University of Minnesota
Institute of Technology
Minutes of the ITICC Meeting,
September 19, 2002
3:30 p.m., 3-230 EE/CS
Present: Rahul Akolkar (ME, student), John Baxter (Math, faculty), Christopher Bingham (Stat, faculty), Evan Bollig (ITSB, student), Tom Chase (ME, faculty), Ben Cosgrove (BME, student), Tracey DeLaney (Astro, student), John Hall (Math, student), Peter Hudleston (IT Stud Aff), Phil Kachelmyer (ADCS, staff), Satish Kumar (ChemEMatS, faculty), Larry LeMay (ADCS, staff), Jim MacDonald (CSE, ITLabs, staff), Dan MacEwan (Chem, staff), Krishnan Mahesh (AEM, faculty), Jon McPherson (CE, student), Robert Myers (CSciE, student), Mark Nicosia (BME, faculty), Karen Swanberg (Geology, staff), Anand Tripathi (CSciE, faculty), Lucas Veverka (ITSB, faculty)
1) Introductions
2) Status reports from CSciE and ADCS
MacDonald reported there had been a bug in the account-generating process at the start of the semester, resulting from the way the character limit to the password was set up. This has been fixed. It was also discovered that the license server for Mathematica 4.2 was unstable, so we have reverted to the older version for this semester.
MacDonald also reported on a modification to the plan for providing high-end graphics cards (GForce 4) to computers in one of the labs. ITICC agreed in the spring to purchase these cards for the new computers for the remodeled Lind 26. Because the cost of the computers and the video cards went down, we were able to get the cards for both the 46 new computers ordered for Lind 26 and for the 44 compters ordered for CivE 230. In order to make this easier for the users, every computer in EE/CS 3-170 has been replaced with new computers with the high-end video cards. The new classrooms will get the older computers displaced from 3-170. All this was done with less funds than what was budgeted in the original proposal.
3) Revision of Plans to Remodel Lind 26
Hudleston and Macdonald explained a series of events that had occurred over the summer to cause a change of the plans for remodeling Lind 26 as a computer classroom. The estimates from facilities management for the remodeling excluding desks, chairs, and the overhead projector came in at about $180,000, $30,000 over what had been budgeted for and approved by ITICC. It was decided that we should see if CLA was willing to do a swap Lind 26 for the two rooms in EE/CS (2-170 and 2-172) used by TAs in English Composition. The two rooms in EE/CS are together very close in size to Lind 26. The proposal included ITICC remodeling Lind 26 including air-conditioning for CLA. This seemed like a win-win situation for the two colleges. CLA gets remodeled offices with windows in the building where the home department for composition is housed; IT gets two classrooms in a building which already has excellent networking (1Gigabit capacity) and air conditioning. The cost of remodeling Lind for CLA is about $90,000, leaving $60,000 of the amount originally budgeted for the classroom for the modest work that is needed to adapt the two rooms in EE/CS. CLA has agreed to the swap and plans for the two spaces are proceeding. CLA will move into Lind sometime in October and the two classrooms should be ready for use by the start of spring semester. Hudleston said he gave the go-ahead on behalf of ITICC because the plan seemed so advantageous and because there were no scheduled meetings of ITICC over the summer.
4) Overnight Security in Walter 103
Hudleston distributed copies of a letter he had received from representatives of the principal occupants of Walter Library Donald Kelsey of the Libraries facilities, Michael Oleson of the Digital Technology center and Karen Wolterstorff of the IT Deans office requesting a contribution from ITICC to help cover the cost of providing 24-hour security in the building. A similar request was sent to the CLA Computing Committee. The amount requested is $12,500 per year, which is about 16% of the total cost of $75,000. Hudleston said he agreed with the assessment that overnight security was needed to provide a safe environment for students using the computer lab and, because IT students will likely be significant users of the lab, he thought the request was reasonable. A motion was made to contribute the requested amount, and it was approved unanimously.
Baxter asked whether the plan was still to have the machines in the new lab dual-bootable, as had been proposed in the original proposal for Lind 26. MacDonald said this was still the plan the default OS would be Windows, but Linux would also be installed. The switch between the two can be made easily (but only by adminstrators not the users).
5) Schedule and Plans for 2002-03
Hudleston had distributed by e-mail earlier the schedule for the fall. He explained that last year we had looked for alternative times for the meeting, but that he had found none better than the current one. He did agree that the time should be 3:35 p.m. rather than 3:30 to conform with the class schedule.
One order of business for the fall is a second round of considering plans for public lab improvements, completing the process that was begun in round one in the spring. We have proceeded in this way in the past few years; the advantage of this over doing everything in the spring is that the improvements can be carried in two manageable chunks rather than in one big chunk over the summer. Also, advantage can be taken of changes in pricing and equipment availability. The IT ICC Tech Committee will be asked to bring their initial proposal for improvements to the next meeting, and final consideration will be given to the proposal in November.
6) Other Business
Baxter expressed concern about the situation in Lind 24 at the start of the semester, when there were problems of opening accounts and running Mathematica. Hudleston said that he had convened a meeting of people in Math with management staff and that all the problems, he believes, had been identified and rectified. All agreed that we could probably have foreseen and avoided most of the problems if there had been more time before the start of the semester for the Math instructors to get in the lab, check it out and get it ready. Macdonald said that next year we will close the labs a week earlier to give more time for upgrading the hardware and the software and for allowing instructors to check the lab out. There is s trade off between taking time away from summer session and taking time from preparations for the fall. We need to make sure the labs are ready.