News 07-23-2002
Sponsor: Sophos Anti-Virus FREE Web Seminar
Why should schools use Sophos Anti-Virus Solutions? Find out, join us for a
free web seminar. You'll hear from Michael Hodges, University of Hawaii, about
why Sophos Anti-Virus Solutions, which were designed specifically for networks,
offer an easily updated, flexible solution for managing the complexity of educational
environments.
To register for this free web seminar, go to: http://101offer.com/goto/?SYL7902
Georgia Tech Forms E-Commerce Partnership
The Georgia Institute of Technology and a software developer for the computer-assisted
engineering market formed a partnership to create multi-disciplinary projects
and research in the areas of Internet-based collaborative product engineering
and e-commerce. The university and Dassault Systemes will build the Georgia
Tech Product Life Cycle Management Competency Center (GT-PLMCC) on the main
university campus in Atlanta. The Center will provide Georgia Tech with the
new computer-aided classrooms, intelligent synthesis environments, and virtual
reality simulation theatres necessary for collaborative design evolution and
education. The Center is pioneering efforts to produce an international standard
3D Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) technology demonstration site at Georgia
Tech. Georgia Tech will initially use the PLM tools to produce aerospace technology
in support of advanced vehicle design research. Additional development will
take place in the areas of manufacturing, management, and enterprise resource
planning (ERP).
For more information, visit: http://www.cad.gatech.edu/gtplmcc
Sponsor: Syllabus2002 Opens in Santa Clara, CA on July 27
Only two days left to register online! The ninth annual Syllabus education
technology conference for higher education kicks off this Saturday, July 27
in Santa Clara, Calif. This five-day program is packed with workshops, seminars,
and six tracks of breakout sessions covering topics such as infrastructure and
IT planning, open source models, and web based environments. Internationally
renowned keynote speakers include Diana Laurillard of the Open University of
the UK, Stanford University Law Professor Lawrence Lessig, and Jack Wilson,
Chief Executive Officer of UMassOnline. If you only go to one conference this
year, Syllabus2002 is the one you can't afford to miss.
Berkeley Turns to Enterprise Database Software
The University of California at Berkeley is using an enterprise database platform
to help organize its campus-wide Museum Informatics Project (MIP), through which
it maintains the databases of the University museum collections, including the
Botanical Garden, the History of Art Department Visual Resource Collection,
and the Berkeley Language Center. To help sort through the collections, the
University is turning to Business Objects, a developer of so-called "business
intelligence (BI) solutions." The company says it pioneered the modern BI industry
in 1990 by inventing a patented "semantic layer" that insulates users from the
complexity of databases. Using the integrated query, reporting, and analysis
software, the curatorial staff for each of these departments is able to answer
faculty and researchers' questions about the contents of various collections
and quickly generate their own reports.
Online U. Graduates Largest Ever Online Class
Minneapolis-based Capella University, a fully online school serving adult learners
and employers, said it would confer the largest graduating class in its history
at a commencement ceremony on July 27, 2002. About 400 students from around
the globe will be honored at the event, more than doubling the size of last
year's graduating class. Based on existing growth, Capella projects distance
learning will increase by 900 percent in the United States to include 750,000
students fully online by 2005. The school's fifth commencement will draw more
than 100 graduates who will travel to Minneapolis to attend the graduation,
some from as far away as the United Kingdom, South Korea and Singapore. For
students that cannot travel to Minnesota, the ceremony will also be broadcast
live on the Capella University Web site.
For more information, visit: http://www.capellauniversity.edu
U California Launches AP Biology Online
The University of California has joined with a developer of online educational
media for secondary schools to create a online Advanced Placement Biology course
that will be available to high school students nationwide. Originally developed
by the University of California College Prep Initiative (UCCP) and Science Media,
the two-semester course will be modified for Apex Learning's online learning
platform. Initiated by UC Santa Cruz Vice Chancellor Francisco J. Hernandez
in 1998, UCCP seeks to provide online AP and Honors courses to high school students
who otherwise would not have access to the program. "In just four years, UCCP
has made tremendous strides in ensuring that underserved California high school
students have access to rigorous college prep courses," said Sue Collins, Chief
Education Officer, Apex Learning."
For more information, visit http://www.uccp.org.
Microsoft $25M Software Grant to UNCF
Microsoft Corp. expanded its support of the United Negro College Fund (UNCF)
with a $25 million software grant. UNCF President William H. Gray III accepted
the donation at Xavier University, a UNCF school in New Orleans. Microsoft also
donated 150 full-loaded Dell computers to the TRIO Upward Bound program at Xavier
University and five New Orleans public schools. "At Microsoft, we believe that
technology can help everyone realize their full potential," Microsoft chairman
Bill Gates said in making the awards. "It's our hope that today's donations
will enable the UNCF to expand educational opportunities for students in New
Orleans and nationwide -- today and for a lifetime."
For more information, visit: http://www.microsoft.com/giving
Awards, Deals, Contracts, in Higher Education
-- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) awarded Genuity Inc., a provider
of enterprise Internet Protocol (IP) networking services, a contract to provide
increased Internet access bandwidth. The new service, an Internet Advantage
OC-12 (Optical Carrier Level 12) Internet access service, will augment MIT's
existing OC-3 Internet access service from Genuity. The resulting capacity will
provide MIT with the ability to grow to the equivalent of more than 500 T-1
lines, with speeds 13,500 times faster than that of a standard 56K dial-up modem.
-- Brown University signed a contract with PhoneticOperator to voice-enable
the university's main phone directory. The directory of over 5,000 records will
be available for use by university staff, faculty and students. Phonetic Systems
currently supports more than 10,500,000 unique directory listings and over 225,000,000
calls per year across its deployments.
