April 19, 2005 | In
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Bulletin Board
Innovate, edited by James Morrison, UNC-Chapel Hill Professor Emeritus of Educational Leadership, is a peer-reviewed e-journal that began publication with the October/November 2004 issue. The journal covers cutting-edge research and practice in the field of information technology. Readers can also comment on articles, share material with colleagues and friends, and participate in open forums. The April/May 2005 issue of Innovate is now available at
http://www.innovateonline.info--James L. Morrison
April 19, 2005 | In
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Newsflash
The 13th Annual IT Awards were presented at a lunch on April 13th in the George Watts Hill Alumni Center. The IT Awards were created to acknowledge and honor the hard work and accomplishments of technical support staff on campus.
The speaker for this year's event was Tom Looney, VP of IBM Sales for the Eastern Division. Our own Robyn East introduced him and presented the awards.
A complete list of the winners is on the
IT Awards page. This year awards were presented to 12 individuals and 2 teams. Winners from ITS were
- Shubin Liu, Research Computing,
- Joe Nichols, Enterprise Applications, and
- the staff of the Computer Repair Center: Bobby Norris, Thad Dodd, Malcolm Stone, Kevin Lawrence, Tim Overman, and Cathy Johnson
In addition to paying for all interested ITS employees to attend, ITS also participated as a Platinum sponsor of the ceremony.
The IT Awards lunch was, as always, a fun event. The lunch provides a wonderful opportunity for the technical staff from all over campus to get together and celebrate each other and the work we do. Over 400 people attended this year's award ceremony. Congratulations to all the winners and nominees!--DBM
April 19, 2005 | In
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Bulletin Board
Fire up the keyboards and put on the thinking caps--nominations are now being accepted for the 2005 Chancellor's Award Program. Chancellor's Awards were established in 1991 to recognize University employees' meritorious or distinguished accomplishments in the categories of outstanding State government service, innovations, public service, safety/heroism, human relations, and other achievements.
All University employees (SPA, EPA, and EPA non-faculty) are eligible for nomination, and any permanent UNC employee may nominate any employee (including those retired or deceased). Nominations are submitted to a Recognition Committee, comprised of a cross-section of University personnel, which recommends up to five individuals to the Chancellor for final selection.
Award recipients are honored at a recognition luncheon (generally in August) with the Chancellor. Each receives a monetary award of $1000, a special leave award of 24 hours, and a framed certificate. The Chancellor's Award honorees also become the University's nominees for the State Employees Awards for Excellence (formerly the Governor's Award for Excellence).
Nomination forms are available
online. The deadline for receipt of the nominations is Friday, April 29.
April 19, 2005 | In
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Bulletin Board
A summary of an upcoming report from the President's Information Technology Advisory Panel (PITAC) calls on the federal government and higher education to take steps toward greater use of computational science in research. The panel urges using computers to complement research efforts in a wide range of fields. Too often, colleges and universities reward researchers for work in their primary fields of study, discouraging efforts at including technology in research projects, according to Dan (a member of PITAC) who is quoted in a related story in
The Chronicle of Higher Education. A subscription is usually required to read Chronicle stories, but The Hub has the full text.--MB & LB
The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 15, 2005
Presidential Panel Recommends Steps to Promote Computational Science
By VINCENT KIERNAN
Washington
A federal advisory committee called on universities and federal agencies on Thursday to reorganize themselves to promote multidisciplinary research using computers.
According to the committee, the President's Information Technology Advisory Panel, such a reorganization is essential to encourage the growth of "computational science," or the use of computers to complement experiments and theoretical research. Also essential, the panel said, is more-extensive planning by the government, and additional spending. Computational science runs the gamut from supercomputers to desktop computing.
The recommendations are contained in the draft version of a report that the committee unanimously endorsed on Thursday. The draft was not released, but committee members described it in a public meeting. The final version of the report, "Computational Science: America's Competitive Challenge," may be completed and released within several weeks.
"Universities and federal R&D agencies must make coordinated, fundamental, and structural changes that affirm the integral role of computational science," said a summary of the draft that was distributed at the meeting.
"We have to think more strategically," said Daniel A. Reed, the chairman of the subcommittee of the panel that wrote the draft. "We have to work in a more-coordinated way," said Mr. Reed, who also is the vice chancellor for information technology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Computational science -- for example, the use of a supercomputer to simulate processes in biology or chemistry -- crosses boundaries of traditional scholarly fields and often requires researchers from various disciplines to work together, Mr. Reed told the panel. But universities generally reward a scholar for work within one specific discipline, discouraging multidisciplinary teamwork, he said.
