Institute of Technology
Minutes of the ITICC Meeting,
September 15, 2005
3:35 p.m., Physics 166
Present: Graham Allan (Phys), Mark Anderson (Chem), Bill Arnold (CE), Zain Asgar (ECE), John Baxter (Math), William Bear (Math), Bryan Carlson (ADCS), Rayna DeMaster (AEM), Robert Edman (Math), Peter Hudleston (IT Dean’s Office), Michelle Jacobs (CEMS), Phil Kachelmyer (ADCS), Kent Kirkby (Geol), Satish Kumar (CEMS), Larry LeMay (ADCS), Kent Mein (CSE, IT Labs), Getiria Onsongo (CSciE), Tom Shield (AEM), Lucas Veverka (ITSB), Richard Voyles (CSE)
1) Introductions
Members introduced themselves at this first meeting of the year.
2) Status reports from CSciE and ADCS
Both Mein (for systems staff) and LeMay (for ADCS) reported a smooth start to the semester. Mein said it was the “smoothest ever.” All the improvements approved last spring have been implemented over the summer, including the replacement of the carrels and tables in EECS 3-170. LeMay said that the security cameras and cables are still not in place in all the labs, and he is still working on this.
There was a problem at the end of the first week of class when power was lost to Lind 24. However the FM electrician managed to fix it in time for the meetings of the math classes in the lab on the Tuesday.
3) Schedule and Plans for 2005-06
Hudleston said that he had distributed by email the schedule of meetings for the year. He noted that the fall round of public lab improvements is likely to be small this year, as there are no major hardware purchases involved. Shield asked whether this represented a problem with the orderly replacement of computers every four years – if we have no replacements now, will we be faced with a large number in the spring or next year. Hudleston didn’t think there was a problem with hardware replacement plans, and Carlson pointed out that a number of Sun computers that had been retired in the spring that are not being replaced.
Hudleston explained to the committee that he intended this fall to appoint a committee to review the functioning of the IT instruction computing facilities. As a background to this he said that computing needs have been changing and that overall lab use is down. Although the use of computers in coursework in IT remains high, the way it is being done is changing. Many more applications run on Windows than in the past and the UNIX machines are seeing less use than Windows. It seems likely that a lot of general computer use by students, which before had been done in the IT labs, is now being done by students on their own computers, at home or in the residence halls or by making use of wireless connections on campus. Hudleston also said that the dean is under pressure to make the best utilization of space; there are for example, significant demands for space in the EESC building. The dean wants to make sure the computer labs do not occupy more space than necessary.
4) Other Business
None.