Information Technology at Indiana University: News In Focus

IU informatics professor plots historical development of roadways globally

Alessandro Flammini, IU assistant professor of informatics, and Marc Barthélemy, of the French Atomic Commission, analyzed street pattern data from cities around the globe and found they evolve according to a universal mechanism regardless of cultural and historical differences. Their research findings were published recently by Physical Review Letters. The study results may help urban planners better predict how street networks evolve.
-- Posted 12 May 2008

Wheeler: In Search of Certitude

In this EDUCAUSE Review article, IU VP for IT and CIO Brad Wheeler argues that the volume of Internet information, judgment, opinion, and error necessitates an era of certitude. He describes the challenges for colleges and universities to create the digital tools and platforms necessary for extending their traditional role of guiding certitude. Wheeler also describes IU's partnership with the ChaCha guided search platform as an example of such a tool.
-- Posted 7 May 2008

IU and Purdue team up to help rural high school students

Hoosier high school students living in rural areas will have increased access to college credit courses this fall because of the collaborative efforts of Indiana University and Purdue University. The two universities are working together to offer a pilot program that will include six online courses beginning fall semester, three from Purdue and three from IU. Purdue will offer courses in agronomy, computer science and sociology. IU-administered courses will include geological science, history and criminal justice.
-- Posted 6 May 2008

IU pitches in on new Purdue supercomputer

Purdue University, in the spirit of an old-fashioned barn raising, planned to build its new supercomputer in about a day with an "all-hands" event. It didn't take that long -- thanks in part to some help from IU. IU surprised Purdue staff by sending a crew of technicians to help build the machine. Matt Link, director of research technologies systems at IU, says he was pleased to be a part of the event. The new Purdue supercomputer would rank in the top 40 of the current ranking of the world's most powerful supercomputers, and is larger even than IU's Big Red.
-- Posted 6 May 2008

IT@IU Podcast: AVL, Indiana Academy collaboration

IU's Advanced Visualization Lab (AVL) collaborated with Indiana Academy high school students on a semester-long project where the students created virtual environments in 3D. The students culminated their experience by presenting their environments in IU's Virtual Reality Theater. Get the video file (51MB). Subscribe to IT@IU podcasts via RSS. Go to the IT@IU Podcasts page.
-- Posted 6 May 2008

Mysterious Multiplication of Copyright Complaints

Inside Higher Ed follows up with IU’s Mark Bruhn about the sudden upturn in notices from the RIAA. As first reported by Wired News, the new wave of notices seem suspicious to Bruhn and officials from other campuses. Inside Higher Ed reports that IU and other universities are considering whether they should continue to respond to complaints from the recording industry with the same aggressiveness. Bruhn is IU associate vice president for Information and Infrastructure Assurance.
-- Posted 6 May 2008

Metrics Aren’t All Numbers

EDTECH magazine interviews IU's Sue Workman in this report on identifying key metrics to measure the effectiveness of IT support at colleges and universities. Workman, IU associate vice president for support, explains in the article how IU's support center measures effectiveness beyond simple tracking of incident numbers. Workman also cites IU's award-winning Knowledge Base as a cost-effective way to provide support.
-- Posted 2 May 2008

Is Open Source the ERP Cure-All?

Campus Technology magazine interviews IU VP for IT and CIO Brad Wheeler as it takes a look at the movement toward open-source enterprise resource planning (ERP) among colleges and universities. Wheeler is a noted leader among open source communities such as a Kuali and Sakai.
-- Posted 2 May 2008

New RIAA notices are suspicious

Wired News reports on a new wave of filesharing takedown notices from the recording industry that seem suspicious to IU's Mark Bruhn and others. Bruhn, IU associate vice president for Information and Infrastructure Assurance, says in the article that the recent notices don't correspond to IU records and that he is concerned about their accuracy. Officials at other universities concur.
-- Posted 1 May 2008

IU dedicates new resources to support Lustre

University Information Technology Services (UITS) at Indiana University has dedicated over 350 terabytes (TB) of new storage platforms to support collaborative research projects mounting the Lustre file system across the TeraGrid network and other national high speed networks. IU's Data Capacitor Project Lead Stephen Simms made the announcement during a panel discussion at the Sun Microsystems-sponsored 2008 Lustre User Group being held this week in Sonoma, California.
-- Posted 29 April 2008