Mr. Reed offered no specifics on how universities could be prodded to reorganize themselves as the panel envisions. "The reality is, I think there will have to be some financial incentives," he said.
Edward D. Lazowska, a computer-science professor at the University of Washington who is one of the panel's two co-chairs, said he thought that universities would expand their multidisciplinary capabilities if their officials believed that doing so would increase their chances of securing federal grants.
"Fundamentally, universities are competitive organizations," he told the panel.
Federal agencies also have to reorganize themselves, said the report summary, which called on the government to commission a study by the National Academies on reorganizing federal agencies' research responsibilities "to support revolutionary advances in computational science."
The academies also should create a road map for computational science that extends decades into the future, the panel said. Currently, little federal planning in the area extends beyond a few years, which is problematic because some technical challenges can take a decade or more to solve, said Mr. Reed.
The panel called for more federal spending on computational science, although no specific figure was discussed in Thursday's meeting. But specific uses of the funds were identified: For example, the report called on the federal government to provide long-term financial support for repositories of masses of data being accumulated by sophisticated digital instruments.
The government should require researchers with federal grants to deposit their software and data in the repositories, the report summary said. Also, the report called on the federal government to underwrite the development of new software and hardware for computational science and to provide "long-term funding" for supercomputer centers for researchers.
April 19, 2005 | In
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Newsflash
GoToAssist, a "new" program that's actually been in use for more than 3 years, is revolutionizing computer support. The Hub sat down with Ingrid Camacho and Christina Artis, Technical Support Specialists at the ITS Response Center, to learn how it's used at Carolina.
GoToAssist, Web-based technology that allows help desk staff to remotely view and control users' computers, is the solution for those times when you just can't figure out how to make a supported software program do what you want it to, and don't even have the words to describe what's wrong. UNC-Chapel Hill has really been pushing its use over the last year or so. Time and again, Christina, Ingrid, and other ITS-RC personnel have seen it make the difference in successfully resolving callers' computer problems.
GoToAssist boasts that support staff can communicate with customers in a chat box or on the telephone; view the caller's desktop; share control of the mouse and keyboard; point to specific features or even use a "whiteboard" feature to teach brief how-to sessions; push out Web pages or files; use diagnostic tools to assess the status of the customer's computer; and (if needed) transfer the whole session up to the next level of support.
At UNC-Chapel Hill, E-Services uses the chat box feature for e-mail support. They monitor it at all times and use it to push out the latest virus definition files, informational Web pages, and so on.
ITS-RC analysts use the whiteboard feature to "draw" on the customer's computer screen. The customer can then do a screen capture to save the information for later reference. Ingrid notes that older customers especially like this feature. Analysts also can use the shared control feature to operate a customer's mouse or enter keyboard commands that produce the desired results--and it's much faster than when the analysts either had to have a document e-mailed to them or had to work "blind."
"It saves us time and it saves the customer time," says Christina. "We're here to help the customer and we're excited not to have to make them wait for an answer."
Ingrid agrees. "The only bad thing is that we have only two logins, so only two people can use it at a time."
Support personnel like the fact that they can use GoToAssist anywhere they have Web access; they don't have to be physically at the ITS-RC to offer support. This is especially useful after hours or during adverse weather. Similarly, customers don't have to be at their offices to reach the Help Desk; those who are working from home or traveling on business can even use a dialup service, although of course it's a much slower connection.
But--isn't it a little spooky to give up control of the computer like that? Won't the analysts spy on what's on your machine?
The bad news is, yes, they can see everything that's on a client's computer. The good news is multifaceted: GoToAssist maintains its programs on a secure server; customers have to agree twice to share controls; customers don't give up all control; and customers can see everything that the support person is doing on the computer. While callers are encouraged to close any confidential files before granting access, anything visible to the analyst is visible to the caller, so the analysts aren't snooping around without customers' knowledge. In fact, says Christina, "I always try to let the customer know what I'm doing. They want to learn too," so trying to do something without their knowledge is counterproductive.
