Facilities

Overview

The University of South Florida is a high-impact global research university dedicated to student success. Over the past 10 years, no other public university in the country has risen faster in U.S. News and World Report’s national university rankings than USF. Serving more than 50,000 students on campuses in Tampa, St. Petersburg and Sarasota-Manatee, USF is designated as a Preeminent State Research University by the Florida Board of Governors, placing it in the most elite category among the state’s 12 public universities. USF has earned widespread national recognition for its success graduating underrepresented minority and limited-income students at rates equal to or higher than white and higher income students. Investigators in the ARCT Lab are based on the USF Tampa campus with multiple affiliations and appointments within different schools, departments and centers.

Clinical: The clinical facilities housed within the CSD Department are referred to as the USF Hearing Center and these facilities may be used for studies and training. The USF Hearing Center occupies approximately 10,000 square feet on the first floor of the 4-story building that houses the USF Department of CSD. The Center offers the full-range of adult and pediatric audiology diagnostic and treatment services, including two rooms dedicated for hearing aid fittings and a Group Aural Rehabilitation meeting room. The Center is comprised of 7 full-time audiologists with direct collaborations with otologists and basic auditory scientists. The Center is well-equipped with 5 double-walled sound booths and has actively participated in past and ongoing NIH-sponsored, prospective studies of hearing loss. Drs. Sanchez and Arnold regularly see patients and participants in the Center and hold clinical privileges through USF Health and Tampa General Hospital.

Laboratory: The ARCT Lab is housed within the USF Hearing Clinic. The ARCT Lab contains the hardware and software necessary for evaluating hearing sensitivity, auditory processing, and vestibular and balance disorders. The facilities and equipment needed audiology studies are listed in detail within the Equipment section.

Animal: No specialized animal facilities are located within the ARCT Lab.

Office: Private office space is allocated to each of the investigators on the research team and shared office space is provided to clinical research assistants and graduate assistants. Dedicated parking spaces for the staff, participants, patients, and visitors are conveniently located just outside of the CSD Department. Directional signs point the way to the parking lot and the labs themselves. The Department of CSD is located in the Interdisciplinary Sciences section of campus. ARCT Lab staff members have access to a golf cart for use in shuttling study participants, staff, and visitors between the interdisciplinary clinical and research buildings. The CSD Department has handicap accessible entrances from the street, waiting rooms, examination rooms, interview rooms, lounge, conference rooms, file rooms, storage space, and handicap accessible restrooms. All offices are equipped with phones and voice mail and the departments provide access to fax and copy machines as well as all computers and office software further described below.

Computer: The offices include IBM compatible computers and printers, which are password protected. USF maintains an extensive computing network that provides secure access from off-site locations to email and internet files. Computers are networked to facilitate the integrations of like tasks across studies and to increase efficiency. Windows systems run Windows 7 or Windows XP. Except for standard MS office suite and anti-virus software, they also have secure connection installed, which allow them to access resources on the application server. The major statistical packages, including SPSS and SAS, are available for all PCs for data bases and analyses. Daily backup and archiving for all files on is provided on a centralized backup system provides weekly backup services to all computers.

Conference Facilities: The USF Co-Is have immediate access to 5 conference rooms within the CSD Department and University. These are frequently used for research team meetings, seminars, training sessions, conferences, and conference calls. The largest conference room has a maximum capacity of 40-50 attendees. In addition, for larger gatherings, several venues are available in nearby hotels, conference centers, and University buildings. Hotels and accommodations are located nearby and even within walking distance of the conference rooms. Each conference room is equipped with both standard telephones and speaker phones to facilitate conference calls and collaborations. Videoconferencing for webinar-based trainings are also available.

Other: A well-trained highly centralized unit supports administrative efforts in the CSD Department. The group has extensive experience managing contracts and grants from the NIH, other government agencies, and private agencies. The divisional based Research Administration Unit provides post-award support. An individual from that unit is named the contractual contact. Purchasing, accounts payable and research accounting are University-based. USF has extensive experience in managing the administrative aspects of projects such as the current proposal.