I.T. Students Tour Local Data Center

The Washington Corporation hosted a group of I.T. students on a tour of their newly renovated corporate data center. The data center located here in Missoula centralizes I.T. services for all companies in the Washington Corporation global operations group. Thanks to Tim, Andy, Chris, and Drew at Washington Corporation for providing this great opportunity to our students.

Students Compete in Programming Contest

Students from the Information Technology program competed in the Montana State ACM Programming Contest held Saturday, September 24. Shawn Dennis, Larry Mee, and Ray Naranjo represented the UM-COT campus in this annual event hosted at Montana State University in Bozeman. This group of students competed with Computer Science students from UM , MSU, Montana Tech, & Carroll College. Each team had 5 hours to solve 5 problems. "It was a wonderful opportunity for our students" states Instructor Rhonda Tabish, faculty advisor for the UM COT Programming Team.

Further information can be found on contest website http://www.cs.montana.edu/paxton/contest/

Changes on the Horizon for Montana Two-year Colleges

The Montana University System is undergoing a major transformational change for two-year colleges. This effort, known as College!NOW is funded through the Lumina Foundation for Education and has received national recognition.

Deputy Commissioner John Cech has provided a comprehensive update of the accomplishments of College!NOW since January 1, 2011, and an overview of the five community listening sessions planned for October (Billings, Great Falls, Butte, Helena, and Missoula) focusing on the rebranding and renaming of Montana’s five Colleges of Technology.

Sessions in Missoula will take place on Thursday, Oct 13 from 7:15-8:30am Doubletree-100 Madison-UM Room; 9:00-10:15am-UM Main Campus-32 Campus Dr-University Ctr. Theatre-3rd Floor,5:00–6:15 pm-COT Campus-909 S. Ave. West-HB 11

The first College!NOW newsletter is available at http://www.umt.edu/president/docs/CollegeNOW_enews_FINAL.pdf or on the website: http://mus.edu/2yr/COLLEGEnow/news/CollegeNow_eNews.html

Energy Professor Directs Rowing Instruction

Professor Brad Layton is slated to deliver two session on rowing techniques on the ergometer through UM Campus Recreation Fitness Programs. The sessions are slated for Wednesday, September 21 12:00-1:00pm and 4:30-5:30pm. Brad is a former US Rowing Team member and Rowing National Champion

Student Wins Undergraduate Research Award

Department of Applied Computing & Electronics student Clayton Anderson recently completed a research project involving variable power states in computing labs on the COT East campus. Clayton's research, entitled "Energy Usage Study of Student Computing Facilities at the University of Montana" won the best oral presentation in the category of Physical Sciences at 2011 UM Undergraduate Research Conference. Associate Professor Tom Gallagher was Anderson's faculty mentor. Using power management software, a MS Windows GPO provided by Energy Star, routine schedules, and regular idle periods between classes Anderson's plan applied to the 6 computer labs on the COT East Campus would save the University of Montana approximately 9,684 kWh or 6.82 metric tons of CO2 annually. Clayton and all the other winners were honored at the Mansfield Library undergraduate research exhibition and each received a $100 gift card to the UM Bookstore.

Energy Interns Complete Solar Installation

UM Energy Technology students Ryan Parks and Robert Holter interned with Simple Power’s owner Mark Dickson and crew Brad Stevens, Jona Malo, Lyle Pilon, and Mike McCraken to install the Montana’s largest PV array to this point. The array weighs in at 70KW of output and is located on a private ranch near Choteau Montana. The grid tie array utilizing Sanyo panels and Fronius inverters is not only the largest in the state but it is the first in the area to use the German manufactured Solar Linea (by Conergy) rack system. According to owner Mark Dickerson “the install went very well, the crew worked well together and the installation came together with few problems in the field showing the benefit of having time to think through the design and implementation of project anticipating most all of the problems prior to starting. The system has gone through the final commissioning process and has an output of 105% of the expected rated output, and the new owner is very satisfied stating “I feel like we really have done something here!”

MS Network Administrator Academy

The College of Technology will be hosting a Microsoft Networking Academy beginning June 15. The course is taught by Dianne Burke, a faculty member from the Applied Computing and Electronics Department. The course starting next week is one of a three-part series in MS Windows Server 2008. View the entire schedule and get an application here.

Human Powered Vehicle Challenge

University of Montana students, primarily in the Energy Technology program, competed in the West Division of the Human Powered Vehicle Challenge in Bozeman, MT. This was the first year that UM joined the competition. Captained by Marty Lamb, who graduated from the Energy Technology program the same weekend, the team won the award for sustainablity. Read the whole Missoulian article here.

Addional Sections: ITS 210 & ITS 280

Due to increased enrollment, additional sections of ITS 210 Network O.S. - Desktop and ITS 280 Computer Repair and Maintenance have been added to the Autumn 2011 schedule.

Missoula 2011 Commuter Challenge

The faculty & staff from the Applied Computing and Electronics Department (ACE) will be competing in their first annual Commuter Challenge during the week of May 1st – 7th. In the face of rising gas costs and concerns of global warming, the Missoula community takes to the sustainable streets every May to prove their ability to get out of their cars and into alternative transportation! This year, ACE will help to promote sustainable practices on campus and across the community by biking and carpooling to the College of Technology. Join the Ace Department in our effort to reduce our carbon footprint and increase awareness!

