Spotlight on Information Technology
VT STARS
VT STARS—the Virginia Tech Summer Training Academy for Rising Students—has been a program to motivate economically disadvantaged high school students to pursue advanced education in information technology or IT-intensive careers in the sciences and engineering. Funding was, in part, from the Fund for the Improvement of Post-secondary Education. During its nine-year run, students from urban and rural high school districts in economically depressed areas of southwest Virginia were engaged through a summer program, receiving guidance and interaction to support their application to post-secondary degree programs. Support from the Jessie Ball duPont Fund enables a longitudinal study of the 100-plus participants who completed the program. The study assesses the program’s effectiveness and its impact on the region.
High Performance Parallel Computing Bootcamp
Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia host the High Performance Parallel Computing Bootcamp from July 28 to August 2, 2008. The bootcamp introduces graduate students, faculty members, and research staff members to the basics of high performance parallel computing.
For more information, see the Advanced Research Computing website.
Information Technology Security Task Force
The Virginia Tech Information Technology Security Task Force was formed in December, 2003, to review the security of the university's information technology environment.
The goals of the task force are to:
- identify current methods of securing VT computing and network resources;
- identify ways to improve security; and
- propose specific solutions and initiatives to enhance the security of the Virginia Tech information technology environment.
Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) Update
The U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) decision to extend CALEA
provisions to the Internet and providers of facilities-based Internet access or voice-over-IP. For more
information, see the American Council on Education's press
release or the Information Technology Association of America's (ITAA) Security Implications of Applying the Communications
Assistance to Law Enforcement Act to Voice over IP.
EDUCAUSE honors Virginia Tech for innovative achievements
Virginia Tech has received a 2005 EDUCAUSE award for Systemic Progress in Teaching and Learning.
eCorridors
The eCorridors team's mission is to create competive advantage by facilitating the deployment of advanced network infrastructure and applications leveraging inter-regional connectivity for communities.
NetworkVirginiang
NetworkVirginiang is an advanced, broadband network delivering Internet and intranet services statewide. It is the result of a project led by Virginia Tech in association
with Old Dominion University and the Virginia Community College System to develop universal access to competitive, advanced digital communications services for all of Virginia.
LMDS
The Local Multipoint Distribution Service (LMDS) spectrum represents the largest block of spectrum ever auctioned and Virginia Tech was the only university that participated
as a bidder in the auction. LMDS enables wireless communications at gigabit speeds - thousands of times faster than most current communications systems for "last-mile" voice
and data services.
Wireless Campus Infrastructure
The intent for the wireless campus infrastructure project is that Communications Network Services, a division of Network Infrastructure and Services,
will enter into a long-term relationship with a qualified carrier and its equipment and content partners in order to deliver state-of-the-art wireless
voice, data, and Internet services as well as unified messaging on and off campus, in order to improve teaching and learning, and to enhance research.
