ASU and Zoom Partner to Transform the Campus Experience 

The Zoom Innovation Lab at ASU creates new opportunities for students to develop skills and lead cutting-edge projects for the campus and community.

Zoom is proud to announce a strategic partnership with Arizona State University (ASU) to open the Zoom Innovation Lab at ASU, a first-of-its-kind initiative designed to identify, develop, and implement forward-thinking solutions for the education industry. This unique program creates hands-on opportunities for students to develop new skill sets, drive creative projects, and prepare to enter the modern workforce. 

The announcement of the Zoom Innovation Lab at ASU took place on Oct. 13 at the university’s Tempe, Arizona campus. The event included a ribbon-cutting and featured Zoom’s CTO Brendan Ittelson, several Zoom education leaders, and ASU administrators. Zoom founder and CEO Eric S. Yuan gave opening remarks virtually over Zoom.

ASU has been named America’s most innovative university by U.S. News and World Report for eight straight years and continues to raise the bar on what it means to be a higher education institution. The five-year partnership with Zoom will leverage Zoom’s unified communications and collaboration technologies and extend ASU’s digital learning innovations to elevate broader on-campus and community experiences.

The partnership will also augment ASU’s initiative to help create the next generation of leaders by building out a talent pipeline between ASU and Zoom for internships, job opportunities, and career development.  

“For two decades, ASU has been designing, building, and reinventing itself as a leader in innovation,” said ASU President Michael M. Crow. “Innovation in higher education has the potential to create a better future for all, and ASU is proud to continue working with Zoom to be of service and to provide greater access to all that we have to offer.”

The Zoom Innovation Lab at ASU targets an enhanced overall campus experience. In addition to enhancing traditional classroom and distance learning initiatives, the program includes joint development of Zoom-enabled projects in telehealth, student services, student safety, and more.

A majority of the projects will be student-led through the ASU Luminosity Lab, part of ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, and the ASU Enterprise Technology team. A student hackathon on Oct. 14 helped gather ideas on the next-generation Zoom applications and solutions, including the metaverse. 

The idea is that student-led innovation will bring creative developments that elevate campus life, benefit students as well as faculty, and transform the entire educational experience.

"Universities today are basically small cities, with educational areas, retailers, events, sports, communities, and more to offer,” said Lev Gonick, CIO of the ASU Public Enterprise. “This initiative will embrace technology to really improve the business of education - versus the learning side of education - and give students unique opportunities to not only learn but also design educational experiences that benefit future generations.” 

The Zoom Innovation Lab at ASU also includes the Zoom Collaboration Studio, located inside the ASU campus’ Creativity Commons. It is outfitted with Zoom-enabled technology and includes a Zoom theater, a green-screen room, interview/gaming pods, and more. The studio provides students from all disciplines access to a state-of-the-art space to connect, create, and collaborate. Logitech, Neat, Steelcase, and Wacom provided equipment and furniture to help outfit the space.

Three notable projects within the Zoom Innovation Lab at ASU are already underway:

• Zoom in the ASUniverse: ASU Enterprise Technology’s Learning Futures team is creating a “digital twin” of the ASU campus using real-time 3D. The ASUniverse will simulate the campus and classrooms as real-time, dynamic environments. Virtual learners and visitors will use Zoom to connect real people to this metaverse (and vice versa), thus bridging the virtual and real-world divide.
• Telehealth app: The ASU Luminosity Lab is in collaboration with Phoenix Children’s Hospital to create a telehealth app that uses Zoom to conduct virtual visits for doctors and their patients inside the hospital setting. Developed by student industrial designers and software developers, the app is designed to provide Children’s Hospital doctors the ability to see patients inside the hospital more efficiently. 
• MyASU Mobile App: The university is also integrating Zoom into the ASU Mobile App. Students will be able to join classes, meet with professors, schedule appointments with student services, and meet with friends via Zoom directly from the student app.

“Our very first customer was a higher education institution, initially fueling our commitment to creating the classroom of the future,” said Eric S. Yuan, founder and chief executive officer of Zoom “Today, I’m proud to further partner with ASU as we take that concept one step further and embark on the campus of the future."

Institutions all over the world use Zoom to elevate the entire higher education experience, from classroom to campus and beyond. Contact Zoom to get started today.