Institute of Technology
Minutes of the ITICC Meeting,
November 16, 2006
3:35 p.m., Physics 170
Present: Mark Anderson (Chem), John Baxter (Math), Bryan Carlson (ADCS), Rob Edman (Math), Doug Ernie (ECE), Peter Hudleston (IT Dean’s Office), Terry Jones (Astro), Joe Konstan (CSE), Larry LeMay (ADCS), Jim MacDonald (CSE, IT Labs), Dan MacEwan (Chem), Mihai Marasteanu (CE), Adam Mosher (Math), Ray Muno (AEM/ME), Sean O’Neill (Astro), Jerry Sobelman (ECE), Larry Storey (CEMS), Dale Swanson (ECE), Juan P. Trelles (ME), Lucas Veverka (ITSB)
1) Status reports from CSciE and ADCS
MacDonald reported that the cause of the problem of profiles becoming corrupted (reported at the previous two meetings) has still not been identified. It is tricky to deal with because it occurs so intermittently, with no apparent pattern. MacDonald hoped that reinstalling operating systems and software over the break would fix the problem.
LeMay reported that a problem with the printer in Lind 24 had been fixed. It had not been taking paper from a second tray when the first ran out and it had not been sending a message alerting that paper was low.
2) Final Recommendations for Fall Round Public Lab Improvements
MacDonald presented the final recommendations of the ITIC Technical Committee for the fall round of improvements to the public labs. They are essentially unchanged from those presented at the October meeting (see those 10/18/06 minutes). Some additional comments were made, however.
MacDonald noted that the new Suns, proposed for replacing the old machines in Walter 103 and which can run Solaris, Linux or Windows, could potentially be set up as triple boot machines.
The cost of moving and reinstalling in other labs the three CCTV cameras released from 4-204 (when this room was returned last year to the Computer Science and Engineering Department) is largely due to installing new cable. The cameras will be connected to four otherwise empty ports on the digital video recorder owned by ITICC.
Regarding the proposal to add one remote login server for Linux and one for Solaris, Baxter asked if these would be enough. Should we purchase more? MacDonald said that the proposed machines should be more than adequate given the disk capacity and speed of the newest machines, which can be purchased for a fraction of what the price of machines of equivalent power would have been a few years ago.
Hudleston said he would put this proposal to email vote of ITICC in the usual way.
3) Mathematica and/or Matlab for Students
Hudleston said that he had asked Phil Kachelmyer to solicit quotes for purchasing licenses that would allow students to use Mathematica and Matlab on their own computers. This follows one of the recommendations of the ITICC review committee last year. He had been led to believe from initial considerations that the cost to ITICC to provide these software packages to students might be about $20,000 for both. He wanted to give the committee an opportunity for input and discussion.
Muno said that from what he had heard at presentations by the vendor, MathWorks, the version of Matlab that might be needed for students in Aerospace Engineering and Mechanical Engineering, which would include a number of toolboxes, would be substantial, although the price for the standard instructional version would be a lot less, although quite a bit more than $20,000. Other programs would require different toolboxes and some perhaps few, if any. There was considerable discussion about what toolboxes might be required for different programs in the college and how much use might be made of Simulink, the basic student edition of Matlab. Several people thought that Simulink would satisfy many students’ needs. It was agreed that a small group would gather information from departments about needs and provide information to Kachelmyer to assist in negotiations with the vendor. If we could identify a basic package that would satisfy many users, and if a price for this could be negotiated with the vendor that were not too expensive, this is the route we should take. Muno agreed to coordinate the gathering of this information, with the help of Swanson and with student input from Veverka and Torres.
There was also discussion about how widely Mathematica is used. Muno said that use has been declining in his department. Baxter said that it useful and widely used in Math. Hudleston said he believed it was well used across the college, although not as much as Matlab. He said that if Kachelmyer could obtain a reasonable quote for a student license for Mathematica he would proceed to put the proposal to purchase it for a vote. He noted that the budget could easily cover the cost of adding both Mathematica and Matlab if the combined cost were not exorbitant. If the licensing covered all University students, we could invite other colleges to contribute to the cost.
4) Other Business
None