Science maps in action

IU School of Library and Information Science faculty member Katy Börner will speak at the 28th Annual Conference of the Center for Nonlinear Studies (CNLS) at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Börner's talk, "Science Maps in Action," will feature science information visualization research she has conducted as director of the Information Visualization Lab and the Cyberinfrastructure for Network Science Center at Indiana University.
-- Posted 29 April 2008

Kelley School launches new Center for the Business of Life Sciences

Indiana University's Kelley School of Business is continuing its strong commitment to the life sciences with the establishment of a new research and teaching center, as well as an executive certificate program to teach working professionals about the business side of the life sciences. The center's activities directly support IU's Life Sciences Strategic Plan, which IU President Michael McRobbie first unveiled in 2006.
-- Posted 29 April 2008

University of Arizona adopts Kuali

The University of Arizona will replace its enterprise financial and research administration systems with technology from Kuali Financials and Research. IU is a founding member of the Kuali Foundation, a non-profit organization responsible for sustaining and evolving a comprehensive suite of administrative software that meets the needs of all Carnegie Class institutions. Arizona has collaborated on Kuali systems -- including Kuali Financial, based on IU's financial system -- since 2005.
-- Posted 29 April 2008

Cybersecurity Summit Podcast: Matt Light

Matt Light, deputy attorney general/legislative liaison, supervising attorney, Identity Theft Unit Consumer Protection Division, Office of Attorney General, discusses Indiana's data protection and breach notification laws, when and to whom they apply, what they require, and penalties for noncompliance. Light spoke at the 2008 Indiana Higher Education Cybersecurity Summit. Get the video file (312MB). Subscribe to IT@IU podcasts via RSS. Go to the IT@IU Podcasts page.
-- Posted 25 April 2008

Cybersecurity Summit Podcast: Fred Cate

Fred Cate, distinguished professor, School of Law-Bloomington and director, CACR, Indiana University, addresses the information policy challenges facing colleges and universities, and considers practical steps for overcoming them. Cate spoke at the 2008 Indiana Higher Education Cybersecurity Summit. Get the video file (360MB). Subscribe to IT@IU podcasts via RSS. Go to the IT@IU Podcasts page.
-- Posted 25 April 2008

ChaCha praised by Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal's influential technology writer Walter Mossberg describes the mobile answers service ChaCha has created as "fun and useful." ChaCha was founded by IU alumnus and technology entrepreneur Scott Jones, who will be interviewed on this week's Inside INdiana Business. IU and ChaCha have a first-of-its-kind academic search service partnership.
-- Posted 24 April 2008

Governor, McRobbie to speak at life science conference

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, Secretary of Commerce Nate Feldman, IU President Michael McRobbie and Purdue President John Diekman, founder of an early stage life science venture capital fund, will speak at the fourth and final program in the 2007-08 Indiana Life Sciences Collaboration Conference Series.
-- Posted 24 April 2008

Call for Participation: IEEE 2008 eScience Conference

Organizing committees for the IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on Scalable Computing 2008 eScience Conference are now accepting papers and proposals for tutorials; posters, exhibits, and demos; and workshops and special sessions. The 2008 eScience Conference is being hosted by Indiana University and will be held in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, December 7-12, 2008 at the University Place Conference Center and Hotel on the campus of Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI).
-- Posted 24 April 2008

Artificial Dreams: The Quest for Non-Biological Intelligence

IU School of Library and Information Science faculty member Hamid Ekbia's new book, Artificial Dreams: The Quest for Non-Biological Intelligence, is now available from Cambridge University Press. The book examines assumptions and prevailing practices in the field of Artificial Intelligence.
-- Posted 24 April 2008

SLIS alumna and student team win video award

A YouTube video co-created by IU School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) MLS student Jessica Bozeman and MLS alumna Brooke Cox, now a DePauw Visual Resource Center librarian, won a 2008 InfoTubey Award at the annual Computers in Libraries conference held in Arlington, Virginia, April 7–9, 2008.
-- Posted 24 April 2008

