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Call for Proposals for Teaching and Learning with Technology Conference 2006
Indiana University and Purdue University to establish mutual wireless connectivity
Envision Center offers virtual haunted house tours
Purdue participates in SC05
ITaP negotiates discount with Equifax
Need software? Cash in on your Purdue affiliation
Envision Center Access Grid node expands function
IBM ThinkPad Education Tour visits campus
ITaP staff raise $1,684 for Katrina relief
ITaP people in the news
Calendar
Virtual haunted house tours
ITaP Lunch
News
Call for proposals for Teaching and Learning with Technology Conference 2006
The ninth annual Teaching and Learning with Technology Conference will be held at Purdue University in West Lafayette on March 1 and 2, 2006. This year’s conference theme, “Transforming the Learning Experience,” will highlight how advances in technology are encouraging active learning, increasing student engagement, and redefining what it means to be in the classroom.
Faculty, IT professionals, and instructional staff are encouraged to submit proposals illustrating how they are using current technologies to transform the learning experience. Proposal deadline is Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2005.
John Campbell, associate vice president for Teaching and Learning Technologies unit of Information Technology at Purdue (ITaP), says, “Last year, the conference attracted more than 600 attendees and 22 corporate sponsors from across the country.”
The conference is free and open to anyone with an interest in instructional technology. For details on conference tracks and topics, follow the “2006 Call for Proposals” link from the conference Web site, http://tlt.purdue.edu.
Indiana University and Purdue University to establish mutual wireless connectivity
Indiana University visitors to Purdue University campuses and Purdue visitors to IU campuses will soon be able to make seamless wireless network connections using their wireless laptops or personal digital assistants (PDAs) as if they were on one of their own campuses.
Purdue Vice President for Information Technology James Bottum and IU Vice President for Research and Information Technology Michael McRobbie made the announcement at the 2005 I-Light Symposium, Indiana's premier forum for high performance networking, computing, visualization, and collaboration, which is mutually hosted by IU and Purdue.
“Establishing mutual wireless will make it easier for our teachers, students, and researchers to work at the multiple campuses of IU Bloomington, IUPUI, and Purdue West Lafayette. Although wireless and I-Light are different technologies, they both help us collaborate and connect with each other," Bottum says. "Making our laptop access simpler and easier is an example on a small scale of the much more powerful I-Light technology. And we should continue to work toward extending these capabilities across Indiana to other universities, colleges, and related organizations."
Testing for the mutual wireless capability has already begun and plans are to make it available to IU and Purdue students, faculty, and staff by the beginning of 2006.
Michael McRobbie, vice president for research and IT at IU, says, "I think it striking that the nation's top two wireless universities, according to Intel Corporation, are expanding their wireless capability even further by merging their wireless networks. This sort of seamless fabric among the state's great research institutions will further enhance collaboration among Purdue and IU researchers."
Envision Center offers virtual haunted house tours
Purdue University's Envision Center for Data Perceptualization will be put to chilling use on Halloween (Monday, Oct. 31) as the center’s Flex virtual reality system turns into a haunted house.
Fifteen-minute tours of "Castle Highmoore" will be offered to the public free of charge between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. The program, created by computer graphics students Justin Heisler and Jack Moreland, will take visitors into the bowels of a medieval dungeon.
Inside the virtual castle, 3-D goggles, a hand-held remote control, a surrounding sound track, and sensors that detect where a visitor is looking help create an interactive experience that plays on fears and phobias.
"We wanted to do something that messed with people's perceptions," Heisler says about the class project he spent months making. "This does that."
Normally, the center is used to create life-like simulations of real-world phenomena, from storm systems to cellular life, and to help far-flung teams of engineers to collaborate on projects from automobile design to oil prospecting. The interdisciplinary center also includes a next-generation telecommunications facility and computers that simulate solid objects via haptics displays.
The Envision Center is located off the ground floor walkway between Stewart Center and Purdue Memorial Union. Groups of more than 20 people are encouraged to call in advance. Contact Nancy Dietrich, user service coordinator for the Envision Center for Data Perceptualization, (765) 494-9788, nmdietrich@purdue.edu.
