AOL is expected to announce next week that it is integrating its instant messaging platform into the dashboard of VoIP software and service provider IPcelerate.

Integrating AOL Instant Messaging (AIM) into IPcelerate’s MyNora dashboard is part of a larger effort by IPcelerate to target the college student market with its blend of VoIP/information service. The Carrollton, Tex,-based company currently is working with several universities to include MyNora as part of an overall communications and information system for students. Citing a recent statistic that showed about 80% of all incoming freshman already use AIM, IPCelerate president and CEO Kevin Brown said the software provided a natural entry point for the company.

Colleges that have signed up for the service will give students a customized version of MyNora that they can put on their laptops and use as both a VoIP softphone as well as a portal for other services. Among the services being contemplated are scheduling and registration, connections to local event listings and news. With the AIM integration, the company also adds a level of presence management that students are already accustomed to.

“These are the kinds of things that the students are already playing with on their laptops,” Brown said. “Imagine, though, if students wanted to issue verbal commands to their laptops instead [something IPcelerate can do for some applications]. I can ask ‘Nora, what’s going on today? And she’ll be able translate that into something like ‘go to my news.’ The key is that we’re going to be adding to the intelligence to MyNora.”

For AOL, the deal is part of a larger effort to get its AIM product into new venues.

“Over the last year we’ve really been re-conceptualizing what the AIM services are all about,” said Chamath Palihapitiya, vice president and general manager of AOL IM and ICQ. “We have to bring that product to other partners. The partnership with IPcelerate is one in which we’ll allow them to drop presence into their dashboard.”

Though AOL isn’t revealing any financial details, Palihapitiya said the goal is always to drive more users back to AOL-owned sites.

“Whenever people bring up the AIM application, it makes that application more sticky,” he said. “Our view is the more we can seed usage through our own application, it’s a good thing in the greater sense for our business.”