PROPOSAL TO THE COMPUTATION ADVISORY COMMITTEE FOR SUPPORT FROM CENTRAL POOL STUDENT COMPUTER FEES

Transcription

1 PROPOSAL TO THE COMPUTATION ADVISORY COMMITTEE FOR SUPPORT FROM CENTRAL POOL STUDENT COMPUTER FEES PROJECT TITLE: Enhancing the Public Computing Lab at 139 Durham Center CAC PRIORITIES ADDRESSED: First Priority Campus-wide, addressing student needs for campus computing capability Third Priority Upgrading Existing Open Access Facilities PROPOSING UNIT: ADMINISTRATIVE REVIEWING UNIT: ADMINISTRATORS AND PROJECT PARTICIPANTS: Steve Stuart-Doig Assistant Director Kevin DeRoos Systems Analyst Al Day Systems Support Specialist PROJECT LEADER: Kevin DeRoos 2 nd Floor Administrative Services Building kderoos@iastate.edu (515)

2 PROJECT OVERVIEW AND EXPECTED BENEFIT (ITS) manages the public computing labs located at Durham Center including the main computing lab located at 139 Durham Center. The facilities provided by ITS are designed to address the general instructional and research computing needs of the university community. The sites are used mainly by students in support of their class work. The lab at 139 Durham Center includes PCs utilizing Windows and Linux operating systems and Macintosh computers all including software supporting several applications used by students from all academic areas. All machines provide secure access to core Iowa State University network and printing services including AFS, NetPrint, Telnet, and FTP. The ISU NetPrint service enables student access to CAC funded printing on campus. Students are easily able to connect to their central file storage space (AFS), helping to ensure that their electronic academic work is highly available, reliably backed-up, and ubiquitously accessible. The configuration of each machine enables users to have full control over their computing session; once machines are rebooted, they are reset to a standard configuration allowing the next user a highly available, reliable experience. The configuration assures privacy, prevents exposure from potentially objectionable material, and ensures compliance with licensing issues; the technology does this by restoring the computers to original configuration after they are rebooted. The facility includes both wired and wireless network access stations for students, faculty, and staff to connect their laptops or other mobile devices to the ISU network. Some workstations in the area include scanners and various multi-media tools. The lab contains both black and white and color self-serve printers using the NetPrint costrecovery service. Bin printers are also available and utilize a variety of paper types including transparencies. Lab monitors staff the lab during all hours the lab is open. They provide assistance to faculty, staff, and students using the services available within the lab. Page 2

3 The computers in the lab include the following software applications that are continually being upgraded in order to provide the latest tools to the students: PC Windows XP Macintosh MacOS X w/ Classic Linux Red Hat 9 Microsoft Office Microsoft Office Open Office Adobe Acrobat Professional Adobe Acrobat Professional KOffice Adobe InDesign Adobe InDesign Gnome Office Adobe PhotoShop (includes Adobe ImageReady) Adobe PhotoShop (includes Adobe ImageReady) Various Web Browsers Adobe GoLive Adobe GoLive JMP Adobe Premiere Pro Adobe Premiere Instant Messaging Adobe Encore DVD BBEditLite SPSS (via Vincent) Macromedia Studio (Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash) Macromedia Studio (Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash) Mathematical Software (Maple, Matlab, Octave, SAS via Vincent) SAS JMP R (open source statistics, compatible with S-Plus) JMP Instant Messaging Quanta Plus (web development) ArcGIS Desktop/Workstation Various Web Browsers X-CD-Roast Various Web Browsers Math ALEKS plug-ins GPhoto2 Math ALEKS plug-ins QuickTime Player and itunes KDevelop 2.0 (programming IDE) QuickTime Player and itunes RealPlayer GCC compilers (C, C++, FORTRAN 77, Java, Objective-C, Ada95) RealPlayer Windows Media Player Various Media Players Windows Media Player MacOS CD/DVD Burning Utility ImageMagick (graphic conversion) Nero Burning ROM AppleScript (script editor) Text Editors (pico, joe, emacs, vim) Instant Messaging Remote Desktop Connection ilife Suite (ichatav, imovie, iphoto, itunes) Remote Desktop Connection (provides Windows connectivity) SubEthaEdit (groupware editing/programming tool) X11 (a Unix X environment) XCode Tools (programming tools) The lab at 139 Durham Center is understood by students to be one of the most general public computing labs on the ISU campus. The facility is one of the attractions prospective students and their parents visit during campus tours, and it serves to showcase the advanced technological resources available to them should their decision be to attend ISU. An upgrade to the computer facilities is necessary for ISU to continue to attract academically competitive students to the institution. The number of potential users of the facilities involved in this proposal is very large due to the general nature of the offerings provided. Current Net-ID registrations show that about 97% of students at ISU have indicated a need for computing services. The following charts provide available login statistics for the lab located at 139 Durham Center for the previous fall and spring semesters: Page 3

