Tracking Computer Usage

I work in IT Support for a university and one of our HOD’s has asked if there is any way we can track or trace user activity on a particular computer which is attached to some specialist equipment.

Specifically, he needs to record username, time on, time off and applications executed with dates and times. I find the Windows (7) Event Logs to be a right PITA and not suited to what we need.

Does anyone have any suggestions for apps that will render windows logs into human-readable form (so we can put them into spreadsheets if necessary) or alternative solutions for logging user activity?