Oregon State University (OSU) announces that is now using a new Wi-Fi tagging system to track specialized items for students, faculty, and visitors with disabilities and special needs. The AeroScout Real-Time Location System and Asset Tracking & Management Solution is engineered to instantly track the location of items, reducing costs through improved inventory utilization while also ensuring that the campus remains accessible and comfortable for everyone.
In a university news release, OSU notes that it implemented the tracking system in order to track the location of a wide range of assets, primarily specialized furniture including tables, podiums, and chairs, which are spread across the campus.
The release notes that the system works with OSU’s standard Wi-Fi network to allow the Disability Access Service team to immediately locate needed items across the 1,800-acre campus, repositioning the items where needed. According to OSU, the system includes tags that are attached to the specialized furniture. The tags then send location information for each item over the Wi-Fi network to MobileView, which reportedly offers a graphical map of the campus and displays the location of each item.
Jennifer Gossett, Disability Access Services, states that the university is seeing many returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, facilitating the need for a cost-effective approach to accommodating them with specialized furniture. “Before deploying the AeroScout Solution, there were times when 75% of [our] assets were unaccounted for. This impacted the campus experience for many of our students and staff members and drove up costs,” Gossett emphasizes in the news release.
Gossett adds that after implementation of the tracking system, the team now knows exactly where every item is, providing an improved experience for students with disabilities and improved asset utilization and staff productivity.
[Source: OSU]
