Center features new technology
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by Daniel Lorente
Business Manager |
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The new Campus Center, slated for a D term completion, will be equipped with the latest and greatest equipment and technology. The center itself will be home to many offices and lounges, making the new technology all the more useful.
Upon entering the Campus Center from the main entrance, a person is greeted by a fine lounge with a built-in fireplace blazing away. Additionally, the Quad level also has an ATM, an electronic site map as well as an accompanying listing of events taking place.
Some of the Center's lounges will have stupendous flat-screen TV's for common use. It was even suggested that the TV's will be set in a large table, and with the flip of a switch, the TV will retract out of the table, sci-fi style! Also, all conference rooms will come equipped with the latest in media equipment. Features include a huge LCD display, a dazzling projection machine, and full surround-sound.
Perhaps the most exciting feature in the new Campus Center will be the state-of-the-art wireless networking system that will be available. The Center's wireless network will cover the entire building, and will consist of an 11-megabit, 128-bit encryption system. Currently there is a demo version of the wireless system available in the library. The system in the library is just a test version, but is available for use. In order to use it a student must check out a laptop from the library that is equipped with an appropriate network card.
In order to use the Campus Center's wireless system, students will have to equip their laptops with a special network card, which can be purchased from NetOps for around $100-140. There will be a few laptops in the Campus Center that can be loaned out to people as well. Any laptop that uses an 802.11B compatible network card will be able to pick up a signal. The system will be quite secure due to the unique encryption built into the signals.
Sean O'Connor, the director of NetOps, will be engineering the wireless project. O'Connor spent 4 years as an EE undergraduate at WPI, and received his MS in Electrical Engineering at RPI. In an interview, O'Connor emphasized the fact that WPI is out to be the school with the most cutting-edge network technology in the country. Indeed, the wireless network should prove to be most impressive, as a project is currently underway to implement wireless access across the entire campus. According to O'Connor, "We have a plan, we always do... The wireless stuff, we've wanted to do it for a while now." O'Connor believes that if everything continues according to plan, the Quad should also be ready for wireless after the summer break.
Concerning the difficulties of a wireless system, O'Connor mentioned that one issue is load-balancing the bandwidth. Since different units will support each area of the building, it may turn out that students will be using all the bandwidth in one room while another room is vacant and available for use. The system in the library is experiencing increased use, so until the time comes NetOps will continue to observe the results of the Library system. Each transmitter unit can transmit a signal across a 500-foot radius of free space, and a 100-foot radius indoors. The farther one travels from the unit, the weaker the signal becomes.
The Campus Center's system will not be on the residential network. Instead, it will be on the academic network. The Campus Center will be fully wired from the very outset, ready for use. Also, NetOps mentioned that if enough students make good use of the system, they will be upgrading it to a 22-megabit signal, allowing more people to use it at any given time. Finally, those people who prefer the old network ports on the walls will not be disappointed; the campus center will have a plethora of ports available for use throughout the building.
All offices and rooms will have electronic keycard access, which will likely be integrated with the new digital ID's which will be issued to students next year. The Campus Center will also take advantage of the new digital ID's by establishing vending machines on every floor. The new vending machines will be able to accept a student's card as payment in favor of the old dollar bill system which many students disdain.
Overall, the Campus Center provides many exciting opportunities for students, being the most wired building on campus. Although the wireless system is not quite powerful enough to run AutoCAD, it should more than suffice for a great majority of the students.
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