Reserve the Lab Classrooms

The PC Lab

The PC lab is the larger of the two labs we have: it has 28 desktops arranged in pods, plus room for additional chairs around the perimeter. A great space for workshops, events, and more! 

The Mac Lab

The Mac lab has 18 student machines. The instructor's station is located on the side with two large-screen TVs. This lab features more of a traditional computing lab environment. 

How to Reserve

Instructors and researchers may make a reservation through the "LAB CALENDAR & RESERVATION" gateway linked on the top right (↗). Please note that users must register first in order to use our center's reservation system. If you are a new user, please send an email to LaShanda (polyglot@pitt.edu), including your affiliation (department, language program) and status (faculty, grad student) with a subject line "New user registration request". 

Lab Reservation Policies

General rules

  • Food and drinks are not permitted in our labs. We appreciate you reminding your students!  We however make exceptions for events, which often involve serving lunches/snacks. Please clear with the management first.
  • Our lab classrooms are shared resources intended for occasional "field trip days" for language classes. Our labs therefore cannot be a replacement for your originally assigned classrooms, and excessive reservations may be grounds for cancellation. More on this sharing requirements below.   
  • While our staff are happy to do a demonstration for any class, we cannot be in charge of your entire class in the instructor's absence. This means, when you book our labs for your class meetings, we expect the students to be accompanied and guided by the instructor. 
  • Our labs are meant for groups, not one-on-one meetings. 

Reservation lead time

  • Same-day reservations of the labs are possible up to 2 hours ahead of the start time.
  • All reservations can be made up to 120 days ahead of time: instructors are able to plan ahead their lab reservations for the entire semester.

Reservation volume and frequency

In order to ensure fair sharing of the lab resources, we have the following lab use policies.  

  • Daily maximum: 3 hours per CLASS section, 6 hours per RESEARCH project
  • Term maximum: 24 hours per CLASS section, 48 hours for a RESEARCH project
  • Biweekly maximum: 4 hours per 2-week interval for CLASS (8 for summer classes), 16 hours per 2-week interval for a RESEARCH project
  • Maximum consecutive weekly reservation of the same time slot (ex. Mon 1-1:50pm): 2 consecutive weeks

Please note that last-minute reservations (made on the day-of, or day-before) are generally exempted from these maximums. The logic goes: everyone already had their chance to reserve the labs, so tomorrow's open slots are fair game! While we hope this guideline will help ensure our labs' general availability to our users, we realize everyone's needs and use cases are going to be different. If you are unsure if your usage meets our policies, please inquire any time.