Welcome to ITaP Faculty Focus
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If you have suggestions or comments about ITaP Faculty Focus, please direct them to Greg Kline.
Welcome to ITaP Faculty Focus
Please note that this publication of ITaP, Purdue’s central IT organization, is sent using HTML email, which is a format that includes color graphics. If your email software is unable to display this format, you can view the ITaP Faculty Focus from the ITaP newsroom.
ITaP Faculty Focus is an opt-out publication, which means that you will continue to receive it unless you decide to unsubscribe. If you are not interested in receiving this information, you may unsubscribe at the Faculty Focus Web page.
If you have suggestions or comments about ITaP Faculty Focus, please direct them to Jennifer Crowell.
IT News
Registration open for December research and teaching technologies showcase
Registration is open for Purdue CI Days 2010, an event showcasing technology available at Purdue to enhance research, teaching and research funding.
Purdue CI Days 2010 is scheduled for Dec. 8-9 at Fowler Hall in Stewart Center on Purdue’s West Lafayette campus and the Purdue Memorial Union. The program will focus on how just about any faculty member, research staffer or graduate student can benefit from cyberinfrastructure, or CI. Participants in all fields are welcome.
For more information on CI Days 2010 and to register, visit ITaP's CI Days website or email a CI Days representative. The registration deadline is Nov. 29.
Purdue’s cyberinfrastructure ranges from cutting-edge supercomputers for the most demanding computational research to tools of potential benefit in the classroom, such as Hotseat and Signals. Hotseat integrates student Twitter and Facebook posts into classroom discussions, while Signals is a system for tracking a student’s progress in a class and getting those who need assistance help before they reach a point of no return.
Featured speakers at Purdue CI Days 2010 include University of Illinois Professor Donna Cox, an internationally known scientific-visualization expert at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications and an Academy Award nominee; Arden Bement Jr., former director of the National Science Foundation and now head of Purdue’s Global Policy Research Institute; and Russ Hobby, an Internet pioneer and program manager for Internet2.
In addition, CI Days 2010 will include presentations from other CI experts and from faculty members already taking advantage of Purdue’s CI, including:
- HUBzero, an easy-to-use system for building online research and teaching partnerships and communities with real computational research tools accessible through any Web browser.
- DiaGrid, a distributed computing system with 30,000 processors available to any campus researcher.
- Data visualization service; real-time satellite and remote sensing data acquisition and processing; and virtual reality and motion capture facilities, among other things.
ITaP activates new research supercomputing cluster, space still available
That rocket engines and pipe organs have something in common may not seem intuitive, but both blow acoustic waves through a tube, which can result in beautiful music or, in the case of an engine, operating inefficiencies, even catastrophe. Charles Merkle, an aeronautics and astronautics and mechanical engineering professor, examines such processes in tiny steps played out over time in computer models.
ITaP’s new Rossmann supercomputing cluster is helping Merkle’s lab meet the considerable computational demands of the research. He’s gone from being able to enlist 50 processors a few years ago to 500 processing cores in Rossmann. The new cluster has room for expansion. To see available hardware configurations and to place an order, faculty members and campus units can visit the Rossmann cluster order system website.
ITaP simulation gives preservice special-education teachers practice with classroom decisions
Special-education assistant professor Emily Bouck knows today’s teachers need multiple tools to make decisions and provide instruction in complex classroom situations.
To engage undergraduate students in special-education methods courses EDPS 460 and 462, and provide them practice in applying course knowledge, Bouck collaborated with ITaP’s instructional services unit for technical help in developing an educational game she named TeachLive.
Bouck wanted TeachLive to be a safe environment where her teachers-to-be could assume instructional responsibilities, work with multidimensional students, face typical classroom issues related to instruction or student misbehavior and decide what actions to take.
“I had seen such simulations at the K-12 level, but nothing like what I envisioned for college students,” Bouck says.
Learn to be a cyber-survivor as Purdue observes National Cybersecurity Awareness Month
Predict, prevent, prevail, and learn how to become a cyber-survivor as ITaP marks Purdue University’s fifth annual observance of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month.
The observance will highlight security tips and best practices to prevent identity or information theft. It will culminate with a free presentation from Intel’s chief information security officer, as well as Scott Ksander, Purdue’s chief information security officer and executive director of ITaP Networks and Security.
National Cybersecurity Awareness Month’s keynote campus event is a presentation from 9 to 11 a.m., Wednesday, Oct. 27, at Fowler Hall in Stewart Center.
Tech Tidbits
Purdue University expands classroom experience with launch of Verizon’s 4G LTE Network Read more
Purdue-developed student intervention tech available nationally Read more
Oil spill videos part of Purdue-developed science site Read more
ITaP offers SharePoint training Oct. 28 Read more
Five-day SharePoint administration course offered for IT professionals Nov. 15-19 Read more