STA Blog

STA Work Blog

STAs: Student Technology Assistants

Who We Are
LAITS: IT and Facilities Director, Joe TenBarge initiated the Student Technology Assistant program in 2004. STAs are UT students who work on a variety of projects in collaboration with UT faculty and LAITS staff members. STAs assist College of Liberal Arts faculty members and administrative staff with print and web design. From building presentations, to creating audio/visual works, and producing online classes in the LAITS film studios, STAs are instrumental in helping COLA faculty realize their vision for multimedia projects that enhance their teaching and the students learning experience. By the end of their student careers, STAs have portfolios which demonstrate their accrued technical and design skills.

Prospective STAs:

Creative and technically inclined students are appointed as STAs for one year, with the possibility of being rehired as long as they study at the university. Applicants for the program are hired before both long semesters. Interested students may look for postings on Hire-A-Longhorn when positions are available. Positions will have Student Technology Assistant (illustrator or web designer) in the title of the job post.

Faculty and Staff:

Faculty & Staff with questions about services, please contact us.

https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/laits/contacts.php

  • Audio Services: Michael C Heidenreich, Audio Services Manager
  • Video Services: Kelly Webster, Video Production Supervisor
  • Graphic Design & Web Design Services: Suloni Robertson, Art Director / STA Program Manager

Texas Beyond History

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Texas Beyond History

 

This will probably be a long post so bear with me. After the summer of being one of the only people working fully on TBH with Canvasser, Suloni asked me if I would like to take a lead role for TBH and create a team to work on and hopefully finish this long project. It was interesting to be involved in the hiring process and I was excited/scared to be leading a team. I am happy to say everyone is doing a great job and progress is going even faster than I could have imagined. The people working on TBH are smart, capable, and fun to work with and hopefully we can fully finish before winter break.

In the meantime I’ve also been working on interactives myself and here are some of the ones I’ve completed since the last time I posted:

Cabeza Coat of Arms

TBH Banner

Hueco Kids Who

Launch of new LGBTQ Studies department and website

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The College of Liberal Arts is launching a new program for 2017-2018 called LGBTQ Studies and they asked me to set up their website and make the banner for them. The department head had custom artwork done by a friend which was slightly challenging to put in the banner since the dimensions were way off. I ended up putting the two images side by side to create a wider version so that it could fit in the banner proportions requirements.  This was the result of that request:

MEZ diagram/ banners

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After working on the Google Earth image of Mezes for the entrance diagram, I was asked to also work on the MEZ computer lab banner. I first edited the one that was already made, then I made a new banner to put in the staircase of the building to encourage students to check it out:

Starting my work in TBH

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As I finish my second day I want to share a little about my assigned project. I am working in the Texas Beyond History remodeling. Today I made my first official Canvaser project. It’s simple but a good start, I guess. Some pics below!

Original website:

My rendition in Canvaser:

First Post

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Hey. My name is Rodrigo Villarreal, I am a Sophomore in Computer Science.

My hometown is Monterrey, Mexico. It’s been an adventure living in the US for the past year. Even though I’ve never had a formal designer job I love working with websites and I ended up here. My other interests include learning more about technology, TV, video games, exploring Austin and food!

I had my STA orientation last shift with Suloni. We talked about the rules and walked around the building. I also worked on the banner for this blog. I want to make something that combines my major and my origin, I think those are 2 important aspects about myself here. I hope I can upload it soon. I will post shortly about my second day.