Q1-1996. Academic Computing Report for July - September 1996

M.S. Vijay Kumar

October 26,1996

This report includes items from the AC Support Team along with Academic Computing Practice items.

I. Accomplishments

Operations

Athena

1. Athena workstations: Deployed 140 Sun SPARC4's and 42 SGI Indy's to public clusters to replace DECstations and RS6000s (Cluster Support Group)

2. Started deployment of SPARC4's and SGI's to departments

3. SGI workstation deployed to 10-250

Support

Support for new TAs and faculty

* issue of the "Welcome to Athena for Faculty" guide - now renamed "Academic Computing at MIT"

* Fall issue of the Athena Insider

Software upgrades, reconfiguration, evaluation:

* Moved FlexLM software license managers to a 3-server configuration

* Tested and evaluated beta version of MAE (3.0)

* Tested and evaluated beta version of Waterloo Maple (Maple V Rel 4)

Upgraded Keyserver for dorm/ILG software and also upgraded some keyserved Mac applications to support PowerMac

Support of MIT subjects and other academic projects

* technical supervision of UROP - Maple coding, high level

* design of Java applet, video digitizing

* Rotch Librarians - database of graphic images accessible from the Web

* Negotiation class at Sloan -distance learning component - helped faculty make Excel worksheets available on all platforms via the Web

* Assisted installation of MAE in EAPS cluster for Jim Elliott's classes

Planning Activities and Projects

* Development of IS interim strategy for infrastructure renewal and development to support academic needs.

* Continued work on Advanced Visualization proposal development; draft outline and summary of related resources developed. Plans for a Discovery effort to develop proposal.

* Meeting w/ Dean Mitchell and Williams to introduce and discuss proposed strategy.

* Draft Vision statement (including drivers and implications) for IS planning.

* Identification of ACMG decisions: 1) to serve as recommendations for IS decisions in relation to preferred Athena client characteristics, vendor and RFP considerations; (2) projects to be undertaken.

* Physics Reading Room project in conjunction with the MIT Libraries 14 interviews with assorted Physics Faculty.

* Quickstations Discovery project initiated

* Initial Plan and announcement of Crosstalk - Faculty + IS Forum on educational uses of information technology.

* Meetings with ESWG to look at opportunities for automating surveys and Ievaluation of IT components in courses.

Outreach Events

* Faculty Newsletter article on Crosstalk.

* Java Day, co-sponsored with Sun

* Wolfram presentation on Mathematica with Jim Elliott

* Presentations to vistors from Australia , Hongkong , Malaysia (Deans, Vice-Chancellors and Directors from several institutions) and Japan.

* Collaboration with School of Architecture for demonstating and evaluating Visualization+Modeling Software (Sense-8 )

* Apple briefing for IS on stategic directions.

Corporate/Vendor linkages

* Meeting with IBM's Head of AIX- Mark Bregman; Follow up visits planned for updates on RS-6000 strategy as well as to look at server and storage strategies.

* IBM meeting along with CAES ( Steve Lerman) to discuss collaborations - ATM test bed planned; Jim McGrodie farewell and introduction to new IBM contact- Armando Garcia

* Meeting with Jeff Walz of Intel Corp. Academic Relations to discuss MIT's infrastructure for academic computing.

* Telephone meeting with RichWeir of Novell - interest in funding some work with Zephyr ( Mike Barker and Paul Hil).

* Initiated visit/meeting with senior representatives of SGI.

II. Goals for FY97Q2

* Conduct Crosstalk Planning meeting with participating faculty and Dean of UG and Student Affairs

* Initiate process for committee to select meritorious academic projects/applications for IS engagement and support.

* Development of draft guidelines to select projects for Athena support.

* Plan for operational support of Webmeet or alternative

* Continue work with Development Office and link with IS Team ( PD+ACST) to complete AdVis proposal.

* Explore/ develop plan for New Media Center (explore alignment with Imaging facility discussed with Edgerton Center) .

* Continue work with the Educational Technology Council in their planning.

* Work on improving alignment with Processes for AC activities and projects. This includes: working out a collaborative oversight arrangement with Support Director; furthering the search process for staff to support academic PD initiatives; developing project lists.

* Continue work with academic computing vision and plan as part of IS planning activity.

* Initiate RFP activity for Athena renewal.

* Recruit, orient Admin. and Assistant and re-align Finance and admin. functions with IS model.

* Discussion with sample of key academic customers on academic priorities.

* Article for faculty newsletter.

* Explore MIT involvement in NLII / Internet 2 Projects.