V. G. College of Science Status Report
28 January 1999
Botany
1. Classroom instructional equipment
a. Multimedia display equipment: None.
b. Projection equipment: We have a laptop computer projection system.
c. Distance learning facilities: None.
2. Laboratory facilities
a. Types of labs: Four teaching labs, one of which is used for student/faculty research when classes are not in session. We also have a herbarium and a greenhouse and share a cell culture lab.
b. Quality and quantity of hardware and software:
1. 486 PC attached to a microtiter plate reader. The dot matrix printer currently attached to this unit is not adequate to print out the readouts. Hence, students must save graphs on a disk and go elsewhere to print them out.
2. The projector laptop is used in labs.
3. Pentium laptop used for field data collection.
c. Availability of support personnel: It is often difficult to get assistance when it is needed due to schedule conflicts between faculty and support personnel.
3. Availability and quality of personal work stations for faculty, staff and students:
a. Faculty computers include:
1 Pentium
1 486 (upgraded to Pentium via distance learning funds)
1 486
1 Mac Plus
1 Mac IIci with printer
1 Power Mac (left when a faculty member resigned)
b. Herbarium has a Mac Sentris 560 plus a laserjet printer.
c. Lab manager has a 386 PC (upgraded to 486 when faculty 486 was upgraded to Pentium)
d. Botany has NO student work stations.
4. Availability and quality of computing support and training: Workshops are useful for
those who can attend.
Chemistry
1. Computer Equipment Available for Student Use
Quantity Description Acquisition
2 NEC 486 — 66MHz computers with
Super VGA monitors
1 Silverbird 386 with VGA monitor Recycled
1 Connecting Point 386 SX with VGA monitor Recycled
2 Pentium II 266MHz computers, 64 Mb RAM ARCC 1998
2. Computer Equipment Available for Faculty Use
Faculty: 11 members
Secretary: 1
Quantity Description Acquisition
1 286 or 386 Recycled
2 486DX/66 Departmental
2 Power Macs 7500/100 Departmental 1995
1 Pentium 100 with 16 Mb RAM Departmental 1997
1 Pentium 100 with 24 Mb RAM Departmental 1997
1 Pentium 133 with 32 Mb RAM, portable Science Initiative 1997
1 Pentium 150 with 32 Mb RAM ARCC 1996(upgrade1997)
1 Pentium 166 with 32 Mb RAM ARCC 1997
1 Pentium II, 233 with 64 Mb RAM Departmental 1998
1 Pentium II, 266 with 64 Mb RAM Departmental 1997
1 Pentium II, Pro 300 with 64 Mb RAM Chem Tech Center 1998
1 LaserJet 5M (entire department) University 1998
1 LaserJet 4 (chair) Departmental
Geosciences
1. Classroom instructional equipment
a. Multimedia display equipment:
- Permanently connected multimedia display equipment, connected to Internet in
LL 124.
- Portable multimedia equipment set: laptop PC, LCD (Liquid Crystal Displayer).
b. Projection equipment:
- LL 124 room: NEC Projector, VCR, Laser Disk Player.
- Portable Liquid Crystal Display (see point 1 a), and Laser Disk Player.
c. Distance Learning Facilities:
- No distance learning facilities.
2. Laboratory facilities
a. Types of labs:
- RSGISL (Remote Sensing Geographic Information System Lab)
- Upper Division/ Meteorology Lab
b. Quality and quantity of hardware and software:
- RSGISL: six Pentium PCs with current software requirements,
color printer, plotter, digitizer
- Upper Division/Meteorology Lab: two Macs, scanner, current imaging software
- Meteorology Lab: three Pentium PCs, two 486 PCs, printer
c. Availability of support personnel:
- Both software and hardware support limited and not sufficient.
