As Temple students settle into the fall semester, they’re likely to notice progress on a range of projects across the university, including the Science Education and Research Center (SERC), residence halls with faster Wi-Fi access and a major upgrade in the TECH Center.

During the summer, Temple Facilities Management pursued 70 construction, renovation and upgrade projects totaling $186 million across the university, including the $137 million SERC, a multiyear project that is wrapping up for an Oct. 10 building dedication.

Other notable summer projects included a variety of classroom renovations, a roof replacement on Tomlinson Theater, and a new lobby at Temple University Center City that will also soon feature a ground-level bookstore and café. There were also $3 million in renovations made in Anderson Hall’s annex, in which a new heating, ventilation and air conditioning system was installed, bathrooms were replaced, and classrooms and corridors were upgraded on four floors.

Also during the summer, Temple Computer Services upgraded approximately 1,550 Wi-Fi access points across the university’s 10 residence halls. With installation of the Aruba 802.11ac wireless local area network, Temple’s more than 5,300 residential students can reach Wi-Fi speeds of 1 gigabit per second.

Translation: More Wi-Fi access points mean better coverage and faster response from the internet when using devices that are equipped to process these higher speeds. The estimated $1.7 million upgrade represents a strategic priority to provide greater bandwidth and much more Wi-Fi stability to a student population that has shifted dramatically in the way it accesses the internet and consumes content.

“Three years ago, about half of students in our residence halls connected wirelessly to the internet. Now about 95 percent do,” said Larry Brandolph, associate vice president of infrastructure, security and telecommunications. “We wanted to take this proactive step to help ensure our students have reliable, fast Wi-Fi access, knowing that it ranks among the top concerns for our students and anticipating that demand is only going to increase.”

At the TECH Center, a major upgrade consisted of replacing 504 PC workstations and 207 Mac stations. In response to student demand, 52 workstations were equipped with dual-screen monitors. New lounge furniture includes 123 chairs and 24 tables equipped with power outlets. Two charging stations, each capable of charging six mobile devices, were installed, and one of the TECH Center’s 13 breakout rooms was turned into a recording studio, among many other improvements.