Staff and faculty from several areas of the University, including Information Technology at Purdue (ITaP), plan to participate in the SC05 conference, the largest annual event worldwide focused on high performance computing, networking, data storage, and visualization. It will be held this year from November 12 to 18 in Seattle,Wash.
The Purdue research booth in the exhibition area will feature presentations, posters, and video presentations that showcase the University’s computational capabilities to project directors, funding agencies, and an international IT contingency. The distinguished line-up of faculty presentations will include: W. Nicholas Delgass, Christoph Hoffmann, Gilbert Rochon, Alok Chaturvedi, Rudolf Eigenmann, Norbert Neumeister, Sebastien Goasguen, and Matthew Huber.
Gary Bertoline, ITaP’s associate vice president for the Rosen Center for Advanced Computing, chairs the SC05 Education Committee. He says, “Overall, the event will help to raise the national awareness of Purdue’s research computing and visualization and give our faculty the opportunity to share their exciting work with conference attendees and funding agencies.”
For details about the event, visit the SC05 Web site: http://www.sc05.supercomputing.org/.
ITaP negotiates discount with Equifax
Purdue is partnering with Equifax, one of three national credit-reporting agencies, to offer personal credit protection services to Purdue employees, retirees, and students at discounted rates.
Anyone with a direct affiliation with Purdue can purchase an annual program through Equifax at a significant savings. Individuals with a Purdue career account can log into http://www.itap.purdue.edu/ shopping/online/services and view the prices of various services. The Equifax programs include regular credit monitoring and reports, Equifax credit reports, and identity theft insurance. Jim Bottum, vice president for Information Technology at Purdue (ITaP), says many employees at Purdue have been requesting such a service in recent months.
“Although we weren’t aware of any other university that offered such a service to its employees, we wanted to be responsive to the requests,” Bottum says. “Equifax worked through it with us, and now our faculty, staff, retirees, and students can all benefit.”
The Equifax services will be offered through ITaP Shopping Online, which also offers negotiated discounts for employees, students, and alumni on computer hardware with companies such as Dell and Apple. If the Equifax program is successful, it may soon be offered to Purdue alumni as well.
Steve Ely, Equifax group executive for Personal Solutions, says the company is devoted to educating all consumers on the importance of credit monitoring.
“Equifax is committed to helping consumers take control of their credit,” Ely says. “We are pleased that Purdue University is one of the nation’s first universities taking the lead to empower its students, staff, and alumni with identity theft resources and tools to help them safeguard their financial future on the campus and beyond.”
Bottum says, “Just like auto insurance and homeowners insurance, a program such as this will become a part of many individuals’ financial portfolio.”
Need software? Cash in on your Purdue affiliation
The Contracts and Licensing unit of Information Technology at Purdue (ITaP) has negotiated new discounts on software from Adobe and Wolfram. George Wyncott, software information manager, says, “Purdue discounts on software are available to students and, in some cases, faculty and staff for work-at-home use on personally owned computers.”
Purdue discounts for students are available for these packages:
- Adobe Creative Suite 2 Premium (Windows and Mac OS X), $189.00
- IBM WebSphere Studio Application Developer (Windows and Linux), $18.00
- Macromedia Studio MX Suite (Windows and Mac OS X), $94.00
- Mathsoft Mathcad (Windows), $10.40
- Microsoft FrontPage, $11.00
- Office 2003 Professional (Windows), $13.00
- Office 2004 Standard (Mac OS X), $13.00
- ResearchSoft EndNote Suite (Windows and Mac OS X), $51.00
- TaskStream Key Codes (College of Education), $98.00
- Visual Studio .NET (Windows), $17.00
- Windows XP Professional (32- and 64-bit), $12.00
- Wolfram Mathematica (Windows), $43.00
For details on eligibility for Purdue discounts on software, go to http://www.itap.purdue.edu/shopping/online/software/ or visit BoilerCopyMaker in Purdue Memorial Union 157. For BoilerCopyMaker's hours, refer to the BoilerCopyMaker Web page: http://www.purdue.edu/printingservices/contact/bcm.htm.
