Departmental Teaching Labs

Departmental Lab Administration

The requirements (hardware and software) for all Departmental Teaching Labs managed by ENG TSS are to be disclosed to ENG TSS no later than 9 working weeks prior to the start of each semester. Any additions and/or changes to these requirements after this date will be deployed as soon as possible after receipt but may not be fully functional prior to the start of the semester.

After receiving requirements for each lab, week 1 will be spent reviewing the requirements with TAs and faculty after which the requirements will be finalized. Weeks 2 and 3 will be spent analyzing the requirements and providing feedback to the department to ensure all essential elements are available. Weeks 4 and 5 will be devoted to developing the solution and week 6 will be spent by ENG TSS testing the solution. Department TAs/faculty will test the solution during week 7 after which ENG TSS will spend week 8 refining the solution. Finally, the solution will be deployed in week 9, prior to the start of the semester. Note: This timeline will be adjusted to compensate for USF paid holidays. A representative timeline for each deployment cycle will be available here.

Typical Deployment Cycle:



Additional hardware/software will be implemented in the Departmental Teaching Labs managed by ENG TSS as soon as possible and generally within 2 weeks of notification of each required change or addition.


All communication with ENG TSS should be primarily through email by sending problems, issues, and any other request to eng-tss@usf.edu.

Teaching Labs

  • Manage 16 labs with 214 computers many of which interface with specialty equipment and/or contain specialty software
  • Manage a large variety of specialty equipment including 3D/rapid prototype printers, robotic arms, industrial CNC mills/lathes, PLCs, data acquisition hardware, and other specialty test equipment and instrumentation
  • Hardware planning, procurement, installation, and upgrades
  • Software installation, updates, and upgrades
  • Pre- and post-configuration testing
  • Preventative and breakdown maintenance on computers and equipment
  • Continuous spot checking of Departmental Teaching Lab equipment
  • Periodic comprehensive evaluation of Departmental Teaching Lab equipment
  • Consult with faculty and teaching assistants to provide engineered solutions to a variety of problems