4 Spring Durham Center Computer Lab Usage Statistics Name Total Logins Avg Logins/Wk Avg Logins/Day 139 Durham Center PC 15, Durham Center Mac 7, Fall Durham Center Computer Lab Usage Statistics Name Total Logins Avg Logins/Wk Avg Logins/Day 139 Durham Center PC 10, Durham Center Mac 8, Ultimately, the goal of this project is to provide state-of-the-industry equipment to maintain a premiere university-wide computing lab that effectively meets the needs of all Iowa State University students. This proposal is a request to provide updated hardware to 139 Durham Center including new Apple imacs. The current Macintosh systems within the lab are three years old and need to be replaced to support increasing student demand for the latest processor and memory intensive audio/visual editing and production capabilities. The new computers will include DVD-authoring capabilities providing students with the ability to create movies and presentations. The current systems will be out-of-warranty in July 2007, and they will become more difficult and expensive to maintain. This proposal is primarily focused on upgrading and enhancing services provided in the 139 Durham Center computer lab, a multi-platform site that is accessible to the entire ISU community during the hours of 7:30 a.m. to 12:00 a.m. Monday through Thursday, 7:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, and 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 a.m. Sunday. INNOVATIVE ENHANCEMENTS AND UPDATES The new imacs will have Intel Core 2 Duo processors that will be capable of running Microsoft Windows either via Apple s Boot Camp or some virtualization technology. This would provide additional flexibility to users of these computers. Page 4

5 UNIVERSITY FACILITIES REQUIRED The lab located at 139 Durham Center (see Figure 1) is equipped with required facilities including power and network connectivity (jacks wired at 100 Mbps). The facility also includes wireless internet connectivity and drop-in stations for students, faculty, and staff to connect their laptops or other mobile devices. SUPPORT AND MAINTENANCE The public computing lab at 139 Durham Center is managed by an Information Technology Services unit and the ITS Solution Center. The units provide direct support for the computer facilities and services available within the lab. The cost-sharing for some of this direct support can be calculated based on the rates that ITS uses for support of other entities on campus through Partnership Agreements. These costs are summarized in the table below and are calculated with an hourly rate of $52. Hours Cost Initial Setup Image Preparation 16 $ 832 Image Installation Physical Installation Annual Maintenance Updated images Image installations TOTALS 68 $3536 Expenses for printing supplies, network connections, furniture, insurance, and one-on-one student consulting assistance are all supported by. The expenditures for the student consulting assistance are over $40,000 per year. Half of these expenses are included as cost-sharing in the proposal budget. The remaining indirect costs are more difficult to calculate and are not indicated in the budget. Page 5

6 BUDGET Table 1: Full Itemized Budget (Costs for the Entire Project) Item Description Qty. Unit Cost Total Cost by Funding Source Central Pool ITS Hardware Apple imac, 20-inch, 2.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 GB memory, Final Cut Express HD, 250 GB Hard Drive, 256 MB Video, 3-year AppleCare 27 $2,068 $39,085 $16,751 Software Drive Shield for Macintosh 27 $5* $0 $135 Miscellaneous Hazardous Materials Surcharge % $684 $293 Initial Installation and Setup $2392 Annual Software Maintenance/Updates $1144 Annual Costs Student Consulting (half of total annual costs for 139) $20,000 TOTAL REQUEST $39,769 $40,715 * annual maintenance cost Table 2: Minimum Feasible Itemized Budget (Costs for Minimum Feasible Part of Project) Item Description Qty. Unit Cost Total Cost by Funding Source Central Pool ITS Hardware Apple imac, 20-inch, 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 GB memory, Final Cut Express HD, 250 GB Hard Drive, 256 MB Video, 3-year AppleCare 27 $1,843 $34,833 $14,928 Software Drive Shield for Macintosh 27 $5* $0 $135 Miscellaneous Hazardous Materials Surcharge % $610 $261 Initial Installation and Setup $2392 Annual Software Maintenance/Updates $1144 Annual Costs Student Consulting (half of total annual costs for 139) $20,000 TOTAL REQUEST $35,443 $38,860 * annual maintenance cost Page 6

7 Figure 1: 139 Durham Center Floor Plan Page 7