IT staff awarded grant; needed tech improvements in the works

Anybody who’s ever had an emergency-level tech malfunction appreciates how information technology professionals save the day on a daily basis. The W.K. Kellogg Biological Station IT staff recently came to the rescue for KBS on a longer-term scale.

Stefan “Oz” Ozminski and Daniel Gorentz handle all things IT for all of KBS. In January 2025, they applied for and received a large grant to make tech improvements that will be hugely impactful to KBS. Those funds were awarded in late August.

The Teaching and Learning Environment grant, totaling more than $100K, is a one-time award from Michigan State University’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources that will be used to improve KBS technology capabilities in meeting spaces, including the Academic Building Auditorium, Terrace Room, and Stack Building classrooms and computer lab. KBS facilities support an increasing number of seminar events and programs for undergraduate and graduate students and for community outreach, and the grant money will make a huge impact in helping to meet these growing needs.

Some planned updates

• New technology to improve the experience of in-person and virtual meetings and presentations, including new projectors and cameras, and TV screens intended to connect virtual and in-person audiences.
• A new printer capable of handling large jobs, such as research posters. The current, older printer is heavily used by students ahead of poster sessions.
• Thirteen new computers in the KBS computer lab and a screen large enough to preview poster designs.
• New lecterns for the classrooms, Terrace Room, and Auditorium that include built-in technology to simplify presentations.

An important award

“The scale of this award is the largest I’ve seen in a dozen years at KBS,” said Andy Widner, KBS assistant director for finance and operations. “The grant was awarded in part because the request was so well documented, detailed, and supported. We’ll now be able to make some much-needed investments — it’s hard to overemphasize the importance of this award.”

Congratulations to Oz and Daniel, and thanks for all you do for KBS!