Can you Google me now?

Students in the USF dorms have a lot of problems with wireless access.

Information Technology seniors Mike Dembeck and Rob DeLong wanted a project that would give them some real world experience.

Mark Snodgrass, Director of Network Support Services here at USF, decided that he could help the students in the dorm as well as Mike and Rob achieve their goals.

This semester Mike and Rob are surveying the wireless situation, contacting vendors about products, balancing coverage and cost, then putting together a proposal so that the USF dorms in Marian Hall, Tower Hall, and the Motherhouse have improved wireless access. They'll help develop the business plan and, upon the approval of the IT department, assist the IT department with implementing the plan.

This project will provide Mike and Rob with a real world exposure to designing and implementing technology based projects, dealing with constraints, such as physical structures and business considerations, such as cost. Since the students’ objectives are to work in the Information Technology sector, a course like this will provide them the opportunity to explore project management, request for proposals, an increased understanding of the expanding role of wireless access and a concrete case study of a current networking problem.

Whew! They're going to be busy as they keep their supervisors in the loop with weekly status reports. So if you're in the dorms and you see Mike and Rob, let them know that their efforts are appreciated.

Coming soon to a portal near you!

Information Technology majors Brandon Rusnak and Matt Nosbisch worked hard over the summer on their Senior project. It so impressed their senior project adviser, Tim Archer, Computer Science alumnus and USF IS Manager that he's got Matt and Brandon on board to put it up on the portal. They'll get familiar with more technology and USF students are going to have a new feature on the portal.

Here's what their project was about:

The senior project, ONEPortfolio, is a way for USF Computer Science students to showcase all of their skills and achievements to prospective employers. The ONEPortfolio website allows users to upload images, resumes, code samples, a biography, education / school information, web links and more that will be displayed on a profile page for the user on the site so that a prospective employer can quickly view this information about the potential employee.

The link to a user's profile can be shared on the web or via email and is a great way for someone to quickly learn about that person's skills and abilities. The site makes it easy for users to upload their information to the site by guiding them through the steps in an easy to use wizard. The site also features a powerful Admin Control Panel which allows the site administrator to change the site content, edit users and change settings with ease.

Matt & Brandon will be presenting their project soon so that all Computer Science department students can get a look at this great new utility.

Congratulations, Brandon & Matt, on a job well done!

Data Recovery Seminar

Uh-oh, that drive is toast!
Or is it?

Join our own Andrew Johnson, Information Technology, to learn about recovering data from damaged drives.

He'll demonstrate both free and purchased applications to use on hard drives.
There will be group activities to determine if a drive can be recovered.
Also, because you may need to dispose of a drive, Andrew will talk about how to safely erase a drive.
You'll learn about retrieving deleted data.

Don't miss:

The Data Recovery Seminar
Saturday, Sept 25th
9:00 AM - 11:00 AM
St. Albert's Hall, A102
University of St. Francis
500 Wilcox
Joliet, IL 60435

RSVP to Ruth Weldon

Sponsored by the USF Computer Science Club/IEEE Student Branch

Intern/Part time employee opportunity

A consulting firm in Bolingbrook is looking for someone for as an intern or a part time employee.

From the firm's email:
"an intern position or something part time in the "IT" field for about 25-30 hours per week. We would expect that this person would already have their A+ and Network+ certifications or have taken the course equivalency. Also our preference is for someone who has light programming skills or has had an introduction to some type of software technology."

Your microcomputer systems and networking courses would be the course equivalency.

If you are interested please see Ruth for the contact information.

They will be looking for a resume!

A new lab, a new look!

Welcome back to a new semester!

By now you’ve seen our newly remodeled lab. New furniture, new workstations, two flat screen tv monitors, webcams, a scanner, a printer, and a collaboration workstation. The nine workstations are equipped with Visual Studio 2010, Java SDK, and Oracle. The flat screen TV can display the images from the end workstation. At the opposite end of the room the flat screen is hooked up to a KVM
(Keyboard, Video, Mouse) switch that can handle four laptop hook-ups so that students can collaborate on projects and take turns displaying what they’re working on. The lab is still on an isolated network with Internet access so that networking classes can experiment. There is a password protected wireless hotspot in the lab.

In addition, there is a relaxation station with a couple of chairs.

But the lab is not the only new thing this semester. The Computer Science server room got a fresh reload over the summer.

Through our participation the VMWare Academic Program we have VMWare products to use for virtualization. There’s a Remote Desktop that is accessible in any lab on campus or from home. VPN is set up on our server so that you can access most of the server facilities from home or dorm.

The servers provide access to Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Active Directory, Microsoft Sharepoint Server, CentOS Linux, RedHat Linux, Microsoft Remote Desktop Services. An educational license of CPanel allows web access of designated web pages. There is also a server devoted for student creation of virtual machines.

Our lab upgrade was funded by the Academic Computing Fund.

The lab is a fun place to work and relax. Be sure and drop in to not only work on your labs, but catch up with your friends.



Thanks to everyone who dedicated so much effort during the summer to ensure that the lab was a show place - especially to the USF IT staff, Tim Archer, Ben Gunnink, Dave Senior, Jerry Kickul , alumni, Kevin Beckman & Scott Walton, and the students.

Internship Opportunity - Just in.

One of our alumni, Gannon Novak, Information Technology '09, has let us know about an internship opportunity with his company. It would be a combination of IT and Telecomm work. The company is located in a nearby town so it is not far from campus.

Please let Ruth know if you'd like to pursue this opportunity.

Thanks, Gannon, for keeping us in mind!

Congratulations, Kevin

Kevin Beckman, our second Mathematics/Computer Science major, graduated on May 8th. He had a 3.89 GPA, He was not only a member of Epsilon Delta Pi, the Computer Science Honor Society, but of Kappa Mu Epsilon, the Mathematics Honor Society, as well as Delta Epsilon Sigma, a national honor society. Kevin had worked at Argonne National Labs for the past two years in the Cooperative Education Program.

Good luck, Kevin. All of us at USF are proud of you.