3. Availability and quality of personal work stations for faculty, staff and students: Five faculty have a 486 or better PCs, one faculty has a MacII CI. Students taking Geospatial classes and other upper division classes have access to PCs and Macs in the RSGISL and Upper Division Lab. Faculty and staff are connected to the
Sci Net, and GroupWise, with some connected to STAARS. Most computers have Windows95 or NT. One older Mac needs urgent replacement for a newer Macintosh. One PC of a faculty needs a large capacity hard-drive (4.5 MG) and a Jazz Drive (big files created by numerical modeling).
4. Availability and quality of computing support and training:
We desire additional training for specialized software. Delays to remedy
network problems are too long.Mathematics
1. Classroom Instructional Equipment
Multimedia display equipment: Three computers (386 PC, Pentium and PowerPC) on carts, one large screen TV and one VCR.
Projection equipment: Two projectors (one fixed, one mobile) and several overhead projectors.
Distance learning facilities: No distance learning facilities.
2. Laboratory Facilities
a. Types of labs: An open computer lab which can be reserved for classes is
available, and a classroom for teacher training courses is equipped with computers.
Quality and quantity of hardware and software:
Open Computer Lab:
10 PowerPCs, 10 NeXTStations, one NeXT server, one other server
Teacher Training Classroom:
10 386-PCs, one LCD panel
Availability of support personnel: Support is the responsibility of Academic
Computing and both its availability and quality is poor.
3. Availability and quality of personal work stations for faculty, staff and students.
Faculty Three faculty use outdated computers and there is a need for computers for new incoming faculty members.
Staff There is one computer (Pentium) available for staff. There is a need for a second computer.
Adjuncts Some older computers and computers in the open computer labs are available for adjunct instructors.
Students Students have access mainly to computers in the open computer lab.
4. Availability and quality of computing support and training: Both availability and quality of computing support and training is poor.
Microbiology
1. Classroom instructional equipment
a. Multimedia display equipment: No computer-linked equipment is available.
b. Projection equipment: No computer-linked equipment is available. We have shared access to a portable video projector with an associated VCR and laser disk player; this projector will not accept input from computers. Slide and 16 mm movie projectors are in lower Lind Lecture Hall classrooms.
c. Distance learning facilities: No interactive classroom is available in the department. Faculty can communicate via e-mail.
2. Laboratory facilities
a. Types of labs: Three teaching labs, one student/faculty research lab, one biofermentation/culture identification lab, one shared cell-culture lab.
b. Quality and quantity of hardware and software: Two 486 PCs dedicated to culture identification via the BioLog software and to running fermentation equipment, one Mac used by the Laboratory Manager, and two surplus 386 PCs equipped with word-processing software. Printers in the lab are surplus dot-matrix machines of poor reliability.
c. Availability of support personnel: It is difficult to obtain reasonably prompt and reliable computer software support, and consequently most faculty give up and try to do it themselves or find a willing student who can try to help. The hardware maintenance and the changing of network connections are even worse for long delays and sometimes unsatisfactory repair outcomes.
3. Availability and quality of personal work stations for faculty, staff, and students: Each faculty and staff member has a 486 or better PC or Macintosh, and students have access to an older surplus 386 PC. Faculty and staff are connected to SciNet and GroupWise, and some have access to STAARS. Only two computers are running Windows 95, and therefore most faculty are not able to run the latest software. All of the other machines need upgrading or replacement to run Windows 95 (98) or NT and to have at least 32 MB of RAM. Five of the faculty-staff computers need a CD-ROM drive, at least two could use a larger capacity hard-drive, and at least two need a high-capacity drive such as an Iomega Zip drive.
4. Availability and quality of computing support and training: Faculty and staff who have participated in computer workshops feel that they were good general introductions. Seminars for our classes on Axum graphing and on the library databases have been excellent and have been effective in getting students started. Immediate access to expert assistance with software questions and problems seems less available, and faculty and staff are frustrated with long delays in getting a technician to come to the office to remedy network problems or to load software.
