By L.C. Krakowka
Students may not be able to pinpoint the difference, but they have undoubtedly noticed the change. Engineering prob lem sets are slightly easier to grind out, complicated science -based classroom software runs better and with higher screen resolution, and surfing the Web is now much faster.
During summer 1995, Cornell Information Technologies (CIT) upgraded its three instructional labs (those dedicated for use in conjunction with classes) on campus with Power Macintoshes and IBM Pentium 90s. Both the upgrade's timing and the specifics of the machines themselves were the result of CIT's collaboration with numerous campus groups.
"We work closely with the Faculty Advisory Board on Information Technologies (FABIT)," said Carrie Regenstein, CIT's associate director for instructional services. "In FABIT's Planning for Learning Technologies Services report (January 1995), the committee recommended a three -year upgrade cycle to keep the labs as current as possible."
In addition to FABIT, each of the three instructional labs, located in Sibley, Martha Van Rensselaer (MVR) and Upson halls, has its own advisory committee made up of faculty from the college where the lab is located. CIT also consults with the faculty who use its Learning Technologies Center to incorporate technology in their teaching. Both partnerships try to ensure that the technology the faculty want to use in instruction is available to students in the labs.
When considering the computing needs of Cornell stu dents, CIT works with Cornell Libraries, Campus Life, the Student Assembly and other student organizations to learn what students would like to see in the labs. "CIT's labs are universitywide," said Regenstein. "The service for students must be consistent with other activities in their life at Cornell."
The direct upgrades in the instructional labs have a positive trickle-down effect for the whole campus, because old machines are redistributed to CIT's general labs. Ide ally, every lab would get new machines as part of the regular upgrade cycle, but, in this era of tightening budgets, that's an impossibility. By replacing low-end machines with more powerful models during each upgrade, CIT boosts Cornell's computing strength on a regular basis. In fact, the IBM power on campus rose dramatically with the last upgrade. Older machines that were scheduled to trickle down were replaced with new Aptivas in the Noyes and Robert Purcell Community Center (RPCC) facilities when it became ap parent the older hardware could not keep up with the resources needed to use the World Wide Web.
According to a 1995 Office of Information Technology study, undergraduate student ownership of computers is increasing each year, and now that all residence halls provide network access, lab usage might be expected to decrease. But just the opposite is true; Cornell faculty, students and staff now need access to any Cornell-spon sored software from anywhere at any time. Therefore, it's important to choose machines for upgrades that work well within Cornell's networking infrastructure. This prerequi site is not limited to the computer's ability to communicate with the campus mainframes and other network-related services. Other factors, such as how easily information can be transported from one lab to another, both electronically and via disk, and the availability of popular software campuswide are taken under consideration.
Thus, the more powerful and compatible the hardware, the more convenient for the Cornell computer user. For example, engineering students used to be limited to the Upson lab when they needed to run their complex math ematical programs, but with the new Power Macs in MVR -- whose greater memory and speed can process such infor mation -- they now have the ability to work elsewhere when Upson is full. "One of the goals is to eliminate the need for a student to have to go to one particular place to get his or her work done," Regenstein said.
New software technologies also provide more conve nient service. For example, "KeyServer" software -- an application that controls legal, concurrent use of software licenses -- makes it possible to provide applications like Photoshop in all three instructional labs simultaneously. Photoshop used to be limited to the Sibley facility.
Senior engineering major Chinedum Osuji said he ben efited tremendously from the recent upgrades. "Once, I had to manipulate a 150x150 spreadsheet in Excel -- this would have been impossible on the previous IBMs, and even though it was still a bit slow on the current ones, it was certainly more doable," he said.
If you have questions or comments about this article, please send e-mail to <citnews@cornell.edu>.
Instructional labs:
G83 Martha Van Rensselaer Hall
B7 Upson Hall
B8 Sibley Hall
General labs:
Noyes Community Center
Robert Purcell Community Center
Carpenter Library-B101
Uris Library
Mann Library (Stone II)