The University of Utah

The **University of Utah** (also referred to as **the U**, **the U of U**, or **Utah**) is one of two Universities managed by Salt Lake City. It's rival, *Brigham Young University*, is the other. The University of Utah is a Secular University, while the other is the religious University. the university offers more than 100 undergraduate majors and more than 92 graduate degree programs. In the Awakened Sixth World, the University of Utah is lauded for it's Law Education program, it's Medical Education program, it's Matrix Research program, and its Hermetic Studies program. The last is an offshoot of the University's old parapsychology department.

The university was established in 1850 as the **University of Deseret** (i/dɛz.əˈrɛt./) by the General Assembly of the provisional State of Deseret, making it Utah's oldest institution of higher education. It received its current name in 1892, four years before Utah attained statehood, and moved to its current location in 1900.

## Colleges of Learning

The University Campus takes up 1,534 acres, including the Health Sciences complex, Research Park, and Fort Douglas. It is located on the east bench of the Salt Lake Valley, close to the Wasatch Range and approximately 2 miles east of downtown Salt Lake City. The colleges at the University is organized as the following:

 College of Education
 College of Engineering
 College of Fine Arts
 College of Health
 College of Humanities
 College of Mines & Earth Sciences
 College of Nursing
 College of Pharmacy
 College of Hermetic Studies

## Achievements

The College has made great strides for the World of Shadowrun, including contributions to the formation of the Matrix, Computer Technology, discoveries in Magic, and discoveries in Cybertechnology and Biotechnology. In the context of the world of *Shadowrun*, the following Achievements are notable:

### The Matrix

The University of Utah was one of the original four nodes of ARPANET, the world's first packet-switching computer network and embryo of the current worldwide Internet or *Matrix*. Also, virtual world of the Matrix would not exist if it weren't for strides done in Computer Graphics. These include first method for representing surface textures in graphical images, the Gouraud shading model, magnetic ink printing technology, the Johnson counter logic circuit, the oldest algebraic mathematics package still in use (REDUCE), the Phong reflection model, the Phong shading method, and the rendering equation. The school has pioneered work in asynchronous circuits, computer animation, computer art, digital music recording, graphical user interfaces, and stack machine architectures (RAID arrays). The University of Utah has also pioneered node Architecture, and was one of the first universities to work on Matrix immersion technologies coming from ASIST programing.

It was at the University of Utah that one of the first prototypes of the Cyberdeck was built, but the Utah Cyberdeck model was never marketed. But the many Cyberdecks of the past all are descended from this first prototype.

### Magic

The University of Utah is a secular University, which means that it was investigating parapsychogical phenomena in the West during the first years of the awakening. One of the Parapsychologists at the U was studying psychics when suddenly one of them could produce verifiable effects almost without effort. But it took effort in the city proper.

Soon after the Anglo-Enclave (the Mormon "tribe") was established, enough resources was pumped into the parapsychology department that it finally branched off the School of Medicine, Science, and Engineering to form the Bella Eccles College of Hermetic Studies. Here, magic is investigated using methods of science. And while it's frowned upon by the Church, the College is determined to study magic in the area. The magicians at large has discovered that there is a huge mana ebb in the region.

Also, the Magic department is the contributor of many spells in the Grimoire. Most of which are released to the public domain. Others have been appropriated by the Military.

### Cybertechnology

In 1982, Seattle resident Barney Clark received the first Artificial Heart transplant in the form of a Jarvik-7 model. The surgery took seven hours and Doctor William DeVries, 38 years old at that time, managed to extend the life of Barney Clark by a mere 117 days. At the time, Doctor William DeVries was chairing thoracic and cardiovascular surgery at the University of Utah.

Despite the trouble of getting the Jarvik-7 artificial heart going, the research left the University of Utah to Louisville, Kentucky. Eventually, though, the Jarvik-7 was the first artificial was the first medical device to receive a full-FDA approval in 2004.

The University of Utah Engineering College continued to train engineers in the area of Cybertechnology, competing with MIT&T (Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Thaumaturgy). Eventually, one of the engineers and a doctor would partner with another engineer from MIT&T to start Transys Corporation in Silicone Valley, in 2007. At MIT&T and the University of Utah, research was complete on a prototype cyberlimb pooling both resources. The cyberlimb was tried with a dog and a monkey before the device was successfully bought by Transys Corporation for use for human trials. The rest is history.

## References

1. ↑ Template:Cite book/Shadowrun 4th Edition, 20th Anniversary
2. ↑ Template:Cite book/Sixth World Almanac
3. ↑ Shadows of North America Writing Team (August 1, 2004). *Shadows of North America*. (FanPro), *p. 203*. ISBN ISBN 1932564624.
4. ↑ Rob Hoyle (September 10, 2008). *Street Magic*. (Catalyst Game Labs, inc), *p. 203*. ISBN ISBN 1934857114.
5. ↑ Template:Cite book/Sixth World Almanac