Meeting held:
7 January 1997, 3:30 - 4:45 pm in 607 McBryde
In:
McBryde 607
Topics:
Spring meeting time, A&S computing
facility in old Roses, Review of 1997-98 undergrad
PC requirement, SCHEV order status, Hiring
new classified computing staff person, Review of
unsupported computing (dept. Web server and grad lab), review
of Jamie's proposal for network support from 3 December 1996 meeting.
Attendees:
Marc Abrams, Sandra Birch, Jamie Evans, Ed Fox
The only free times for all CRC meetings are 8 a.m.-9a.m. and, on MWF, 12:00-1:00. Wednesdays at 8:00-9:00 in McBryde 607 was chosen.
In reply to a querry sent to faculty by Marc, Dennis suggested that CS should join Physics in requesting a high end PC classroom in the old Roses store. The classroom would help in teaching 60-70 students in CS2704. Jack and Ed also favored working with Physics and possibly Math on the classrooms that would go into Roses. The classroom probably would be run like the Mac labs in McBryde - the Computing Center would be responsible for equiping the rooms and maintaining them.
Marc will contact Physics, and Ed will arrange a meeting between Mike Williams (who will purchase the equipment), Physics, CS, and Math.
In December Marc asked the faculty to review the 96-97 PC requirements and suggest changes. Bill McQuain, Dwight Barnette, and Jurgen Koenemann replied with suggestions. Sandy also compiled a list of questions students had in 96-97 about the requirements. It was noted that the "acceptable" requirements don't denote a low end computer that students should purchase, but rather a class of (old) computers that students might already own that would work for the CS curriculum. Based on these, the following changes will be made:
Since the 3 December CRC meeting, the following have been ordered:
The following were approved to be ordered:
The laptops will not be ordered until faculty reply to a question sent by Marc on which faculty members do not yet have a laptop but would like one. So far it appears that the demand equals or exceeds the 4 laptops planned for purchase.
Another item on the list are 5 2G disks, one for Layne's SGI and 4 for 118. Jamie will check with Layne and Eli Burke to see if these are still needed. (The disks might not be needed any longer, because the SGI might be replaced by a new machine, and the new PCs for 118 have larger disks than originally planned due to dropping PC prices.)
The committee discussed a recent request by Osman Balci for $6000 to modernize PCs in the "bowling alley" on the 3rd floor that his grad students use. The conclusion was that $3000 could be allocated immediately (due to equipment coming in under original estimated price), but if more is needed then it would have to wait until the second round list of SCHEV equipment is considered (after all items on the primary list are purchased).
Sandy reported that CS has $5k from the former James Dunson position to pay for a new classified staff person for computing in the current fiscal year. Funds would continue for that position in the next fiscal year. Jamie is interviewing for the position. The candidate cannot be a part time student, ruling out using the funds to support Eli or Vinnie, who help Gay in managing the 118 lab. The duties of this person were discussed, and the committee felt that the individual should be slated to address topic 6, below.
There was also some concern over the amount of support that would be available for students to help Gay manage 118 in Spring 1997; Marc and Jamie will speak with Jack about this issue. Jamie felt that 30 hours/week or undergrad help was needed at the end of the spring semester, and no undergrad help after the spring.
[Note: On 8 Jan 1997 Jack approved wages of 20 hours/week for Eli and 10 hours/week for Vinnie for Spring 1997 to assist Gay in managing the undergrad lab.]
The committee overall felt that the plan used in recent years of having student volunteers manage www.cs.vt.edu, the technical report service on www.cs.vt.edu, and the grad lab was no longer working. The commttee felt that these tasks should be the duties of the staff person from topic 5.
CRC discussed how the $15,000 for network conversion to 10baseT and higher speed networking should be used. The philosophy recommended to the department head was to spend the money in the following priority:
[Subsequently, Jack agreed with point 2, but not points 1 and 3. Point 1 should be replaced by a policy that gives "equal density" of network connections to every graduate student area. For example, if there is one network connection per three grad students in 656, then the same ratio should be maintained in an annex. Point 3 had the disadvantage of giving a resource for a year but then cutting it off. ]
Submitted by Marc Abrams, 7 January 1997