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Ave Maria University Wins 2007 'Digie Award'
June 8, 2007
RealComm Awards Ave Maria University Best Use of Automation Award in Academia
AVE MARIA, Fla. (June 2007) - Ave Maria University (AMU) has been recognized for its excellence in automation technology by winning a 2007 Digie Award. The Digies, short for Commercial Real Estate Digital Innovation Awards, are annual honors awarded on a national basis to the "most forward-thinking leaders in commercial real estate who are making the greatest impact through the use of technology and automation."
Each year Digie awards are presented at Realcomm, the world's leading conference and exposition on technology, automated business solutions and intelligent buildings for the Commercial Real Estate industry. AMU took home the Digie for best use of automation in the academia division, beating out two other notable and respected finalists - Carnegie Mellon University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
"What we've done is established a creative consolidation to all of the technologies on campus," said Bryan Mehaffey, Ave Maria University Director of Information Technology. "We have converged all of our facilities technologies and IT technologies into a single platform.
"What this means is that everything on campus, from the lights illuminating the outside walkways, to the complete phone system, to the building security system and the emails system all operate through one technology platform. Every system on campus is monitored and managed from one room."
MeHaffey noted that in the realm of Higher Education, this type of centralized technology is very uncommon. Most colleges and universities have separate departments to manage their physical facilities, information technologies and campus security, among many other technological divisions. Ave Maria is at the leading edge of technological infrastructure.
Criteria for winning in the automation division require that the nominee has utilized six core technologies to create new business solutions for its institution. Those six technologies are inexpensive computers, broadband, wireless, internet appliances, a standard wide area network and internet based integrated information systems (IBIIS).
Realcomm was founded in 1999 with a mission to provide a single place where industry leaders can come together to demonstrate, discuss, analyze and debate the latest technology innovations that are impacting the Commercial Real Estate industry.