New ‘Research Channel’ to reach and teach larger audiences

UW–Madison researchers and artists will start reaching larger audiences when the Research Channel shows four documentaries that focus on work at the university.

The first documentary, “Women in Science and Engineering Leadership Institute: Year One,” will be shown a number of times beginning with live webcasts Wednesday, June 16 at 5 a.m., 11 a.m., 5 p.m. and 11 p.m.

The Research Channel is a consortium of the world’s leading universities, institutions and corporate centers dedicated to making research accessible through satellite and cable television, and Web streaming technologies.

“Women in Science and Engineering Leadership Institute: Year One” is the first of four UW–Madison-produced documentaries slated to air on the Research Channel. This 2004 documentary on the UW–Madison-based institute captures the first year of a five-year National Science Foundation-funded investigation of why such a small percentage of faculty in the biological and physical sciences are female. It will be repeated Saturday, June 19.

The second UW–Madison documentary, “Dances for Television,” will have multiple showings on Wednesday, June 23, Saturday, June 26, and Sunday, June 27. This half-hour 2003 program, which won a Chicago/Midwest Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement for Entertainment Programs, features dances performed by the renowned Li Chiao-Ping Dance Co., directed for the camera by Dance Program associate professor Douglas Rosenberg and co-produced by Wisconsin Public Television. Li is also a UW–Madison dance professor. She, Rosenberg and WPT also collaborated on “Venous Flow: State of Grace,” which will be shown June 20, July 3 and July 4. This video features two works based on Li’s serious injuries sustained in a 1999 car accident. A third dance documentary, “Six Solos: Li Chiao-Ping,” will be shown July 7, 10 and 11.

By providing access to people around the world, the Research Channel broadens the audience for UW–Madison works.

“Through Research Channel, our faculty get an ever-expanding, 24-hour distribution network for their research findings,” says Marilyn Lombardi, senior strategic manager for UW–Madison’s Division of Information Technology. “Unlike commercial television, the Research Channel is unmediated, which gives researchers absolute control over their content.”

Many large research grants require recipients to broadly disseminate their findings, Lombardi says. Image and sound are powerful media that researchers can use to increase public understanding of their work, and supplement other more “traditional” methods of dissemination such as books, articles in professional journals and conference presentations, she adds.

Different production choices exist at Research Channel, depending on a researcher’s budget and time constraints. A documentary created for dissemination via cable television is the highest quality, though most expensive option. Capturing a lecture or presentation and transmitting it through cable or the Web has a “C-Span” flavor, and is an easier and more affordable option.

Research Channel programming is available via satellite on the Dish Network. A growing number of local cable companies across the nation are carrying it, though in the Madison area, Charter Cable does not yet carry the Research Channel. It may be available soon to digital subscribers via the new Charter service, “Wisconsin On Demand.”

The live Research Channel webcast can be viewed at the Research Channel website, which also provides programming information and times. Those who miss the live webcast can download programs at any time by visiting the Research Channel Web site, accessing the “video library” and using the site’s “video-on-demand” service. The UW–Madison programs are listed under the series title “The University of Wisconsin–Madison Presents …”

UW–Madison membership in the Research Channel is possible through collaboration between the Graduate School and Division of Information Technology. Joining the consortium also reflects the growing capacity of UW–Madison’s campus-computing infrastructure. Research Channel members include only top-tier research universities and several major funding bodies, such as the National Academy of Sciences, National Institutes of Health, National Sea Grant College Program and the National Academy of Engineering.

For information about creating or viewing Research Channel shows, contact Lombardi at (608) 265-1162 or mmlombardi@wisc.edu.