Student-produced web site named a Webby Honoree

GameZombie.tv, a popular video game review Web site created and run by students in Indiana University's Department of Telecommunications, has been selected as a Webby Awards Honoree, recognizing excellence in their use of the Internet.
-- Posted 23 April 2008

IT@IU Podcast: IU's next-generation wireless network

Matt Davy, IU chief network architect, describes IU's new next-generation wireless network being installed this summer. IU students, faculty, staff, and guests on the Bloomington and Indianapolis campuses who wirelessly connect their laptops and handheld devices to the Internet will experience greater coverage and ease of use. Davy also discusses future plans for the network. Get the video file (80MB). Subscribe to IT@IU podcasts via RSS. Go to the IT@IU Podcasts page.
-- Posted 22 April 2008

Next-generation wireless coming to IU campuses

Indiana University students, faculty, and staff on the Bloomington and Indianapolis campuses who wirelessly connect their laptops and handheld devices to the Internet will find greater coverage and ease of use once IU's new next-generation wireless hardware is installed. Users of handheld devices, such as iPhones, will be able to move seamlessly among wireless access points without losing their connection, just as cell phone users can travel between cellular towers without losing calls. IU will expand coverage areas greatly, especially in the Bloomington residence halls.
-- Posted 22 April 2008

Cate provides testimony on The National Security Letters Reform Act

The National Security Letters Reform Act being considered by Congress is an "important first step" in protecting Americans against excessive data-mining, but more needs to be done, Indiana University law professor Fred Cate said in testimony to a congressional subcommittee. Cate is distinguished professor at the IU School of Law--Bloomington and director of the Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research.
-- Posted 20 April 2008

IU investigates earthquake

The Indiana University Department of Geological Sciences has quickly mobilized, sending two field teams to deploy instruments in the region of Friday morning's earthquake. The seismographs and Global Positioning System (GPS) units being deployed will record aftershocks, half a dozen of which have already occurred. Update: This Thursday evening (April 24), Hamburger will share his expertise, and the latest scientific information about last week's earthquake, in a special public forum. See Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On!.
-- Updated 22 April 2008

Fujitsu collaborates with IU on optical communications research

Fujitsu Network Communications, a leading supplier of IT and wireline/wireless networking solutions, is collaborating with IU on breakthrough research about the effects that Polarization Mode Dispersion (PMD) can have on specific wavelengths traveling at 40 Gbps or more. This collaboration will be the model for future research networking experiments between Fujitsu and other Research & Education (R&E) institutions.
-- Posted 17 April 2008

Middle schoolers wowed by Informatics researchers

A group of roughly 80 students and teachers gathered in IUPUI's ICTC auditorium for a visual tour of the human body. Armed with 3D glasses, they took in vivid scenes of the functions of the circulatory, respiratory and nervous systems. After viewing the 3D display, several students declared that science was "easier to understand" when presented in such a visual manner.
-- Posted 17 April 2008

IU-Notify in the spotlight

In the wake of the one year anniversary of the tragic events at Virginia Tech, campus emergency alert systems are in the spotlight. News reports on IU's system, IU-Notify, highlight the low participation rate -- typical of campuses across the state and across the country. IU's emergency communications system permits broadcast messages to be quickly sent as voice calls to office, local home and/or cell phones, and university and external email accounts. IU students, faculty, and staff are urged to update their contact information in OneStart. See:

* WISH-TV (video)
* WTHR
* H-T (subscription)
* More information
-- Posted 17 April 2008

Tech Talk podcast: Cell Broadband Engine Processor

IBM's Bruce Foster describes the Cell Broadband Engine Processor, a novel microprocessor jointly developed by Sony, Toshiba, and IBM. The Cell Broadband Engine Architecture (CBEA) is designed to provide power-efficient and cost-effective high-performance processing for some of the world's most demanding applications, including next generation game consoles. This podcast is part of the ATL Tech Talk Series, sponsored by University Information Technology Services Applied Technologies Lab (ATL). Get the audio file. Subscribe via RSS. Go to the IT@IU podcasts page.
-- Posted 10 April 2008