Information Technology

During the 2005-2006 school year, IT leadership in the College of Engineering made some sweeping decisions to transform the way in which people in the college use computers. This project, known as the Seamless IT Initiative, brought together a number of disparate computing environments across the college into a single, cohesive computing environment that was not only seamless within the college, but eliminated a number of differences that existed with the ITS computing environment. A number of changes were made that affect how computers were acquired, how computers were managed, and most importantly how computers would be used by faculty, staff, and students.

Beginning August 1, 2006, all computer accounts in the college (except for private computer labs) will use the ISU NetID to logon to computers. The ENGR NetID (also known as the CLUE account) previously used across the college has been eliminated as has the Novell account in CCEE and other localized accounts in departments. Engineers will use the same logon name and password used in other parts of campus.

We've worked to make file storage more accessible and consistent than ever before. All Engineering users now have a home directory provided on College of Engineering servers that is accessible to them from virtually any computer in the College. All Engineering users in all departments have a minimum of a Gigabyte of home directory storage with more storage available as needed. Windows users can access their home directory using Windows file sharing so you can even access your files using your own laptop without the need for installing additional software.  Since your home directory location is set in the IASTATE Active Directory, all Engineering Windows users can access their home directory from any Windows machine in the IASTATE domain. All Windows and Linux client machines can also access central AFS storage as well giving you more file storage options than ever before.

Beginning August 1, 2006, all users in the College of Engineering will be given a print quota that will be used in any lab for any printer in the College of Engineering. The quota has been generously expanded to 1500 pages per semester and any IT support staff will be able to assist any user with printer-quota questions.

Beginning Fall 2006, new policies are in place allowing users access to any computer lab in any department in the College of Engineering. The only exceptions to this rule include special-purpose laboratories with high-demand requirements or security concerns. Students are encouraged to find the facility that best serves their needs and to communicate to the IT leadership where student fees should best be directed to create the most productive computing environment possible. All labs are not listed in the ITS Labs Database.

Beginning Fall 2006, all computers will be installed with a shared suite of software providing a rich computing environment for students to roam among the various computing labs. From CAD products to programming environments, this suite of software will be accessible to all students in all labs. Yes, some software will be limited in availability, but as time and resources permit, the suite will be expanded to cover as many software titles as possible across the entire college. We pledge to expand this suite based upon demand to provide the tools that every student needs to be a successful engineer.

During the 2005-2006 school year, the IT staff in the College of Engineering put their heads together to develop the seamless environment. Now, for 2006-2007 as a team we will live within that environment and provide support that is as seamless as possible. There is one IT support site (it.eng.iastate.edu) where information will be stored and maintained. As we progress we intend to develop a help desk strategy that will serve the needs of faculty, staff, and students in the college.

The changes listed above are but a small sampling of the overall retooling of the IT infrastructure in the college. Changes that affect the business operations of the college (single email system, new databases, web site, etc.) and the research opportunities for the college (supercomputing, grid computing, applications, etc.) have also been developed and implemented.

And, while these changes may seem impressive, we have even bigger plans for the future! More to come on that -- stay tuned!