UIUC > CITES > DEPARTMENTAL SERVICES > CCSP > AGENDA

Hawthorn Suites Conference Center, Thursday May 20.
This conference is possible through CITES and corporate sponsorship.
(Click session titles for a description and presenter information.)

Session Descriptions and Presenter Information

Welcome

Stan Yagi joined the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in August 2001, as Director of the Computing and Communications Services Office and Assistant Chief Information Officer. The 2002 reorganization resulted in a new organization name (CITES), and a new title for Stan: Assistant CIO for Information Technologies. Stan heads four divisions within CITES: Communications Technologies, directed by Beth Scheid; Customer Support and Information Services, directed by Mona Heath; Departmental Services, directed by Rich Williams; and Systems and Technology Services, directed by Randy Cetin.

Prior to accepting his current position, Stan served as the Director of Information Technology Services at Queen's University, Kingston Ontario, Canada. Stan brought to the U of I an outstanding reputation as a leader and a partner to academic departments, the library, and other groups in support of teaching and research needs. He has a long and distinguished career in Information Technology and is active internationally in the computing and communications arenas.

Current and Future Directions for Information Security at UIUC

Mike Corn began at CITES mid-December of 2003 as Director of Security Services and Information Privacy in the Office of the CIO. Mike's background in Information Technology was in development dating back to his days watching 1/2" tape spin on PDP-Lab 8's in the mid 1970s, and working on atmospheric models of Mars at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder Colorado (Cray 1 serial # 2). While at the University of Illinois he has worked on a number of policy issues such as the University's policy on Social Security numbers he helped formulate applications such as a data mart in the original Information Warehouse, and database-driven web applications. Mike lives in Urbana with his aging Labrador, Shiva.

Scrub that Drive: Complying with the Data Security on State Computers Act

This discussion will review guidelines for network administrators and University-provided tools for drive scrubbing, as well as drive scrapping issues.

Mike Corn began at CITES mid-December of 2003 as Director of Security Services and Information Privacy in the Office of the CIO. Mike's background in Information Technology was in development dating back to his days watching 1/2" tape spin on PDP-Lab 8's in the mid 1970s, and working on atmospheric models of Mars at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder Colorado (Cray 1 serial # 2). While at the University of Illinois he has worked on a number of policy issues such as the University's policy on Social Security numbers he helped formulate applications such as a data mart in the original Information Warehouse, and database-driven web applications. Mike lives in Urbana with his aging Labrador, Shiva.

The Ins and Outs of a Redhat Network

This technical overview of the Redhat Network (RHN) will touch on central server administration, patch, package and provisioning management systems for Redhat Enterprise Linux. RHN allows system administrators to manage automatic patching and patch rollback of Redhat systems, as well as maintenance of inventory information for those systems. With the newly released RHN provisioning module, system administrators can now use RHN to manage configuration states of systems, as well as clone and provision systems using Redhat Kickstart.

Ben O'Connor joined CITES in July of 2001 as a systems administrator in CITES Systems and Technology Services. He is primarily responsible for systems administration for parts of the soon-to-be-retired Student/Staff cluster, as well as CITES NetFiles. Ben is also systems administrator in the Workstation Services Group, which recently merged with the Production Systems Group to become the CITES Systems Management Group. Among several other special projects, he also administers a 208-node Linux cluster. Ben is a Redhat Certified Engineer.

Upcoming Trends and Technologies in the Classroom

This talk will cover various technologies being developed commercially and here on campus.  Subjects will range from off-the-shelf solutions such as installed projection systems to home-grown audience response systems. Where possible, demonstrations will be given on how these technologies can be utilized in future classroom instruction.

Dan Doolen has been working in the electronic communications field for over thirty years. He has gained work experience from service in the United States Navy, with the cable TV industry, and here at the University of Illinois. Presently the Director of CITES Classroom Technologies, he holds the classification of Chief Instructional Media Systems Engineer. Dan graduated from Eastern Illinois University and is currently pursuing a Master's degree. In addition, Dan was awarded the Chancellor's Distinguished Staff Award in 2001.

Brian McNurlen serves as the Senior Coordinator of Classroom Support and Training in CITES Classroom Technologies. He provides assistance to UIUC faculty who are teaching with educational technologies in their classrooms. In addition to pursuing a graduate degree in educational psychology at UIUC, Brian has five years of teaching experience at the university level and published research in the areas of learning and instruction. He has also produced workshops for teachers interested in collaborative technologies for education.

Firewalls 101: Building a Foundation

Firewalls are often referred to as one of the cornerstones of security. However, ideas of what exactly a firewall is and where it is placed have changed over time. This discussion will cover what firewalls are, where they are commonly placed, some of their advantages and disadvantages, and whether a layered approach to firewalling is practical in an educational environment. Some of the alternative and complementary technologies to firewalls will also be explored.

Mary Stevens has worked on campus for the last seven years. Currently, she is a member of CITES Communications Technologies and Services. Her major projects include the campus firewalls and the VPN service.

