Institute of Technology
Minutes of the ITICC Meeting,
March 23, 2006
3:35 p.m., Physics 210
Present: William Bear (Math), Bryan Carlson (ADCS), Thomas Chase (ME), Robert Edman (Math), Peter Hudleston (IT Dean’s Office), Phil Kachelmyer (ADCS), Satish Kumar (CEMS), Larry LeMay (ADCS), Dan MacEwan (Chem), Kent Mein (CSE, IT Labs), Sean O’Neil (Astro), Getiria Onsongo (CS GSA), Roger Rusack (Phys), Tom Shield (AEM), Lucas Veverka (ITSB)
1) Status reports from CSciE and ADCS and PJH
There were no issues to report regarding lab operations. Hudleston reminded committee members of the deadline (April 7) for submission of proposals under the new initiative program. Any department in the college can submit a proposal, but the proposal must address issues of instructional computing for lower division students. Hudleston also said that he expected the review committee to make its report at the next meeting. This has taken longer than planned, but the committee has been doing a thorough review of operations and soliciting input from a student survey. Rusack commented that the committee had received over 1300 responses in the survey. Hudleston said that he anticipated that he would be recommending some changes in the way the labs are operated as a result of the review, but that he did not anticipate any further reduction in lab capacity, following giving up EECS 4-204 earlier this year. He further said that the committee needs to proceed in an orderly way and in the normal way to make plans for FY 2007.
2) Provisional review of proposals for Public lab improvements for 2006-07
In the absence of MacDonald, Mein presented the provisional list of propose improvements for next year. It is a straightforward list of scheduled replacement of computers and general lab improvements. It includes removal of the carrels in EECS 3-170/3-166 and ME 308 and their replacement with tables (the same kind as this year placed in other labs). The tables provide a much better work environment. There is some adding of conduit in ME 308 fro which a quote has not yet been obtained. EECS 4-250 will be painted when the carrels have been removed.
There are 86 Dell computers that have reached there planned retirement age and are to be replaced. Most of these (65) these are in EECS 3-170 and the rest are split between EECS 2170 and CE 230.
The final proposal is for providing two of the consultants with large flat-screen monitors (Dell 30”) and new computers to allow better monitoring of labs remotely. LeMay said that with the current set up, using a 21” CRT, allows the consultants to view 6 cameras feeds simultaneously, but the images are blurry and adjustments for brightness/contrast are unsatisfactory. The proposed set-up would give much better coverage. LeMay pointed out that if these two systems were purchased he would hope next year to complete the upgrade with a further two. Shield pointed out that the purchase of these systems (at $8,000 this year and perhaps similar amount next year, with a presumed four-year life span) still represents a large savings over what it would cost to have consultants sitting in all the labs.
4) Other Business
None