If you've been searching for a place to create three-dimensional animation, design home pages on the World Wide Web or make your own audio compact disc, search no more.

The University of Arizona Multimedia and Visualization Lab is the place.

Several departments on campus collaborated to develop the lab, which is staffed and maintained by the Center for Computing and Information Technology and funded by a $940,000 annual grant from the Faculty Development Partnership.

'This place is really cool," Mark Fischer, civil engineering junior, said.

"It's really the only place on campus where students have access to this kind of equipment," he said.

The equipment that sets the lab apart from all the rest includes slide and flatbed scanners, digital video and audio workstations, still image capturing, Zip drives and the software to create three-dimensional animation and virtual reality.

But don't rush over to the lab for a crash course in video animation or on-line publishing. This lab has strict user requirements, Limell' Lawson, senior systems analyst, said.

The lab's "target audience" is professors who use the lab for teaching and the students in those classes. It is a teaching lab, not a research or open-user lab, she said.

State-of-the art equipment, which requires training and practice to operate, fills the lab. This, and the sign-up sheet allocating computer time, excludes many students from simply dropping in to try out the equipment, she said.

Staff are on-site to monitor usage, not provide instruction, Lawson said.

However, the professors using the lab are there to teach, making enrolling in one of the various classes in the lab the best option for exploring the technology, she said.

This semester nine classes, ranging from media arts to Mexican-American studies, are meeting in the lab.

The classes are so popular that professors need to reserve class spaces two semesters in advance, Lawson said.

And in case the offered classes don't fit into someone's schedule, an expanded-usage criterion was developed to provide alternative access to the multimedia lab.

One thing to remember is that students enrolled in the classes have priority in reserving lab time, Lawson said.

But the alternatives are:

• Walk-in access to the lab. Walk-in rules are simple. Come in during open hours. Be self-reliant. Be prepared to leave if a student or professor using the lab for class needs the equipment you are using.
• An option for t he computer-wise student is to volunteer six hours per week in the lab as a monitor in exchange for virtually-unlimited use of the lab.
• For those in need of training, instructional workshops are available to everyone - sign up on the MVL Web site: http://lion.ccit.arizona.edu/mvl

For more information on the lab, or to walk in and test your high-tech skills, visit the MVL in CCIT Room 303.

Lab hours are Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and most Saturdays, noon to 6 p.m. The lab is closed Sundays.

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