About Engineering Computing
The College of Engineering operates the most resource-rich computing environment on the campus of Iowa State University. Engineers can access one of 1000 computers in more than 50 computer labs located throughout nine buildings. On those computers, engineers will find a suite of software with a retail value exceeding $500 million. Using those computers, engineers can access one of the top 10 university supercomputers located right here at ISU.
Aside from the richness of the desktop computer, other resources such as extended file storage, local instant messaging, extended email capabilities, and a wealth of other resources is available at the finger tips of the engineer. A dedicated team of some 20 staff members provides a stable computing environment unrivaled on campus.
But, given the vastness of this resource, the college is not just looking at today. During the 2005-2006 school year, the college undertook the most ambitous IT project in the history of the College of Engineering -- to transform the environment into a streamlined operation that provides state-of-the-art access to students. This Seamless IT Initiative laid the groundwork for what lies ahead.
In the Fall of 2007 the College of Engineering introduced a Storage Area Network (SAN) solution from Dell/EMC. This high-performance, high-availability storage solution provided students higher-speed access to files and data stored for engineering coursework and unsponsored research. Increased storage capacity and reduced complexity helped improve the overall experience for engineering students and established an unparallelled environment for students on campus.
For Fall 2008, disk capacity on the college SAN was expanded allowing the college to increase disk quota from 2GB to 5GB per student. An additional 300+ new desktop computers were installed throughout several labs on campus and the remote access servers were upgraded providing expanding capacity. The college chose to renew the student Matlab license and has again increased software offerings throughout.
During the 2008-2009 academic year, the College of Engineering will be unveling a college-wide computational "grid" that will provide students and researchers access to the college-wide network of computers for a wide variety of computational needs.
