PROPOSAL TO THE COMPUTATION ADVISORY COMMITTEE FOR SUPPORT FROM STUDENT COMPUTER/TECHNOLOGY FEES PROJECT TITLE: Enhancing the Public Computing Lab (GIS Teaching Lab) in 248 Durham Center PROPOSING UNITS: Information Technology Services and College of Design ADMINISTRATIVE REVIEWING UNITS: Information Technology Services and College of Design PROPOSERS AND PROJECT PARTICIPANTS:

PROJECT LEADER: Kevin Kane, GIS Facility Director 294-0526 [email protected] Information Technology Services

PROJECT METHOD AND PLAN Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are systems of hardware and software allowing analysis of geographic data. Academics use the power of GIS in many academic disciplines to spatially enable their teaching and research . GIS has become one of the fastest growing information technology careers for students, more and more of whom are realizing the benefit of having GIS as part of their studies. Iowa State offers a GIS certificate program for students interested in GIS as a career. The ISU GIS Facility supports GIS teaching and research in all of the university’s colleges and in more than 30 departments across campus. The GIS Support and Research Facility within Information Technology Services manages the public GIS teaching computer lab located in room 248 Durham Center. The teaching lab provided by the GIS Facility is designed to address the specific GIS software instructional needs of the university community. The lab is used mainly by students during a specific GIS class and during open hours in support of their GIS class work; the lab is open anytime that Durham is open. Outside of GIS class hours, the lab is open to any ISU student but preference is given to students in GIS classes if machines are at a premium. This proposal is a request to provide updated hardware to 248 Durham Center including new computers running the Windows 7 operating system with flat panel monitors and improved hard drive protection software. The current machines will be 5 years old in July 2011 and will need to be replaced to support processor and memory intensive GIS software requirements. The current systems went out of warranty in June 2010 and have had multiple mouse, keyboard and video card failures since then. The hard drive protection software is 8 years old and the programming and memory limitations are causing file saving issues. Students have had to find work-arounds for their GIS processing techniques that won’t work because the machines are not able to handle the current data intensive GIS datasets. The teaching lab has computers running Windows XP with ISU site licensed software and specific site licensed and open source GIS software. The machines provide secure access to core ISU network and printing services such as OpenAFS and the ability to access CAC funded printing locations. Each computer is equipped with dual monitors; one monitor was purchased in 2006 with the CPU and the second monitor was from the initial lab purchase in 2002. The lab has consistently had a minimum of four classes per semester for the last four years with increased interest in additional classes in the last year. This has resulted in more students using the lab for more hours per week. There has been an average of 15 students per class, out of a possible 18, over that time. Classes use the lab 30% of regular work hours each week and students can be found in the classroom doing homework outside of class. Many non-GIS students also consistently use the GIS lab. Providing hardware capable of handling current GIS software and larger datasets will attract and serve students who want to incorporate GIS technology in their education. The GIS Facility supports a server for class use where students can save their work, share data with classmates and instructors can provide data, presentations and project evaluations. This GIS teaching lab addresses the lack of specialized, dedicated GIS teaching facilities on the ISU campus. It provides a location for students to attend GIS classes and work on assignments using special GIS software with guaranteed times of accessibility. The GIS lab is open to the entire ISU community during the regular open hours of the Durham Center, except for times when GIS classes are taught in the room. This facility has been very successful since its creation in 2002 as attested to by instructors’ willingness to leave their own environment to teach in the lab and the many

students who use the lab throughout the day and evening. Letters of support from instructors and students who use Durham 248 can be found in Appendix A. Enhancements and Updates The table below shows the specifications of the current machines for major components followed by the proposed hardware specifications. Table 1. Summary of main specifications of current and proposed equipment Specification Current Equipment Proposed Equipment Machine model Dell Optiplex GX620 32-bit Dell Optiplex 980 64-bit Processor Intel Pentium D 840, 3.2 GHz Intel i7 Quad core 870, 2.93 GHz Memory 3.0 GB 8.0 GB Video/Graphics Radeon X600 VGA/DVI, 256MB GeForce GT330 DP/DVI, 1GB Display (1) 19” 1900FP, (1) 19” 1907FP (2) 19” P190S VGA/DVI CD/DVD 16X DVD +/- Read/Write 16X DVD +/- Read/Write Warranty Period 4 yr basic 4 yr basic Operating System Windows XP Pro SP3 Windows 7 SP1 SUPPORT AND MAINTENANCE The GIS teaching lab, located in 248 Durham Center, is currently equipped with required facilities including power and network connectivity (100 Mbps). The room has a security camera which is monitored 24 hours by staff in Operations, Durham 95. The lab is managed by the GIS Support and Research Facility. Direct support for the computer lab and services are primarily provided by the GIS Facility staff with occasional help from the technical staff of Information Technology Services. BUDGET Table 2. Full Itemized Budget (Entire Project Cost) Item Description Qty Unit Cost

Central Pool

ITS/GIS Facility

Hardware Dell Optiplex 980, 19” monitor Second 19” monitor ITS hazardous materials fee Server & Storage

$25,840 $3,135 $507.06 ---

---

------$1,036.55

$19,000 $2,500 $2,245 ---

Lab Support (yearly)

---

$13,127

Total Cost (Year 1)

$30,518.61

$37,773.00

Software (yearly) ESRI ArcGIS 10 ERDAS Imagine 10 Trimble GPS suite Centurion Smart Shield w/ lifetime maintenance and Energy Saver

19 19 19 1

19 19 19 19

$1,360 $165 1.75% ---

--$901

APPENDIX A Letters of support from faculty and students who use the GIS teaching lab.