Physics
1. Faculty computers:
486 - 1
Pentium - 5
Mac - 3
Sun Sparc Station - 1
2. Laboratory facilities:
Lower Division Physics Labs:
3 Labs each with: 8 PowerMac stations, 1 PowerMac server, 1 printer
Nuclear Physics Lab:
1 Pentium 90
1 386-20
Modern Physics Lab:
1 486-66 with data acquisition card
Laser/Optics Lab:
1 486-66 with data acquisition card
Atomic Physics Lab:
1 Pentium 166 with data acquisition card
Electronics Lab:
2 - XT's
1 - 486-66
3. Instructional technology:
LL 121:
1 portable LCD video/computer projector
LL 203 (planetarium):
1 386-25 with planetarium theater automation hardware
1 Pentium-90
1 video disk player
1 permanently mounted CRT video/computer projector
SL 240:
1 ceiling mounted LCD video/computer projector
1 Pentium laptop computer
1 PowerMac 720
Zoology
Classroom instructional equipment
Multimedia display and projection equipment: Lecture room LL130 (capacity 105 students) is equipped with a permanent multimedia console and projector (VCR, laser disk player, overhead projector, and pentium computer).
Internet access: The computer in LL130 is connected to the Internet.
Distance learning facilities: LL130 is attached to Ed-net for receiving broadcasts from remote sites.
Laboratory facilities
Types of labs: DNA laboratory
Quality and quantity of hardware and software: one pentium computer with software for genetic analysis, connected to a scanner to analyze DNA fingerprints.
Availability of support personnel: the person who will manage this lab will begin work during the spring quarter 1998.
Availability and quality of personal work stations for faculty, staff, and students:
Each faculty member has a computer in his/her office. These include one 386, two 486s, four pentiums, and four Macs. The secretary has a pentium and the lab manager has a 486. These machines and software on hand are meeting the current needs of the department. Some of the hardware will need to be updated in the near future. The department has two computers available for student use, but only in laboratories. One is the pentium in the DNA lab and the other is a 386 on a portable cart which can be used in several labs.
Availability and quality of computing support and training:
The department feels that support for computer problems is adequate, but does see a need for increasing the size of the support staff because of delays between requests for assistance and the time the service is provided. The variety and frequency of training sessions on campus meets the department's need at present.
5. Computer inventory
| NAME | INVENTORY | TYPE | MODEL |
| Zeveloff | 10005400 | National Microcomp | 486 |
| Baker | 10034400 | National Microcomp | Pentium |
| Mull | 10000920 | Macintosh | Quadra 800 |
| Van De Graaff | 10059392 | Macintosh | G3 Power Mac |
| Okazaki | 10038960 | Silverbird | Pentium |
| Clark | 10018470 | Macintosh | Quadra 660 |
| Meadows | 10047990 | Pentium | |
| Graff | 10004700 | Silverbird | 486 |
| Wurst | 2105327 | Macintosh | MacPlus |
| Meyers | 10018490 | Macintosh | Quadra 660AV |
| Lab | 213-585 | 386 | |
| Lab | 10004810 | Silverbird | 386 |
| Lab | 10004070 | IBN | 386 |
| Lab | 10014650 | IBN | 386 |
| Lab | 10014600 | IBN | 386 |
| Lab | 10014620 | IBN | 386 |
| Lab | 10059254 | Silverbird | Pentium II |
| Lab | 10058351 | Gateway Laptop | Pentium |
| Lab | 10058352 | Gateway Laptop | Pentium |
| Ford | 10006150 | Silverbird | 486 |
| Marti | 10039580 | Pentium 100 | |
| Jensen | |||
| DNA Lab | 10027980 | National Microcomp | Pentium |
| Meyers | 10018500 | Macintosh | Mac Laserwriter |
| 2130042 | HP | Deskjet PL | |
| 2130585 | Canon | BJ10E | |
| 2130593 | HP | Deskwriter | |
| DNA Lab | 10027950 | HP | Deskjet 540 |
| Meadows | 10018480 | HP | |
| Okazaki | 2104508 | HP | Laserjet |
| Marti | 10002240 | HP | 2001A |
| 10019340 | HP | Deskjet 560C | |
| Baker | 10032550 | HP | Laserjet 4Plus |