User Information

The ADL is available to faculty and graduate students as well as to members of other academic institutions and external companies. The ADL technical staff provides instrument maintenance, user training, consultations, expert operator services and research collaboration, if desired. 

For industrial and external academic clients

The information on this page explains how to become an authorized ADL user so that you may operate lab instruments. If you prefer, the ADL staff can operate instruments and perform laboratory investigations on your behalf. Many industrial clients engage the services of the ADL’s professional staff as a cost-effective option for their companies. For information on services that ADL offers, please visit the Services page.

To use instruments in the ADL

User access to the ADL is managed by the Facilities Online Management (FOM) system. It provides web-based scheduling of lab equipment, verification and authorization of lab users, monitoring of equipment usage, direct network access to some equipment, usage records and billable hours, multi-terabyte central data storage, settable access permissions, network access from anywhere and automatic backup to offline archives. Authorized users are also granted badge access to the lab for use at any time.

All new users participate in mandatory ADL orientation training. The orientation covers:

  • Prerequisite lab safety training
  • Step-by-step procedures for you to become an ADL user
  • How to sign up as a new user on the FOM server
  • How to make a request for instrument training
  • How to retrieve data
  • ADL safety code
  • ADL billing policy

If you are ready to use a tool by yourself, email Jenny Sammakia to schedule an orientation session.

ADL small grant program for Binghamton faculty members

Binghamton University faculty members are eligible to apply for an ADL small grant that provides a one-year, $2,500 credit toward user fees generated through use of instruments in the S3IP labs by their research group.