Education Guide 7.26.26 - Flipbook - Page 9
| Sunday, July 26, 2026 9
“Unlike a regular computer that you
would sit in front of to work, the computing cluster is maintained in a datacenter,” says Olsen. “Users remotely
access it via the command line, not a
windowed display like you’d have on
your laptop. Users submit jobs to the
computing cluster while telling it what
types of resources are needed, and the
system schedules the work. When it is
done, you can access your results. It
is essentially a ‘set and forget’ system
designed to handle computations that
are too intense for a regular machine to
handle either at all or in a reasonable
amount of time.”
Olsen is enthusiastic about the
computing cluster’s value as a research
resource. “It has been used by faculty,
as well as students working with faculty on their research. We have supported 12 faculty members’ research
programs and 16 students across six
departments so far with the computing
cluster.”
According to Olsen, while computing clusters are common at larger research institutions, they’re less
common at liberal arts institutions like
Loyola due to their expense both in
terms of purchasing and in terms of
upkeep. She explains that such systems require not only special cooling
as the number of computers in a small
area creates a lot of heat, but also a
system administrator capable of managing any software or hardware issues
that occur.
“Having a computing cluster is an
ongoing investment by the university and shows Loyola’s dedication to
supporting research in the sciences,”
Olsen says. “We are proud that our
cluster is able to support our faculty
and their students’ research without
significant wait times as often happens in larger multi-institution clusters.
Much of the research performed on the
cluster would be infeasible without that
resource.”
Immersive Experience Helps
Salisbury Students Relax
At Salisbury University, technology
not only helps students study, but it
also helps them relax. This academic
year, the university unveiled a new
Immersive Experience, using binaural
beats paired with surrounding projected images to turn the Jackson Family
Auditorium into a space to promote
Photo: Adobe Stock
relaxation, focus and brain wave entertainment.
For the uninitiated, binaural beats
are an illusion created by playing two
slightly different sound frequencies,
one in each ear via headphones. The
brain perceives the difference in beats
as a third pulsing tone that is equal
to the frequency difference. Janice
Schreibman, assistant professor of
theatre and dance and program coordinator for music therapy, explains
that this process, known as brainwave
entrapment, is thought to encourage
the brain to shift into specific states
such as deep relaxation, sleep or
increased concentration.
First made public last fall on Family
Day, the Immersive Experience gave
students and parents an opportunity
to relax during the day. Throughout
the academic year, the experience has
been designed to provide students
with an opportunity to either calm
or reinvigorate themselves, “depending on what they need to do,” says
Schreibman. With the use of different
sound beats, rich colors, and multiple
speakers, it’s like being in a “sound
bath,” adds Suzanna Mallow, production director.
Schreibman says that feedback has
ranged from students feeling more
creative, relaxed, and alert, to having
“incredible feelings of well-being.”
“They report being able to see
things from a new perspective and
being able to step outside their comfort zone,” Schreibman adds.