CAD Bike Rack Design Finalists

Congratulations to Mike Eidum, Kyle Scharfe, and Mic Smith. All were finalists in the AutoCAD Bike Rack Design competition held Autumn Term. Designs were assessed in the areas of feasibility, sustainability, design character, and technical drawing quality. Mic placed third with commendations for feasibility and sustainability. Kyle second with commendations for design character and feasibility. Mike's design placed first and was chosen as the overall best technical drawing earning a gift card to the UM bookstore. Congratulations to all participants and finalists.

Autumn Term Registration and Advising

Autumn Term 2011 registration for COT students begins April 6th. Students will need an advising PIN to register. Drop-in group advising sessions are scheduled for Applied Computing & Electronics students:
Wednesday, March 23 from 2 – 3 in HB04
Monday, March 28 from 12 – 1 in HB05
Tuesday, March 29 from 12 – 1 in HB04

Online advising forms are available at http://ace.cte.umt.edu/students/advising.html Please come prepared by completing the requirements checklist for your program of study prior to attending advising sessions. You should have a pretty good idea which courses to enroll.

Individualized advising with a faculty member is available by appointment. Please contact Jenny Gorsegner/Miranda Stroud (243.7916) for further details.

Brown Bag Webinar: Spatial Data Sets

Students and faculty attended the "brown bag" webinar entitled Introduction to Spatial Data Sets. The webinar was produced by ESRI and hosted Thursday by the Department of Applied Computing & Electronics. ArcGIS software was used to graphically represent statistical data sets from practical research. Examples included studies involving obesity rates in children, incidents of pirating off the Somalian coast, wealth distribution in the State of New York, graffiti locations and gang related activities, and crime pattern in Lincoln, NE. Spatial data is based upon physical location. Spatial Statistical Tools allow us to assess patterns, trends, and relationships.

UM Biomass Gasifier Generates Electricity

Faculty member Brian Kerns and Energy Technology student Mike Bergman demonstrate the use of biomass gasification to generate electricity in the Blackfoot valley. The mobile UM Biomass Generator was utilized to generate electricity to the grid from slash piles located on the Paws Up Ranch. All electricity was donated to the Missoula Electric Coop. The UM Biomass Generator is a demonstration project created through Brian's research. Mike Bergman is completing an internship through Alternative Energy Technologies. See complete coverage courtesy of the Missoulian
http://missoulian.com/news/local/article_125cccf4-3fd6-11e0-b619-001cc4c03286.html

Elluminate Training Improves Online Learning

Faculty from the Applied Computing and Electronics and the Applied Arts and Sciences departments participated in a training to learn about Elluminate, a technology that allows lectures to be shared via the Internet with students in online courses. Participating faculty included Dr. Bradley Layton, the Energy Technology program director as well as Energy Tech adjunct instructors Beth Baker and Greg Guscio. Penny Jakes, who teaches Cisco Networking courses for the Computer Technology program, and Dr. Colin Henderson, who leads the Anatomy and Physiology classes at the College of Technology, also participated. The training was offered by the Applied Computing and Electronics department and c0-facilitated by Tom Gallagher and Jenny Gorsegner. Their hope is that more faculty will adopt innovative teaching technologies and create better courses for online students.

Additional Seats Open in Computer and Energy Courses

Additional sections of first year classes have been added to the Spring 2011 schedule. New class sections include: CRT 112 Operating Systems and CSCI 110 Introduction to Programming. Available seats can also be found in CSCI 172 Introduction to Computer Modeling, ITS 150 CCNA I (Cisco Networking), and NRG 102 Introduction to Energy Systems II.

Network Administrator Academy Resumes

We're pleased to announce the next professional development course offering in the Network Administrator Academy Series. Dianne Burke (MSCE) will be leading the course Windows Server 2008 - Applications Infrastructure. It will cover file services (NTFS and Share permission), the distributed file system and namespace implementation, windows print and fax services, the Internet Information Services v7 role (IIS7) and options to secure hosted web sites, terminal services implementation (including Terminal Services Web Access and the Terminal Services Gateway), and high availability technologies (including Storage Area Networks, internet SCSI, and Hyper-V).

The Network Administrator Academy prepares I.T. professionals for the Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist credential. Prospective students should have a working familiarity with Microsoft Windows Servers. This course is slated to meet February 16th - May 4. Further information is available online at http://ace.cte.umt.edu/it/NetAdminAcad.pdf. To register for the course contact Mary Opitz 406.243.7812

Computer Support - Now Accepting New Students

Spring term 2011 is quickly approaching. We are currently accepting applications for new students in the Computer Support C.A.S. program. Complete details on this program are available at http://ace.cte.umt.edu/cs/

Application can be made through Enrollment Services / Admissions Office COTAdmissions@umontana.edu | Phone: 406-243-7882 / 800-542-688

Sustainability Workshop Series

The Missoula Sustainable Business Council (SBC) will be producing the Sustainability Shot event series "designed to provide attendees with a concentrated shot of information to energize their efforts to become more sustainable businesses or consumers". The first event Ten Ways to Reduce Your Energy Costs will be delivered by Russ Hellem from the local business Energetechs. Full details of this event series can be found at the SBC website: http://www.sustainablebusinesscouncil.org/

UM Day of Dialogue 2010

The University of Montana's annual Day of Dialogue will take place October 28. Everyone is welcome at this free event. Two sessions will be held at the College of Technology. The first will be presented at 12:10 in HB06. Led by Sue Bradford, "Why Does Dialogue Matter in a College Education?" will explore the role of dialogue on a university campus. The second session, also led by Sue Bradford will begin at 2:10 in HB06. This session, "Tapping the Strength of America's Diversity," will explore how cultural diversity contributes to society. Campus-wide there will be a variety of sessions and displays. More information can be found at: http://www.umt.edu/dod.