The University of Missouri will install AT&T’s 5G equipment on campus this summer to enable students and faculty to study potential use cases and develop applications, the telecommunications company announced Wednesday.
Within a new “innovation lab” on the Columbia campus that will be opened for the fall semester, the university said, researchers will work with students to build new digital services around remote education, telehealth and augmented reality multimedia, in addition to the creation of new courses centered around the wireless technology. A “significant” number of students are expected to work within or take a class that involves the lab in some way, Ajay Vinzé, the dean of Missouri’s business school, told StateScoop via email.
“It will have functionality to accommodate both experiential learning and research applications and, as such, will affect a significant number of students across the University of Missouri campus,” Vinzé said.
The university has already developed curriculum for 5G-focused courses, including a multidisciplinary class held last spring called “Connectivity and 5G” that students from five on-campus colleges enrolled in. With help from AT&T engineers, students developed proposals for 5G-based applications focused on campus security and student health. Future courses could center around 5G-powered kiosks placed around campus for students to use, like some cities have already done, AT&T said.
“The innovation catalyzed by the intersection of education and technology is what makes our future so bright,” AT&T Business CEO Anne Chow said in a press release. “We saw with last year’s 5G course, students were able to create new solutions around healthcare and campus security. Bringing 5G to Mizzou’s emerging technology lab and campus will further enable students to explore new experiences, solve complex problems and create new ideas to change the world.”
