Showcase provides a forum for problem solving

Innovative ideas for making improvements on campus — from designing library computer labs to be more user-friendly to creating emergency plans for campus day care centers to finding ways to boost diversity — will be highlighted in Showcase 2005.

The sixth annual idea-sharing event, which runs from 7:15 a.m.-noon on Monday, April 4, at the Fluno Center, is a venue for solving problems, using resources more efficiently at a time of budget constraints and finding better ways to communicate.

“The sessions will offer insights, tips, techniques and hands-on demonstrations that we hope will provide new and dynamic ways of tackling problems campuswide,” says Maury Cotter, director of the Office of Quality Improvement.

Sponsored by the Office of Quality Improvement and the Office of Human Resource Development, the event will offer more than 30 poster exhibits open throughout the event, a series of presentations, panel discussions and demonstrations.

One of the featured projects is a cooperative effort between the Steenbock Library and the Division of Information Technology that led to a more user-friendly computer lab.

“We redesigned the main floor to feature a large open area for our old computer lab, taking into account input from the students,” says Jean Gilbertson, library director.

Steenbock staff surveyed students on how they could improve the lab and conducted focus groups in the lakeshore residence halls to get input on how to improve the library. The project last year led to the creation of an Information Commons with more room and furniture that allows more than one student to work at the same computer.

“The use of the computers doubled. It was amazing,” says Gilbertson.

One of the projects — at the UW–Madison Fundus Photograph Reading Center, which evaluates images of the back of the eye — refined many of its processes in response to a fast-growing number of clinical trials and studies.

A team from the center, inspired by Showcase 2004, designed an “ideal” process that transformed the way the center conducts trials, a process that is saving time and ensuring more accurate trial results.

“The whole experience changed the way we think. We had work groups working in isolation, and now we’re all working together,” says Nancy Robinson, the center’s associate director of operations. “The impact we felt culturally was enormous.”

Robinson, whose office worked with the Office of Quality Improvement to change procedures, had this advice for those attending Showcase 2005: “Take a half-day and go and be a sponge. You can learn so much.”

Chancellor John Wiley will greet participants at 9:15 a.m. in the auditorium, followed by a keynote address by Paul Peercy, dean of the College of Engineering.

Peercy’s speech will focus on changes in demographics, economics, productivity and other areas and how higher education can forecast and respond to change.

For the first time this year, organizers are offering early-bird sessions beginning at 7:15 a.m. designed to give participants a window into Showcase 2005 and providing a basic tool kit that will help in finding solutions to various problems.

For a complete listing of events and to register, visit http://www.ohrd.wisc.edu/showcase/showcase2005/.