SmartClassroom :: Wednesday, October 25, 2006

News & Product Updates

Longhorns Claim Fastest Computer Bragging Rights

The University of Texas last week christened “Lonestar,” the name of its new $3 million, 52,000-node academic computer cluster. Rated at 55.3 TeraFlops – the fastest in the nation – the cluster is composed of 52,000 nodes. Each node consists of a Dell Inc. PowerEdge 1955 blade running the Linux 2.6.12 x86_64 operating system. Each node contains two Xeon Intel Duo-Core 64-bit processors on a single board.

Lonestar is housed at UT’s Texas Advanced Computer Center (TACC) and will work in concert with the National Science Foundation’s TeraGrid partnership, the Texas-wide Computational Grid (HiPCAT), the UT campus grid and the UT research community...

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Washington State Tests Site for Managing Transfer Students

Washington State is testing a prototype Web-based system for advising transfer students and managing their transfer requirements. The state’s Higher Education Coordinating Board in Olympia will work with vendor AcademyOne Inc., which provides the services, to prototype the system.

The grant-funded test will evaluate a single, online-advising Web site for college students. This will include prospective students, as well as students currently enrolled at participating institutions. The pilot-system will include a transfer planning guide, a request/reply function that provides students with accurate program requirements, and a transfer-credit assessment based on the information and policy rules stored in an institution’s degree-audit system...

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Jacksonville University Chooses Academus for Web Management

Florida’s Jacksonville University has selected Unicon’s Academus Web Content Management (WCM) solution, powered by RedDot Solutions, to manage its new Web site and Intranet. The university also chose Unicon’s Academus Portal software as a unified front-end for all of its online campus services. Academus WCM will be used by university Web administrators to manage, control, distribute, and publish administrative and academic content throughout the college’s online campus portal.

University staff will update the JU Web site and shift content updating duties from the IT department to university staff across various departments. With RedDot’s Web Content Management Solution at its core, the Academus WCM system allows administrative staff and faculty members to update sections of the Web site with new content, including information on admissions, registration, financial aid, class rosters, and academic records...

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