University of Minnesota

Institute of Technology

Minutes of the ITICC Meeting,

April 15, 2004

3:35 p.m., 133 Physics

Present: John Baxter (Math), Tracy DeLaney (Astro), Peter Hudleston (IT Dean’s Office), Phil Kachelmyer (ADCS), Jerry Larson (ADCS), Larry LeMay (ADCS), James Maatman (ITSB), Jim MacDonald (CSci/IT Labs), Kent Mann (Chem), Dan MacEwan (Chem), Justin Revenaugh (Geol), Jonathan Rogness (Math), Roger Rusack (Phys),

Hitoshi Sakamoto (ME), Karen Swanberg (Geol)

1) Status reports from CSciE and ADCS

MacDonald reported that locks have now been installed on the printers in the labs. This has stopped students helping themselves to paper from the trays on the printers.

LeMay reported a temporary problem with air conditioning in CE 230.

2) Upper Division Computing – Final Review of Proposals for 2004-05

MacDonald distributed a revised sheet listing the recommendations of the ITIC Technical Committee for lab improvements to be made in the first round of proposals for 2004-05. These, if approved, will be made during the summer. He went down the list, noting changes from the initial draft of the proposal [see minutes for March 25].

The recommendation is now to replace all three of the IT Labs servers at one time (item #6) , rather than keep one or two of the old servers for another year and purchase maintenance contracts for them (since the cost of the maintenance is 65% of the purchase cost of a new unit). As in the past, the cost of the web server will be split between ITICC and the Computer Science & Engineering department. Service contracts will be 24x7x365 and 4 hrs response.

Added since the initial list (item #7) is a replacement for the RAID storage system. This is 3 1/2 years old and the controller has begun to lock up. When this happens both the RAID and phb.itlabs server have to be rebooted. The proposed replacement, a Gateway Serial ATA RAID system with 1 TB of storage, will provide more reliable service and double the current quota of 200 MB available to each student.

Since the previous meeting, MacDonald said he had obtained a firm quote from Facilities Management on making the modifications to ME 314 to convert it to a dual purpose lab/classroom (item #8). The amount involved ($41,000) is high. MacDonald said he would look into getting the work done by the Zone Office, which should be cheaper. We should take the $41,000 figure in the proposal as a “not to exceed” amount. He said that the carpet should be cleaned rather than replaced, especially since it is not that old and, more importantly, there are asbestos tiles underneath. If the carpet were removed and tiles damaged, we would be faced with removal of all the tiles and full asbestos abatement procedures (and costs).

Rusack asked how the lab would be operated. Hudleston said that it could not be used on a daily basis as a classroom, but would be reservable for individual class periods for demonstration of software, etc. At other times it would be used as a regular lab. The computers would be dual boot Windows/Linux. MacDonald said that specialized software could be installed on these machines, if necessary, but in this case the licenses would need to be keyed. All regular software, such as Mathematica and Matlab, would be available as on all other lab computers. Lab management needs about 2 weeks lead time in preparing the facility for use as classroom, if specialized software is to be installed.

A question was raised about disposal of computers on retirement. These will be made available to student organizations and departments as in the past. Because of licensing issues, ownership of the computers is transferred to departments, not to individuals. The next batch of machines to be retired are 700 MHz, with 10 Gbyte drives. Information about their availability will be released in due course.

Hudleston said he would in the near future bring the Technical Committee’s proposal to the voting members of ITICC in an email ballot.

3) Lower Division Funding

Baxter briefly described the actions of his subcommittee in reviewing the proposals submitted for maintenance of existing lower division lab facilities in the science departments. Proposals had been received from four departments – astronomy, chemistry, geology/geophysics and physics. The subcommittee had met twice and come to agreement about how to combine the proposals into a single one to present to ITICC. Baxter said that there had been some discussion about to what extent things under consideration by the departments might be viewed as “new initiatives” as distinct from “maintenance.” There was also discussion about the likely distribution of funds between maintenance, which receives highest priority, and new initiatives. It seems, not surprisingly, that most of the funding will be taken up by maintenance of existing facilities. The total being proposed for maintenance of existing facilities over the three-year period is about $1.2 million, leaving about $300K for new initiatives.

In addition to getting the report from the Baxter committee, Hudleston said he had received proposals for new initiatives form Chemistry, Geology and Physics. All of these will be placed on the web and come up for discussion at the next ITICC meeting on April 29.