Wright State University has combined a campus need with an engineering degree requirement to get a much-needed and lightweight piece of equipment for professors and instructors.
“A few years ago, we decided that our tabletop podiums were very old, they’re very heavy and cumbersome and do not match,” supervisor of Classroom Technology Support Debbie Whisler said, “We started looking into maybe picking out new ones.”
When that idea didn’t pan out, a new one was suggested by Mateen Rizki, chair of the building and grounds committee, about incorporating this into the engineers’ senior design project. It has been a few years now, but the final product is finished and ready.
“Things on campus go through processes and approvals, so three years later we finally have the finished product here and we’re ready to distribute it out to classrooms,” Whisler said.
This cross-collaboration between different services departments as well as academic departments is something that Whisler hopes will be continued with other groups.
On the podiums themselves, they will not be in every classroom just as with the old podiums since they are given by request from professors. Though it was hard to please everybody, the original goal of this new podium design was to make a podium that was lighter in weight.
One professor may specifically request for there to be a podium in their room, but the other instructors throughout the day may not want or need it. Having to pick up the older, heavier podiums proved to be a challenge for some.
Recent Wright State graduate Trent Williams had his design chosen as the winner and local woodworking company Cassidy Woodworks has been commissioned to build the podiums. While they are available to start using now, more will become available once the summer and fall semesters start.
