Council
on Academic Computing
2001-2002
Activities Report
COMMITTEE CHARGE
On
·
Examine
communications with faculty regarding computing issues. Examine what other universities
are doing and make recommendations about the best way(s) to communicate with
faculty.
·
Review
the High Performance Network Applications Initiative guidelines that were
developed last year. Determine how well the past year's program worked.
·
Work
with the Advisory Council on Instructional Excellence on faculty training in
and use of information technology in the development of research strengths. See
if there are any holes in the program that need to be addressed.
SUBCOMMITTEES
Four subcommittees were created in accordance with the
Provost’s charge.
High Performance Network
Applications Initiative
The Committee sponsored the Initiative for a second year
(see http://www.pitt.edu/~vpres/CAC/HPNAI/HPNAI.htm
for additional information). The program
announcement, the accompanying flyer, and the evaluation criteria were revised to
reflect comments from previous participants.
After the competition’s conclusion, the Subcommittee recommended that
nine proposals be funded. Three
investigators were funded: Dr. Wolfgang Schloer
(UCIS), Drs. Louise Comfort and Hassan Karimi (SPIA and SIS respectively), and Dr. Raymond Hoare
(Electrical Engineering). Other projects
will be funded as finances permit.
Reviewers commented that the proposals were more focused than proposals
from the previous year.
The following prior awardees reported on their progress:
·
Large-scale Networked Computation, Analysis and Visualization (Drs.
·
The Growing Book
(Dr. Shi-Kuo Chang);
·
A Distributed
Teaching and Research Cooperation System in Engineering and Mathematics (Drs. Luis Chaparro, Juan
Manfredi, Ching-Chung Li);
·
Delivery
of Digital Media in Teaching and Research (Dr. Rose Constantino);
·
"Next-Door" Videoconferencing for Collaborative University
Research (Drs.
Jeremy Levy and
All participants were enthusiastic about their projects
and pleased with functioning of the program.
Communications
The Subcommittee explored faculty preferences on
communication about academic computing events.
A survey was distributed to a random sample of 510 members of the
Faculty Training
The Subcommittee worked with the Advisory Council on
Instructional Excellence. The link
between technology training and the faculty was found to be wanting. The University-wide workshop pattern
apparently is not working well. The
Subcommittee recommended that CIDDE develop a strategy that permits customized
training at the department level.
Security
The Subcommittee met with Security subcommittee of the
Senate Computer Usage Committee (SCUC) to examine the CSSD's
security plan, but the work of the SCUC subcommittee was temporarily suspended.
Computing resources changed
significantly. The following is a
breakdown by issue-area.
Connectivity
·
University bandwith will be
expanded to one gigabit (It currently stands at 160 megabits.).
·
T1
links were installed at the
·
A
new, redundant link to
Computer Labs and Services
·
The
Posvar Hall computer lab was renovated.
·
The
Computing Help Desk was moved to the
·
A
Productivity Lab opened in the
Security
·
CSSD
is incorporating redundancy into the Pittsburgh Super Computer Internet
connection.
·
Security
staff worked on physical security, workstation and server security guidelines,
enterprise security tools, and user awareness.
·
The
Incident Response Team plans to become more public and proactive.
Software
·
The
Faculty Computing Program, previously known as UNA, was redesigned.
·
The
Blackboard 5 upgrade was completed.
·
Student
Info was redesigned.
·
A
software asset management system was established to track software purchased
through site licensing.
Miscellaneous
·
Ninety-two e-mail kiosks were installed throughout
the University.
·
CSSD
conducted a port inventory.
·
Fifty
cards were distributed for a wireless pilot project.
INFORMATION SESSIONS
Smartboard
Dr. David Young Miller, Associate Dean of the Graduate
School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA), spoke to Council regarding
use of SmartBoard technology in GSPIA. Use of SmartBoard
varies. The uninitiated tend to use it
as a platform to run other applications, while the more experienced find it to
be a powerful tool for interactive instruction.
GSPIA's seven classrooms were being renovated
so that they could support technologically advanced instruction.
PPPoE
Mr. George Mallick, Manager of
Network Engineering, spoke to Council regarding use of Point to Point Protocol
over Ethernet (PPPoE). Pitt is currently using PPPoE
in the residence halls. Users initially
are routed to the Web server/DNS server to be authenticated. The user then receives an IP address and
subsequently moves outside the network.
This protocol is secure and can trace security breaches.
Blackboard 5.5
Diane Davis, Director of the Center for Instructional
Development & Distance Education (CIDDE), reported that Blackboard 5.5 was
running well. This version has more features and allows more instructor
control. Some of the new features
include: guest access, assignment weighting, some control over sequential learning,
and course archiving. Various levels of
training on Blackboard are available through CIDDE.
2001-2002 MEMBERSHIP
|
Dr.
Melanie Anderson |
UPT |
|
Dr. Siddharth Chandra |
GSPIA |
|
Dr.
Carson Chow |
FAS/Mathematics |
|
Dr.
Ellen Cohn |
SHRS |
|
Dr.
Andrew Connolly |
FAS/Physics
& Astronomy |
|
Dr.
Gregory Dick |
UPJ |
|
Dr.
Peter Draus |
Nursing |
|
Dr.
Charles Friedman |
Medicine |
|
Dr.
Irene Frieze |
FAS/Psychology
representing SCUC |
|
Dr.
Dennis Galletta |
KGSB |
|
Dr.
Arthur Hellman |
Law |
|
Dr.
Ronald Hoelzeman |
Engineering |
|
Dr. Hassan Karimi |
SIS |
|
Dr.
Kirk Pruhs |
FAS/Computer
Science |
|
Dr.
Susan Sereika |
Nursing
representing SCUC |
|
Dr.
Clement Stone |
Education |
|
Dr.
Clara Vana |
UPG |
|
Ms.
Jinx Walton |
Computing
Services and Systems Development |
|
Dr.
Michael Zemaitis |
Pharmacy |