News 02-19-2002
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Carnegie Mellon, Int'l School, Offer Networking Masters
Carnegie Mellon this fall will offer its first degree in Europe in collaboration
with the Athens Information Technology Institute (AIT) in Greece. The degree
is designed to meet the demand for higher education in Internet technologies,
including Internet security, systems and telecom, high-speed networking and
wireless mobile computing. The curriculum will be taught by faculty from both
Carnegie Mellon and AIT. AIT is building a new campus, with state-of-the-art
research and education facilities, a few miles from downtown Athens. The program
will be under the leadership of Christos Halkias, dean of AIT, and Pradeep K.
Khosla, head of Carnegie Mellon's Electrical and Computer Engineering Department
and the Information Networking Institute.
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R.I. Bank Packages Higher Ed Online Accounting
The Bank Rhode Island launched an finanical management program -- dubbed CampusMate
-- to link all of a student's banking and school-based accounts online. The
system, now being used at the Rhode Island School of Design, enables personal
banking by students, streamlines administration of student activity accounts,
and gives parents the ability to pay all of a student's financial needs electronically.
Bank officials said the program lets the bank serve as the school's automated
back office for a menu of accounts. In addition, the system plugs into the school's
existing systems, making additional technology unnecessary.
For more information, visit: <http://www.bankri.com>.
SAP Funds E-Business Curriculum Development
SAP America, Inc. last week awarded 10 schools curriculum development grants
to encourage undergraduate and graduate study of e-business technology. The
awards were based on benefits of a project to students and faculty, and the
potential for use of integrated business processes and SAP solutions. The top
award of $100,000 went to Rutgers University. Other winners were: Widener University,
the University of South Dakota, and California State University, Chico, Northern
Arizona University, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, the University of Missouri,
Columbia, the Kelly School of Business of Indiana University, the Haub School
of Business of St. Joseph's University, and Drexel University.
Company Sets Up E-Business Marketplace Testbed
SAP also said it would fund a simulated e-business marketplace at four universities.
The initiative, to be called the SAP Simulated Marketplace for Advance Research
and Teaching (SMART), is designed to give students first-hand experience with
demand across the supply chain, system development and maintenance, and decision-making
across a company's value chain. It will be developed by the University of South
Dakota; California State University, Chico; University of Missouri; Queensland
University of Technology, Australia; and the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Schools participating will function as component suppliers, original equipment
manufacturers, customers and subcontractors. Transactions will be conducted
using the mySAP.com suite of e-business applications.
eCollege Expects to Hover at Breakeven This Year
eCollege, a provider of technology and services for online higher education
programs, said it expects to see a pre-tax profit of $500,000 to $2 million
in 2002, as well as student fee growth of between 30 to 45 percent. Oakleigh
Thorne, the company's chairman, said he expects the company to be "fluctuating
around breakeven in the first two quarters." eCollege develops online degree
programs for universities. Its clients include National University; Seton Hall
University; University of Colorado; DeVry University, Inc.; Kentucky Virtual
High School; and Microsoft Faculty Center.
For more information visit: <http://www.eCollege.com>.
Group Launches 'Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day'
The Society of Manufacturing Engineers is supporting "Introduce a Girl
to Engineering Day," on Thursday, February 21, 2002. The event is part
of a recognition of engineers planned this week as National Engineers Week.
SME initiatives for "Girl Day" include a program for SME female members
to serve as mentors, offering career direction to girls who are now evaluating
their career options. The campaign is expected to reach 1 million girls by the
end of the month. SME executive director Nancy Berg said girls are a target
of the campaign, since "women represent less than 10 percent of all engineers
and less than 20 percent of all college engineering students in America."
For more information, visit <http://www.sme.org>.
Canada's Academic Health Net Builds Research Backbone
Canada's University Health Network is building a 10-Gigabit Ethernet network
to enable utra-high-speed research connectivity for its network of hospitals.
UHN research requires a high-performance network to support applications such
as high-resolution image transfers and the processing of massive research data
files. Thomas Goldthorpe, director of research information systems at UHN said
the elmination of network bottlenecks required "a high-performance backbone
solution at better than gigabit speeds." The network will used IEEE 802.3a3
standard-based 10G Ethernet from Foundry Network Inc. to build the network.
Awards, Deals, and Contracts in the Higher Education Community
- The University of Louisville chose Symantec to provide Internet security
solutions to the 12,000 desktop, server and gateway nodes on the university's
computer network. Under a two-year agreement, Symantec will provide Louisville
with antivirus protection and technical support.
- The United States Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) signed a cooperative
research and development agreement (CRADA) with VivoMetrics Inc. to integrate
a Global Positioning System (GPS) and long-range wireless services into the
company's "Lifeshirt" system. The partnership aims to produce an
advanced method for real-time location and physiological monitoring of military
personnel in the field.
- The University of Alaska has deployed streaming video products from Amnis
Systems Inc. for a distance learning project. The project will ultimately
connect multiple university sites, including at the University of Washington,
using a broadband IP based network. The initial distance-learning network
will transmit educational content from the University of Washington via a
satellite link to the University of Alaska in Fairbanks.