Institute of Technology
Minutes of the ITICC Meeting,
April 19, 2007
3:35 p.m., Physics 133
Present:
John Baxter (Math), Bryan Carlson (ADCS), Doug Ernie (ECE), Peter Hudleston (IT
Dean’s Office), Terry Jones (Astro), Kent Kirkby (Geol), Joe Konstan (CSE),
Satish Kumar (CEMS), Larry LeMay (ADCS), Jim MacDonald (CSE, IT Labs), Dan
MacEwan (Chem), Kent Mann (Chem), Jeremiah Mans (Phys), Paul Morin (Geol), Ray
Muno (ME/AEM), Sean O’Neill (Astro), Roger Rusack (Phys), Dale Swanson (ECE),
Juan P. Trelles (ME)
1) Status reports from CSciE and ADCS and
PJH
MacDonald
reported that things are now being set up to allow students to load Matlab
(basic Matlab and Simulink) onto their personal computers, following approval
by ITICC to purchase both Matlab and Mathematic for this purpose. Loading the
software will be possible in several ways; via the IT Public labs web page,
using ISO images, and CDs. Eventually,
it is expected that log in will be done using X.500 authentication. At first, only students with IT Lab accounts
will be able to download ISOs. Other
students will need to go to EE/CS 1-227 to get a CD. Only
IT students will have access to the software (students in other colleges may
later be able to use the software if their college contributes to the licensing
cost). Versions will be available for
Windows, Vista, Mac and Linux operating systems.
Emails will
be sent to all IT students informing them of the availability of the
software. The licensing will run for a
year (probably coinciding with the fiscal year) and will be renewable annually.
Faculty will also be informed that the software is being made available to
students (although the licensing does not apply to faculty or staff).
LeMay
reported that there had been a problem with Windows computers being locked
up. This has been resolved. It was
largely due to students in one ME class.
2) Management
Proposal – initial presentation
MacDonald gave an initial report
on the management proposal for 2007-08.
This will be the first year that management will be done under a single
entity, rather than the dual system that has been used until now. A principal difference is that systems staff,
who have administrator privileges and who are very well informed about how the
system operates, will replace the lab consultants. They will be much better placed to solve
problems on the spot. With the personnel
and structural changes being proposed there should be a net savings to ITICC of
over $100,000.
MacDonald said that there would
be two systems staff members on duty all the time. They will wear ‘uniforms’
making it clear who they are, and they will circulate on a regular basis among
the labs, planning to spend 10 minutes in each lab every hour. They will be proactively asking people in the
labs if they know of any problem rather than waiting for people to report
problems. In addition, the plan is to
have NTS install ‘red’ phones that connect callers directly to the system
operators. The cost of this is modest.
The formal
proposal for management will be brought to ITICC at its final meeting in May.
3) Lower Division maintenance 3-year proposals - Final
presentations
No changes have been made to the
proposals from Astronomy, Chemistry, Math (the Lind 24 proposal) and
Physics. Presentations for each of these
had been made to the committee at the March ITICC meeting. [Discussion of these may be found in the minutes of the March ITICC
meeting, and the proposal themselves are available on the web at:
www.itlabs.umn.edu/iticc/instruct_computing/2007/initiatives_07.php].
Kirkby described a modest change
to the proposal for Geology and Geophysics that reduced the cost slightly after
reassessing the equipment cost. The project is otherwise unchanged.
Hudleston said he would now send
out ballots for all these proposals.
4) “New Initiative” Proposals
Kirkby presented a proposal
from Geology and Geophysics for developing a new visualization tool that allows
students to better understand rainfall and what happens on the land surface
following rain. This will be done using
a virtual interactive rain table. Funds
are requested to develop the software necessary to implement this project,
which is being done in collaboration with the Science Museum of Minnesota, the National Center for Earth-Surface
Dynamics and the Electronic Visualization Laboratory of the University of
Illinois at Chicago. Matching funds from
theses partner institutions are involved. The proposal has been posted on the
ITICC web page at: www.itlabs.umn.edu/iticc/instruct_computing/2007/initiatives_07.php
No other new initiative proposal was received. Hudleston said ballots would now be sent out
for the Geology proposal.
5) Other business
None.