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About NACS

NACS Staff Move to URP

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The Network & Telecommunications Operations and Network & Support Programming groups within NACS moved to a new home at the intersection of Bison and California Avenues in the University Research Park in November of 2002.

Network & Telecommunications Operations maintains and supports the UCI campus telephone, voice mail, 800MHz trunked radio, and UCInet network service systems.

Network & Support Programming manages a range of central IT services including the Domain Name Service (DNS), printed and electronic directories (PH and LDAP), the campus email routers (MTAs), and the UCInetID authentication system.

Our telephone numbers, fax number, and email addresses remain the same. Our new address is 5201 California Avenue, Suite 150, Irvine, CA 92697-5475.

TechnoExpo a Success

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On Thursday, September 19, over 500 campus faculty and staff came to Emerald Bay A-E in the Student center to learn about computing and network applications and services from over 40 campus and vendor exhibitors. Jointly planned and operated by Administrative Computing Services and NACS, this was UCI’s biggest TechnoExpo yet.

Displays included help desks, accounting and administrative applications, campus databases and web sites, instructional technology support, and technology services. Those who missed it can still get some information from http://www.technoexpo.uci.edu/

This year’s TechnoExpo also included over 20 presentations on a variety of topics, including the new staff portal (SNAP), the Data Warehouse, the CorporateTime campus calendaring application, and network security information.

If you have a computer or network-enabled service, consider participating in the next TechnoExpo, which we intend to be better yet!

Communications Project Unit

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The Communications Project Unit (CPU) is a newly formed group within NACS. Its mission is to focus on campus network and telecommunications infrastructure projects. NACS-CPU has already implemented several process improvements, implemented a new streamlined blanket order process, and reduced the projects backlog.

NACS-CPU works with many other groups and departments in the course of overseeing a project to completion. In particular, NACS Network Operations handles much of the actual installation and testing of new network equipment.

NACS-CPU is currently managing the College of Medicine Network “Edge” Upgrade Project, several large building projects, and many smaller communications projects.

Diane Dunn, Manager of Communications Projects, plans and manages all UCI campus network and telecommunications infrastructure projects. Diane’s goal is to ensure that projects are well planned and well managed, completed on-time and within budget, and meet client expectations.

Todd Strand, Infrastructure Engineer, designs and estimates the costs for network and telecommunications infrastructure projects. He provides designs, plans, specifications, and detailed cost estimates during the planning stages of a project. Todd is a Registered Communications Distribution Designer, a LAN Specialist, and an Outside Plant Specialist (OSP).

Bruce Cotsonas, Project Coordinator, coordinates the communications with end users during long-term projects. He stays informed about short-range and long-range plans that could require communications infrastructure. Bruce is the NACS representative to the Campus Planning and Environment Committee and to the Planning Coordination Meeting

Handheld Inventory Tool

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Did you ever wonder who monitors all those items of capital equipment for the campus? Equipment Management must inventory all 37,907 items in the campus inventory, representing almost $300 million in campus assets, at least once every two years.

Technology is available to facilitate the inventory process in the form of portable, hand-held, laser-barcode scanners. The handheld scanner selected for use at UCI is manufactured by Symbol Technologies (www.symbol.com) and runs the Palm operating system. The scanner displays the equipment item’s property number, description, serial number, and location of record. It is also possible to perform edits on the spot.

NACS staff programmed the application that runs on the Palm O/S and developed a custom interface which synchronizes scanner records and AdCom databases. Adcom made some parallel changes in their systems to accommodate the new application.

After the inventory process is completed, the data is uploaded to the AdCom server. The database is updated and documents campus compliance with State and Federal accounting requirements. Use of the handheld scanner in limited settings has already shown its potential to greatly cut down the time and manpower needed to inventory capital equipment. Departments who would like to use the new system should contact Helen Chang, hmchang@uci.edu, x46111

Instructional Web Technologies

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The Electronic Educational Environment (EEE) is a collaboration among the UCI Libraries, the Division of Undergraduate Education, the Registrar, and Network & Academic Computing Services (NACS).

The group within NACS which participates in EEE has changed its name to Instructional Web Technologies (IWT). This change will more accurately reflect IWT’s mission of supporting the instructional use of technology, as one component of EEE.

The IWT group is managed by Shohreh Bozorgmehri. Staff members Eric Carter and Briandy Walden provide direct support to faculty and instructors who use technology for their courses. In addition, they maintain and develop the EEE website (http://eee.uci.edu/), serving all UCI instructors and students. David Pritikin is responsible for instructional technology training and client support.