Information Technology Projects and Programs
IT and the Environment – IT is concerned about sustainability and how current and proposed IT initiatives and projects affect the campus and surrounding area environments.
The New Network project is a 2-year project to update the entire campus network infrastructure including wiring, network electronics, and wireless capability in every campus building as well as enterprise class storage and backups for home directories.
Work continues on the Mudd Data Center with pre-design work for UPS, cooling expansion, and new PDUs while we explore off-site options.
Services Provided by IT – we are developing four service documents (Core Computing Services, Research Services, Classroom/Lab Services, and Media Services) to clarify IT’s service relationship with the Rice community.
Research Computing - supporting Computer Science and CITI in selecting and installing the new RCRC high performance computational cluster.
Sakai Open Source Collaboration Framework – we are integrating Sakai courseware management tools with the Connexions learning content creation application and digital asset management tools (D-Space, Fedora, MDID/Almagest) to create a framework for open source collaborative tools.
Campus Portal – IT is working with campus groups to create an information portal for the Rice community using uPortal software.
Facilities Management System - Two year project to implement a world class facilities management system with Administrative Systems, FE&P, and IT.
Single Sign-On using Kerberos authentication - To reduce the number of logins and passwords used to access systems at Rice.
Rice connects to Network Superhighways - participating in the implementation of several advanced networking projects including: Research and Education Network of Houston (RENoH), Lonestar Education and Research Network (LEARN), and National Lambda Rail (NLR). These new facilities-based networks --consisting of dark-fiber between endpoints-- will strengthen and complement existing activities with the Southeast Texas GigaPOP (SETG) and Internet2
Working with Electronic Recycling and the Classifieds office to ensure storage devices are cleaned of Rice data before disposal.
Technology Marketplace – continue to build vendor relations and seek pricing discounts from vendors for the campus.
Second Life – in collaboration with CITI and Fondren Library's Special Collections group, IT is exploring the educational value of the virtual world in Second Life. For additional information on visiting Owl Land in Second Life, contact Phillip Montgomery at Rice, pmontgom@rice.edu, or chat with his Second Life avatar, Philip Plante, if you've already gone virtual.
