Council on Academic Computing
May 26, 2004
Meeting Summary
COUNCIL RETREAT
Members of the Council met on May 13,
2004, to
discuss the Council’s agenda for the upcoming year. Attendees suggested that the Council
- Advise Computing Services and
Systems Development on campus computer security issues
- Work with the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center to develop seed funding for
network computing projects
- Create an ongoing speaker
series that highlights trends in academic computing
- Sponsor
a series of half-day thematic events that facilitate interdisciplinary
collaboration
HPNAI REPORT
Mark Weixel discussed his High Performance Network
Applications Initiative award entitled the Portable International Lecture
System (PILS). Mr. Weixel and his
collaborator, Wolfgang Schloer, developed PILS to broadcast and record the
events sponsored by organizations within the University Center for International Studies
(UCIS). PILS was designed to further the
outreach mission of these organizations.
The system is comprised of a digital video camera, a laptop computer
outfitted with broadcast and other associated software, and a server. Real-time or recorded events can be viewed
when viewers access the PILS website.
Real-time events can be “hung out” on the University network so that any
number of viewers can access the broadcast.
REPORT FROM
COMPUTING SERVICES AND SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT
Jinx Walton, Director of Computing Services
and Systems Development (CSSD), discussed several issues:
- CSSD is addressing the
problems that it expects to accompany this fall’s influx of students.
- The
spam-filtering service will be available for “pitt.edu” e-mail addresses
next week.
MISCELLANEOUS
Several other issues were mentioned:
- Problems associated with
detecting and removing spyware
- A May 19 event that
highlighted computer applications to biology and chemistry
- Three University projects
funded by the Biotechnology Greenhouse
- Funding
for quantum and autonomic computing