to include the date, time, and the number of students. Please do not consider the request confirmed until a confirmation email has been received.

    Winter 2021 Academic Computing Lab Calendars 

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