The powerful GoToAssist multiplies the efforts of department support staff by allowing centrally located help services to do what department people would do if they were at the customer's computer, says Christina. It also improves accessibility to help services for people with disabilities. She mentions one customer who was using JAWS, a screen reader, who got stuck and was having trouble describing the problem. Technical Support Analyst Sue Meyer at the ITS-RC was able to take over the computer, talk the user through the procedures she performed, and resolve the issue. "But if she hadn't been able to see it, she couldn't have solved it," Christina says.
Ingrid summed up the program's capabilities: "Besides the Help site, this is the best tool we have."--LJB
April 19, 2005 | In
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Newsflash
The Training and Education group in ITS-Teaching & Learning is preparing to introduce puzzles and games to the campus community as a step towards providing different ways to LearnIT. Initial LearnIT activities will include crossword puzzles, matching games, and sets of flash cards. Two topics (afs and PowerPoint) will be released simultaneously; others will be added over time. And they need your help to beta test! Volunteers will just need to answer a few
questions. Preview the afs activities by pointing a Web browser to
http://LearnIT.unc.edu/puzzles. Select any file that ends in .htm to try out the activity. Direct questions, comments, and offers to play while working to
LearnIT@unc.edu
Software
Two software packages are being used to develop these learning activities:
- StudyMate has options for creating fill-in-the-blank quizzes, flash cards, matching games, crossword puzzles, and pick-a-letter games (like Wheel of Fortune). One feature of StudyMate is the ability to enter content once and have it formatted for each of the activities automatically. Currently, we're using StudyMate to create flash cards.
- Hot Potatoes was developed at the University of Victoria and offers options for creating crossword puzzles, jumbled sentences, fill-in-the-blank quizzes, multiple choice quizzes, short-answer quizzes, and matching games. Unlike in StudyMate, users have to enter the content for each activity separately. Currently, we're using Hot Potatoes to create crossword puzzles and matching games.
The Crossword Puzzle Process
The crossword puzzles are perhaps the most interesting activity to compose, since we're trying to conform to how crossword puzzles work in general. For example, they frequently have themes (in our case, the educational content); puzzles by the same writer or company use clues that show up in multiple puzzles; clues can be straightforward ("Bing Crosby's nickname" is "Der Bingle") or obscure ("contrite encryption" might be "remorsecode"); and answers can be single or multiple words. Grid sizes vary and the difficulty of the puzzle is determined both by the difficulty of the clues and by how densely the grid is populated. (The more opportunities there are to fill in words across and down, the more likely it is that solvers will have clues--letters--to help obtain answers they don't know.) LearnIT puzzles will draw on existing documents in the help.unc.edu collection for educational content. Clues that are re-used in puzzles will be drawn from a set that will include some ITS-specific information ("Who ya gonna call?--Ninesixtwohelp") and will include some fun campus information ("You might get bowled over here--Student Union"). Of course we have to come up with other
clues that will vary from puzzle to puzzle, depending on what we need to make each grid sufficiently dense.
The Future
Although the two software packages do a good job of producing these activities, we'll be working on improving the format as time goes by. For example, we can (and will) associate a set of resources with each crossword puzzle. The set will include the help.unc.edu documents from which the content is drawn as well as any other resources used to develop clues. Out-of-the-box, the software places the resource listing to the left of the puzzle. We want it to appear at the top or bottom to reduce the need for side-to- side scrolling. We know we want to improve or develop options for printing the crosswords so that people can work them when they're not online. We want to "stamp" all the activities with a LearnIT/ITS branding. As we proceed, we're sure to find other ways we want to improve the activities.
Wanna Play?
We need ITS volunteers to help test these activities before they're released to the campus community. Content specialists will be asked to review the educational content for accuracy, but we also want people to help us determine how difficult the puzzles and activities are. Over time, we hope to develop a standard way of assessing the difficulty. For now, volunteers (especially with the crosswords) will just need to answer a few
questions. Preview the afs activities by pointing a Web browser to
http://LearnIT.unc.edu/puzzles. Select any file that ends in .htm to try out the activity. Direct questions, comments, and offers to play while working to
LearnIT@unc.edu.--Elizabeth Evans
April 19, 2005 | In
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Spotlight On
David Eckert manages the day-to-day operations of the Carolina Computing Initiative. In the thick of planning for summer orientation sessions, he's found time for some restorative activities as well.
