News 06-28-2002

Sponsor: Convergence Seminar

Dynamics of Convergence - Interactive half-day seminar in 8 cities. (4 BICSI credits) Experts from Hubbell Premise Wiring, General Cable and a tester partner will present: the impact of network convergence, VoIP, field test verification, ROI, and standards, including the recent category 6 ratification. Space is limited in the complimentary program.

For dates and to register now, go to http://101offer.com/goto/?SYL62802

Apple Unveils Education Technology Offerings

Apple unveiled an update of its web-based student information system, PowerSchool SIS 3.0, as well as new courseware and Web tools. The PowerSchool SIS 3.0 helps educators manage student records. It includes a new master schedule builder, an enhanced user interface, and updates to a gradebook allowing teachers to drag and drop student photos into online seating charts. The Apple Digital Campus Curriculum includes two courses: Web Communication and Design, and Video Journalism. The Apple Learning Interchange is an online resource that provides for digital videos of presentations, online lesson plans, assessment tools and research resources. "While other companies are happy to just sell technology to schools, Apple designs products like the eMac and iBook specifically for education," said John Couch, Apple's vice president of Education.

NEC Signs On as Platinum Sponsor for Syllabus2002

Putting educators needs for dynamic technology first, NEC offers visual display solutions designed for every classroom, lecture hall or stadium. As platinum sponsor of Syllabus2002, NEC joins other education technology companies supporting the higher education market July 27-31 at the Santa Clara, Calif., Convention Center. Enjoy five days packed with workshops, seminars, breakout sessions and keynote speakers Diana Laurillard, Lawrence Lessig and Jack Wilson.

Tiny Monr'e Wins National Design Competition

Students from Monr'e County Community College near Detroit won a $10,000 prize for Best Overall Design in the "Flip for Design" national engineering competition sponsored by Motorola Inc. and PTC Inc., a design software firm. The winning entry was a flip-style personal digital assistant with a built-in cell phone and wireless short-range networking. The competition aimed to give students real-world engineering experience in building ideas around Motorola's MicroTAC "flip phone" using PTC software. The University of Massachusetts at Amherst won first place for Technical Merit; the Carnegie Mellon University team won first place in the Creativity category; Georgia Institute of Technology placed first in creating a design with Benefits for Motorola; and the Monr'e team won for Comprehensive Use of PTC's Products.

For more information, visit: http://www.ptc.com/go/competition

Sun Broadens Tools For Education and Research

Sun Microsystems broadened the availability of its Sun ONE Studio development tools for educators, students and researchers. The products, currently available with no license fees to qualified educators and students, can now be replicated so it can easily be distributed to students or other staffers. The move coincided with the announcement of the availability of Sun ONE Studio 4 products. Sun ONE Studio tools are a core component of the Sun Open Net Environment (Sun ONE), an open architecture product portfolio to deliver services on demand. The products are based on the NetBeans open source platform. "Sun is expanding its commitment to schools and research organizations by making it significantly easier for an instructor to distribute our Sun ONE Studio tools for use with ongoing classwork, lab work or research projects," said Peter Young, vice president, Sun ONE Studio Tools.

PeopleSoft Software Bonanza to Cal Poly

PeopleSoft Inc. gave a gift of $5.3 million worth of PeopleSoft 8 software to Cal Poly Pomona's College of Business Administration. The enterprise software creates a financial environment for an organization's data by connecting business systems and sharing information. "This will greatly help students because they will graduate with improved knowledge of how information systems can be used to optimize an organization's performance," said Lynn Turner, associate dean of the businesss school. She said pilot tests of the software will begin this fall, and integration into coursework will begin winter quarter 2003. About 200 students will use PeopleSoft each quarter. That number should increase to 800 as more classes add PeopleSoft 8 to their curriculum.

Mathematica Readied as Enterprisewide System

Wolfram Research, Inc. last week released Mathematica 4.2, a new version of the technical computing system that the company says renders it useful across an entire organization. The new version includes full XML support and seamless Java integration. With it, users can access any Java program from within Mathematica and work directly with XML data and documents. The integration of Java and XML within Mathematica are key to computational and document-oriented processing across an organization, the company said "An increasing number of our customers are using Mathematica in nontraditional ways -- for example, as a metaprogramming tool, for document processing, or as a deployment mechanism -- but we are also still committed to our core competency in technical computing," said Roger Germundsson, R&D director at Wolfram.

ThunderDorm Tech Tour Roars Again in 2002

The organizers of the ThunderDorm Campus Technology Tour said the itinerant student tech showcase would roll again this September, with stops at 20 universities, including the University of Connecticut, Rutgers University, Penn State University, Florida State University, University of Arizona, and University of Southern California. A Plexiglas-encased, custom-made trailer will house the "Ultimate Dorm Room," which will showcase the "latest in consumer electronics and digital technology for the college lifestyle." YouthStream Media Networks, the organizer of the event, said the tour will include the latest in audio, video, and wireless technology. Sponsors have included woofer powerhouses such as Sony, Harman Kardon, Yamaha, Denon, Audiovox, Sima, Kenwood, and Pioneer.

For more information, visit: http://www.youthstream.com

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