The goal of this project is to fund the purchase of thin client computing devices and a server. These devices have extremely low power consumption and increased lifetime as compared to ordinary desktop computers. Devices purchased with the committee’s funds will be used in public access areas, for testing, in student kiosks, and for loans to other departments to encourage widespread adoption of this technology. Due to time constrains on the purchase, the committee agrees to provide support on a reimbursement basis. 

Thin clients work by providing just a display and input interface to a user session running on a server elsewhere. The thin clients they are looking at (Xtreme PC 6500NG devices from Chip PC Technologies) use less than 5% as much power as a traditional desktop computer and can significantly reduce energy costs for campus. Additionally, thin clients typically have no moving parts and due to being just a client to a larger server elsewhere, have a longer life span than a typical desktop computer, estimated to be at least 10 years instead of the typical 3-5 years of a standard desktop.