Having just finished a Master of Science in Information Science degree at Carolina, specializing in database technology and information retrieval, David is now gearing up for CTOPS and TSOPS (the freshman and transfer student summer orientation programs). For the incoming students, the required orientations occupy two days of activities. Sometime on the second day, each student who has purchased a laptop computer through CCI will go by the CCI office to pick it up and get about an hour's worth of basic instruction from David and his colleagues.
For David's team, who've already put in a lot of time to choose this year's approved models and create a descriptive brochure, orientation occupies two days a week, every week, in June and July, plus two more days the last week in August. That's 15 sessions all together, 300 students at a time, for 9 hours a day.
It's understandable, then, that David doesn't report spending much of his leisure time with computers. Instead, he's nearly finished building a free-standing home workshop, a project that's taken about 18 months. He plans to use the space for tool storage and woodworking, especially for a mudroom bench that his girlfriend Erin has requested. Erin does emergency preparedness consulting for a private firm. "It's an interesting job," David reports, "but you don't want to ride down the highway with her. She can read all the hazardous-materials placards on all the trucks!"
When not careening away from potential fiery death on the highway, David hopes to carom shots at the 9-ball table. Each player must shoot at the lowest numbered ball on the table, but the object is to drop the 9-ball (so a player could shoot at the 1 but knock in the 9 and win). After 6 years of playing every Wednesday night, David describes himself as a middle-ranked amateur in pool. The season for this kind of pool ends tomorrow with the end-of-season tournament at the bar where David and his team play. If the team wins that tournament, they compete in Triangle regionals in July; the winners of that contest get an all-expenses-paid trip to Las Vegas to the national tournament in the fall. "That's my ultimate goal," he says. Maybe in the wood shop he can turn the perfect cue.--LJB
April 19, 2005 | In
News
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Bulletin Board
Spring is here, the perfect time to get back to a healthy, active lifestyle. HEELS/Employee Fitness is offering FREE two-week trial memberships to the HEELS employee fitness center, Student Recreation Center, and all recreation facilities (basketball, racquetball, swimming, etc.).
The offer is open to employees who do not currently have a gym-pool privilege. There is no expiration date to apply for the two-week trial, but why not get started today? To obtain your trial pass, e-mail
atufts@email.unc.edu with the following information: Name, PID #, e-mail address, and campus box. Please indicate the dates you would like your pass to be effective (e.g., April 11-24).
More information is available by reading
www.campusrec.unc.edu,
www.src.unc.edu, or
www.heelsforhealth.unc.edu or by calling 962-3301.
April 19, 2005 | In
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Newsflash
Users, researchers, vendors, and developers of Linux clusters from around the world will gather at the Carolina Inn to attend the
Linux Clusters Institute International Conference for high-performance computing, "HPC Revolution 2005, from April 25 to 28.The goal of the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI), which Dan recently created, is to bring together researchers and scientists from all industries and leverage high-performance computing technology to benefit science and society. "Hosting the HPC Revolution 2005 conference in Chapel Hill reflects the importance of scientific computing to Carolina and our role in leading the computing revolution. Advances in Linux clusters and the conference provide an ideal incubator for new applications of this technology," Dan stated.Linux clusters are used in academic research and in a diverse set of industries, including petroleum, geophysics, bioinformatics, aerospace, automotive, and finance. Reflecting the range of uses of clusters, the conference features keynote speakers Kelvin Droegemeier of the University of Oklahoma, Thom Dunning of NCSA/UIUC, and Mark Seager of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.Conference organizers have targeted topics and speakers to address current efforts to integrate and develop science and engineering applications for large-scale clusters, to achieve maximum performance and scalability. Carolinas collaborations with peer intuitions and international research communities make it the perfect setting for this conference of technology, science, industry, and academia. Ruth Marinshaw, Acting Assistant Vice Chancellor for Information Technology Services at the University, commented that "having the conference at Carolina complements our current efforts to enhance our campus research computing infrastructure. Expansion of central Linux clusters within the Information Technology Services Research Computing division further positions us to support the complex and extensive research HPC enables."
April 19, 2005 | In
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Under Construction
Although Thursday, March 31, was rebid day for the ITS building Phase II packages, Mike Harris reports that the waterproofing package will be rebid again due to discrepancies between the drawings and specifications sheets. The date for the rebid has not been set, as the corrections must be made to the drawings and the specs first.
Remember that photos of construction progress on both 440 and the new IT building are posted frequently at the
Buildings and Facilities Planning page.--Mike Harris with LJB