Envision Center Access Grid node expands function
The function of the Envision Center Access Grid Node is being expanded to carry events that may be of interest to those in the general Purdue community. An initial meeting of the Virtual Institute was held Sept. 13.
Laura Arns, associate director for the Envision Center for Data Perceptualization, says, “Our first meeting attracted participants who are college professors, researchers, and organizers of community outreach groups.” The discussion focused on aspects of teaching and learning using the Access Grid.
The Virtual Institute is part of the NSF-funded project Engaging People in Cyberinfrastructure (EPIC). More information about EPIC is available at http://www.eotepic.org.
IBM ThinkPad Education Tour visits campus
The IBM ThinkPad Education Tour came to campus Sept. 29. From a self-powered truck parked on the Purdue Memorial Mall, IBM representatives demonstrated how the latest technologies work. They demonstrated the newest tablet PC with a text-generating touchpad, and the T-series PCs with a strong titanium top and a hard drive that sets itself before it can be dropped to the ground.
Gene Couchy, a representative for IBM, says, “The students have asked great questions and we’ve received an excellent response. That’s what I expected from students at such a great university.” The IBM tour has visited 60 colleges and universities in 25 states and the District of Columbia.
The IBM campus visit was sponsored by ITaP Shopping. IBM features products throughout the year at ITaP Shopping Offline, a vendor showcase that lets students and staff test drive the latest computers and peripherals in Stewart Center G65. The showcase is open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. After viewing equipment there, Purdue students and staff can receive special discounts when ordering computers and peripherals online through the ITaP Shopping Online Web site, http://www.itap.purdue.edu/shopping/shop.cfm.
ITaP staff raise $1,684 for Katrina relief
When Rhonda Hostetter and Jody Reigel challenged their colleagues within Information Technology at Purdue (ITaP) to hold a bake sale to benefit the American Red Cross Hurricane Katrina relief fund, they never guessed they would raise a total of $1,684. That figure represents a lot of homemade cookies and brownies, but it also includes many generous outright donations from ITaP employees.
“In the beginning, my goal was to raise $200. After the first couple of days, I realized that we would reach that goal in no time, so I raised my goal to $500,” Hostetter says.
The bake sale encouraged people to donate ingredients and bake treats, placing fresh baked goods throughout work areas with donation receptacles nearby. The effort was supported by many, including Carolyn Bogan, Jessica Harvey, Gloria Ryan, Susan English-Kesler, Hadley Thomas, and Angie Fritz, whose last cream puff eventually prompted a bidding contest that raised $150.
Charles Hunter, IT analyst in ITaP’s Security and Privacy unit, was named a GIAC Certified Intrusion Analyst by the Global Information Assurance Certification program founded by the SANS Institute. He received the certification on Oct. 2. The certification required him to attend SANS training, practice his skills, and complete necessary tests.
Michael Gay, manager of broadcast networks and services for ITaP’s Infrastructure unit, will give a presentation about Purdue’s podcasting service, known as BoilerCast, at the IHETS Tech Summit in Wednesday, Nov. 9. For details about the meeting, refer to http://www.iupui.edu/news/releases/050909_tech_summit.htm.
Virtual haunted house on Oct. 31
Monday, Oct. 31, virtual haunted house tours in the Envision Center for Data Perceptualization, located off the ground floor walkway between Stewart Center and Purdue Memorial Union. Tours start every 15 minutes from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Wednesday, Nov. 23, Ed Evans of ITaP's Teaching and Learning Technologies unit will discuss "UniPrint: A Centrally Supported Print Quota System for Campus Labs" in Stewart Center 202 from 12 noon to 12:30 p.m. For details about ITaP Lunch events, refer to: http://www.itap.purdue.edu/newsroom/news.cfm?NewsID=384
ITaP is the central computing and telecommunications organization on the West Lafayette campus of Purdue University.
Send comments and announcements to Jennifer Kapp at jkapp@purdue.edu