Funding Committee Computation Advisory Committee (CAC) Iowa State University February 21, 2011 RE: CAC Proposal for GIS Teaching Lab Equipment I am writing this note to voice the support of Landscape Architecture for the CAC proposal for new equipment for the GIS Teaching Lab in 248 Durham. This lab supports both graduate and undergraduate students and coursework in our department, including, but not limited to, LA 567: Advanced GIS. This classroom also supports the College of Design’s GIS Certificate, which is a shared, interdisciplinary program that provides “added value” to ISU degrees, as many of our graduate students use this certificate to add additional skills to their master’s degrees. The GIS Lab in Durham is also important as a setting where students from different disciplines, including LA, CRP, and NREM, among others are able to work together and make connections across fields and professions. These interactions occur not only in scheduled classes but also outside of class, when students from different departments are able to use this space to work on assignments and larger projects, both individually and in groups. I can only see this type of work have increasing technology and space needs as the College of Design creates new interdisciplinary master’s degrees; and I see GIS as being one area that has applications for almost all programs in the College. To support this type of interaction on all levels, having up-to-date equipment is critical for the lab, for without it, the lab will be bypassed in favor of other computing environments. As a result, reinvesting in the Durham Lab now will ensure the ongoing viability of past investments, while supporting new interdisciplinary efforts in the future.

Heidi Hohmann Program Director and Associate Professor

The GIS teaching lab in 248 Durham is important to Landscape Architecture students for several reasons. First, our third-year students rely on the lab as they complete their introductory tutorials and complete their ecological design projects in LA 302. These projects involve descriptive modeling of ecological variables and prescriptive modeling of landscape suitability. Second, our advanced (fourth-year, fifth-year, and graduate) students rely on the lab to complete advanced GIS modeling studies that support their design and landscape management studios (LA 401, 402, 562, 564, and others). Third, students from throughout ISU rely on the lab as they complete projects in my advanced GIS landscape modeling course (LA 567), which has used the lab since it became available. These graduate students and upper-level undergraduate students apply GIS technology to thesis research, outreach projects, and studio projects. Fourth, students in the GIS Certificate program rely on the lab to complete their required application projects. Paul F. Anderson Depts of Landscape Architecture and Agronomy voice 515-294-8943, [email protected]

February 24, 2011 Dear CAC Funding Committee, Re: Funding New Computers for the GIS Teaching Lab I am writing to support funding of new computers to replace older machines in the GIS teaching lab at 248 Durham. My students from undergraduate and graduate GIS classes heavily use this lab several days a week for class exercises, and to work on homework assignments, exams and other graduate submissions outside of class time. GIS education is very critical on campus and this lab has been fulfilling those needs for many years, since I have been teaching GIS classes at ISU. The enrolment numbers are growing and multiple sections are being added to GIS offerings. To keep up with these growing needs and constant software updates, faster and more efficient machines would enable me and other GIS instructors to teach effectively and for my students to learn without the additional burden of slow and crashing computers! The GIS Durham staff has been particularly helpful with class support needs. They have been diligent about software updates, constant server access for GIS classes and helping ISU students learn without having to deal with frustrating hardware issues. Unfortunately, lately we have seen a surge of machines needing maintenance, which has kept students from finishing their work in a timely manner. I would urge you to fund the purchase of newer machines for this lab, so that the ISU GIS community can continue to use this facility effectively and provide the students with an efficient set up for GIS learning. Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely, Neha Mehrotra Lecturer, Dept of Community and Regional Planning, 146 College of Design (515) 294-9154

I am writing this letter of support for improved computers in the Durham GIS lab. I am waiting for the computers in the Durham GIS laboratory to finish a series of calculations. Just today I have spent what feels like half an hour out of the two hours I have spent in this lab waiting for the computers to finish calculations or re-drawing maps after minor changes. The maps used can be relatively complex and as such require larger amounts of computing power to finish in a reasonable amount of time. It is frustrating waiting for the machine to load a map or produce calculations as quite often steps need to be repeated or minor changes done, but you cannot find out what the map looks like and so refinements must again wait for the maps to load. Improved computers in the GIS laboratory will improve the efficiency of the students behind the computers allowing them to: spend less time in the lab, allow more students to use the lab, and give the chance for students to work on either further refining their GIS work or on other work for other classes. Justin Pottorff Graduate student, Civil Engineering Student in Spring 2011 CRP 551

The current computers in the ISU GIS Lab are too outdated to use in a learning environment and are often very frustrating to use. For my classwork in CRP 442 (site development) and CRP 452 (geographic data analysis), we use the lab, but are bogged down, by not only the time it takes to upload and transfer files, but also when sorting through multiple layers because it cuts out and uses valuable class time, especially with the enhanced capabilities of ArcMap 10. Sam Parker Senior, Community and Regional Planning

Fast computer is important for me in the GIS Lab. When I worked on my assignments, it often cost me a while to start the program. In addition, when doing some analysis, the program sometimes showed no response and I had to open the program again. Moreover, when showing the census block maps, it took me a long time to wait for the whole map showing on the screen. Saifeng Wang Community and Regional Planning College of Design

I would like to request that we receive new computer equipment in the GIS teaching lab. I am currently enrolled in CRP 551 and I have class once a week in the teaching lab. It has been a frustrating experience having to deal with the constant crashing and the "unable to save" messages that continue to hinder my learning experience. I feel that with more capable hardware, my experience with the ESRI software would be more valuable and I would learn more about the capabilities of GIS rather than the inabilities of the teaching lab computers. Thank you, Angie Poole Graduate student; Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering