ITS CoLab

ITS-TAP is developing a Collaborative Enterprise Lab (CoLab) for ITS. Currently, the lab is focused on support for various internal TAP projects as well as collaborative projects with several ITS groups.Beginning with this initial set of concerns, the scope and audience of the lab will be expanded to provide an innovation tool for ITS and campus partners.

The lab provides resources such as:

• A set of servers located in the ITS-Franklin computer room, hosting a variety of operating systems.
• A developing suite of server software, such as databases, mid-tier services, and supporting infrastructure.
• A library of mobile, network-enabled devices associated with the services of the lab.
• A growing ecosystem of pilot applications, content, and services. This ecosystem is driven by projects underway, with an eye towards the creation of a rich environment.
• An alignment with 'living labs' that are being developed in various places within ITS.

Additional details about the lab are available here. The lab is available to ITS groups for work on pilots and demonstrations. Note that the lab is not a platform for development, testing, or deployment of production services. For more information on the lab, or to utilize lab resources, contact Mike Conway.

 

Lab Goals

The lab is conceived and configured to support these major goals:

The lab provides hardware and support for TAP core projects.

Current TAP activities center on ubiquitous computing. The lab is currently hosting many services that support current projects, including:

• Agent containers running context-aware frameworks, including the CoBrA context broker infrastructure.
• Sensor technology to support lab rooms, including RFID sensors and RFID middleware.
• Wireless technology support, including content adaptation services.
• Mid-tier technology, such as LAMP, and various application server platforms.

These platforms provide services to context-aware applications, act as a platform to develop services to mobile devices, and also allow us to investigate what we term the "Information Field," a web of services and content that can be intelligently delivered to mobile users.

The lab is configured to support TAP collaborative projects with various ITS groups, and also projects involving other campus departments.

TAP is working with several campus organizations on pilot appliations that leverage the results of previous internal projects. The lab is being expanded beyond these TAP core projects to provide support for collaborative development of novel services. This process continues the evolution of the lab. Collaborative projects include:

• Enhanced "smart spaces" projects that are investigating the integration of pro-active services.
• Memex projects that will investigate personal sensor technology and context tagging of acquired content.
• Location and context-aware projects that include investigations of multiple sensor types, as well as mapping support for location-aware applications.
• Development of pilot mobile services, demonstrating new techniques for delivery of services and content over emerging mobile channels.

The lab will provide a supporting environment for the tracking and prototyping of key technologies.

Beyond specific internal and collaborative projects, TAP is developing a "technology tracking" process for ITS. This tracking process identifies industry developments important to ITS, and invites ITS staff to participate in the invention of innovative services and approaches.

The lab is aligned with the concept of compact projects that investigate and illustrate key developments in technology. These projects may be purely literature review, or may use TAP resources to create pilots and demonstrations. The outcome of these projects is presented to ITS, helps develop a view of technology for the organization, and promotes a collegial atmosphere of innovation.

In order to support this process, there will be ongoing enhancements to the lab infrastructure, including:

• The development of a testing and prototyping environment for the development of SOA and integration strategies for campus IT. This would include multi-platform support for web services and REST-ful services, emerging WS-* standards, and related integration tools, such as ESB (Enterprise Service Bus) implementations.
• The development of server-side, device, and related resources for testing and prototyping location and context-aware mobile applications.

In its mature form, the lab will expand to include non-ITS resources on campus, and engage vendors, as well as other institutions in a process of innovation.

As the lab and related processes mature, it will serve as a bridge between ITS, campus IT services, as well as the UNC system.

• The lab will evolve to provide ITS and other IT partners on and off-campus a testing ground to establish integration strategies, build proof of concept applications, and develop innovative services.