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For students in the School of Health Sciences and Human Performance, new technology is taking the place of humans—sort of. Installed in the Hill Center in August 2023, the Anatomage Table is the only fully segmented, real human three-dimensional anatomy platform. The size of an actual human body, it has a touch screen that allows students to conduct virtual dissections. Professors can program the table to show healthy anatomy or specific case studies, allowing students to view everything from realistic blood circulation to birth simulations. This type of instruction goes well beyond what could be done in a typical human cadaver lab. 

The table was funded by a donation from the Baker Foundation. Established by longtime Ithaca College supporter Robert Baker, the foundation aims to ensure health sciences students have access to the highest-quality facilities in their educational careers.

An associate professor of speech-language pathology and audiology, Carly Jo Hosbach-Cannon began using the table to help her students examine the vocal cords, comparing ones with a healthy anatomy and physiology to what might be seen in a clinical setting. She says that the discussions that result from this work have been important. “I think having access to something like Anatomage will only further students’ critical thinking skills,” said Hosbach-Cannon. “It’s been an amazing tool, and I’m so grateful we have access to it.” 

Chris Hummel, clinical professor and chair of exercise science and athletic training, trained on the table this past summer in order to use it with his classes. His hope is that eventually students will be able to use the table outside of class time, allowing them to continue sharpening their skills. “After taking their gross anatomy course over the summer, students will be able to return in the fall and review what they learned,” he said. “Physical therapy students could be preparing for a placement where they will specialize in shoulder injuries, and they can go in and review what they learned using this technology.”

While the Anatomage Table came as the result of a generous donation, other technology in the school resulted from requests fielded by the college-wide Educational Technologies Advisory Committee. Two years ago, during a technology demonstration, faculty from the School of Health Sciences and Human Performance were first introduced to interactive touch-screen SMART Boards. When the time came for scheduled upgrades to the Hill Center’s Human Anatomy Lab, Hummel requested some to be added to classrooms, and several were installed in January 2024. 

Before the use of the SMART Boards, professors and students would draw anatomical models on whiteboards for reference. Now, professors can access the school’s virtual textbook program, Visible Body, using the SMART Board in front of their class and take notes within the program that their students can review later. While they don’t replace the traditional human aspect of their training, programs like Visible Body have made learning anatomy and physiology more accessible.

The Roy H. Park School of Communications has also taken big steps forward in revolutionizing student access to cutting-edge technology. With funding allocated through the school’s Pendleton Endowment—which provides money annually for technology upgrades—and the engineering support of the Park School’s head of technical operations, Nigel Martin, the school purchased new LED walls as part of an immersive technology known in the film industry as the Volume (and previously referred to in the Park School as the Cube). Used by major movie and TV studios in filming hits such as The Mandalorian, 1899, and Avatar: The Last Airbender, the Volume was developed by Lucasfilm’s Industrial Light & Magic. IC was one of the first three schools in the country to have this technology available at the undergraduate level. 

Much like their counterparts in Park, students and faculty in the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance will soon be able to train on equipment that’s not available to most college students. In their case, the Sony Virtual Mixing Environment system, a revolutionary immersive recording technology, is being used to prepare the next generation of technicians for careers in the music industry. 

In an immersive recording system, rather than having the typical two-speaker setup, 12 speakers fully surround the listener. The challenge, however, is that immersive recording requires the listener to be positioned in a “sweet spot,” an area in the center of a recording studio where the listener is surrounded by the speakers. This means that immersive recording can’t comfortably be used by multiple listeners at once, making it difficult to use in a classroom setting. With Sony’s system, microphones are placed in the listener’s ears to record how each individual processes the sound. The information is then fed into a playback system, creating a custom profile for each user and allowing them to access the immersive recording technology from customized headphones

While immersive recording is quickly becoming an industry standard, it is not readily available in most educational institutions. “The technology we use today has very little to do with the technology that was in use just a decade ago,” said Michael Caporizzo, associate professor of music performance and director of the college’s sound recording technology program. “As an educational institution, especially at the undergraduate level, we need to get a pulse on what technology is going to catch on and figure out what skills and experiences our students really need to have a leg up in an extremely competitive field.” 

In continuing a long partnership with the Sony Corporation, IC was the location for a beta test for the new immersive recording system, which was set up in the James J. Whalen Center for Music by Sony’s senior manager Hiroyuki Komuro and senior audio researcher and engineer Minoru Tsuji. Collaborating with Caporizzo and Alex Perialas, emeritus professor of music performance, Komuro and Tsuji created custom profiles for all 39 students and faculty in the sound recording technology program. Caporizzo said the technology was so effective that when the sound was played back, every person thought the vivid sounds were coming from the speakers rather than the headphones. 

Caporizzo believes that this is just the beginning of cutting-edge recording technology that will prepare students to enter the music industry. “Immersive audio is being used considerably in commercial settings, but we’re still not sure how it’s going to develop on the consumer end,” he said. “It’s important to get this technology in the hands of students who are likely to be using it in a significant way after graduation.”