NetFiles: Enterprise File Storage Solution

CITES NetFiles has 9,000 users. NetFiles is a highly successful program that allows UIUC students, staff, and faculty to store and share files, as well as to enable collaboration with colleagues outside the University. In addition to offering a convenient way to share files, NetFiles also allows clients to publish to the web.

Chris Newman has been a research programmer with UIUC since 2001. Chris began at the CITES Operation Center as a network analyst, and later moved to the Production Applications Group and has worked on the NetFiles project for over a year. Chris is currently a CITES Oracle DBA, offering services to various CITES projects.

Institutional Data and Identifiers and CITES: or How Banner, Enterprise Application Service (EAS), and CITES Directory Systems Interact Today, and in the Future

The transition of enterprise administrative systems to Banner, the coalescing of NetIDs/Enterprise ID to a University-wide managed namespace within EAS, the increasing importance of the UIN as a person's core University identifier, etc., have all had a major impact on how CITES manages its directory systems and how our systems interact with enterprise systems. This session will cover the current state of how CITES directory systems are kept up to date with institutional data, and the various interactions of our systems with EAS and Banner. Since some of this work will still be ongoing or still in the planning stages in late May, both current work and future plans will be presented.

Mike Grady currently holds two half-time positions in CITES. His newest role is coordinating the CITES effort to identify, assess, and prioritize emerging IT technologies, needs, and architectures that will be strategic to the campus in the next several years. His other position is managing the Integration and Software Engineering group that provides most of the programming support for integration and development projects in CITES. He is also active in the Internet2 community, working on middleware-related efforts. Mike has worked full time for the University since 1978, and for CITES since 1985. During his time with CITES, he has worked in computer graphics, consulting, information retrieval, full-text indexing and searching, web application development, service management, and directory services.

CITES Directory Services: Where We Are, and Where We're Going

CITES currently operates several directory services for the academic computing needs of campus, including ED (formerly ph), Novell eDirectory, iPlanet LDAP, and Microsoft Active Directory. These technologies provide service to many clients and applications at UIUC. CITES realizes that these services are lacking much-needed features and is currently working to create the next generation of directory services to meet UIUC's academic computing needs. This presentation will discuss some of the current issues with CITES directory services, as well as what the campus might expect in the coming months.

Keith Wessel works for CITES Production Applications Group, where he serves as the technical lead and service manager for the next generation of CITES' directory services. Although he has only been working full time for CITES for a year and a half, he is no stranger to the UIUC computing community. Keith began working for NCSA in 1992 as a software developer and system administrator. Later, while completing two degrees in computer science at UIUC's College of Engineering, he worked for CCSO's Workstation Services Group and the Engineering Workstations Group. His brief year and a half in the corporate world took him to Michigan where he obtained Six Sigma certification and project management experience with Ford Motor Company. When he's not working, Keith might be seen walking around campus accompanied by Apollo, his guide dog and faithful friend of 10 years – the only dog on campus with a master's degree.

Some Straw Man Models for Unified Network Support

CITES Network Engineering has several possible service offerings to make managing a departmental network easier. Especially in light of recent security incidents, network management is much more critical. Some such services are already in progress, such as improved IRIS functionality. Some are easy in principle but have support and procedure issues, such as the notion of central DHCP service for all nets. Still others, such as providing an interface to our central database of router and switch table data, are straightforward but will require considerable development effort. A group discussion is planned to help us identify priorities for the coming year.

Charley Kline has been the primary architect of UIUC's communications network for twelve years. He manages the Network Engineering group in CITES Communications Technologies. Current group projects include development of network accounting and information databases for hosts on UIUCnet, deployment of wireless and VPN technologies, continued re-engineering of the UIUCnet core to meet changing needs of the campus, and research in advanced technologies such as IP Telephony, IPv6, and very high speed network access.

Overview of Illinois Compass: Support of the Campus Learning Environment

This session will give an overview of the campus learning environment powered by WebCT Vista. Illinois Compass was introduced to this campus in Spring 2004 with a group of faculty members pioneering the system to teach spring courses. Full rollout is scheduled for Fall 2004. This discussion will cover the timeline for ending legacy services such as WebCT CE and Blackboard, the training requirement for users for the new system, and answer questions on how you and your department can help CITES support the new campus learning environment.

Leslie Hammersmith is the director of CITES Educational Technologies. Jerry Eagles is a research programmer of CITES Educational Technologies.

Romancing the Penguin: How Hollywood Moved to Open Source Production at the Desktop

The entertainment industry went through blood, sweat, and tears bringing Linux to the desktop for visual effects productions.

Jim Pirzyk has been working for CITES for the past year in CITES Systems and Technology Services supporting core UNIX systems for the University. Previous to that, he was swallowed up by the rat race working for a three-fingered entertainment corporation for eight years where he participated in the move from SGI IRIX to alternate platforms including Linux, FreeBSD, and Mac OS X workstations.