NACS News 2001.7
July 6, 2001

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In this Issue:

SOFTWARE LICENSE INFORMATION:

he Web site which provides information on University-licensed software now features a searchable database.

MATHEMATICA:

A recent seminar on the symbolic and graphical mathematics software Mathematica was conducted to coincide with a new campus license.

FACILITIES NETWORK:

A new computer network is being implemented to enable effective management of campus heating and cooling systems.

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Software License Information

Many software applications are of sufficient popularity that the University can benefit from economies of scale. NACS for many years has negotiated and managed such bulk and site licenses on behalf of UCI, and as a participant in a UC-wide licensing effort.

Recently, NACS has improved the Web site devoted to communicating to faculty and staff the software packages which can be acquired at a discount or on other special terms.

The web site (http://www.nacs.uci.edu/licenses/) includes general-purpose software licensing information (FAQs, a glossary, and links to UCI servers which distribute licensed software) as well as a new software license database. The database can be browsed by software category, manufacturer, title, and other characteristics, and also provides a free-form search function.

We are very interested in fine-tuning this service to meet the needs of UCI faculty and staff. Please send us your feedback.

Mathematica

During Spring quarter, faculty, research staff, and graduate students from a number of schools and departments attended a training workshop on the use of Mathematica, a comprehensive symbolic and numerical mathematics software package. The workshop was hosted by NACS and presented by Dr. Hooshang Tahsiri of California State University, Long Beach. With Mathematica, users can perform a single task -- like analyzing data or solving a tricky differential equation -- or develop an entire solution, prototype, or application.

The workshop coincided with the new, two-year license agreement with Wolfram Research, Inc. for the use of Mathematica at UCI. The software can be installed in computer labs, as well as desktop systems. Faculty who purchase a Mathematica license for their campus computer can, at no additional charge, acquire a license to use Mathematica on their home computer.

Under this agreement, Mathematica can be licensed for any computer owned or leased by the University and installed in a University-owned facility at the UCI campus. There is no distinction between usage for instruction or research. Automatic upgrades, free faculty home-use access, and expanded technical support make this program a good value for UCI. To request more workshops or obtain pricing and information about the latest version of Mathematica, please contact NACS.

Facilities Network

NACS and Facilities Management are jointly creating a network for monitoring and controlling campus heating and cooling (HVAC) equipment. This is one of a number of campus projects where NACS has assisted a department in design, planning, procurement, and implementation of a special-purpose networking project.

Facilities Management HVAC systems now connect in numerous ways, limiting centralized monitoring and control, and lack the high-speed communications needed to allow real-time management. Facilities Management has long envisioned a more effective system, but has been unable to get satisfactory assistance from outside consultants.

With the new network, every system in every building can be monitored and controlled 24 hours a day. The system will also support metering, capacity planning, and crisis management.

The network will be based on a Cisco gigabit backbone similar to UCInet including 6 core nodes supporting 60 buildings at 10 or 100 megabit/s. The system will be scalable and flexible with spare capacity and performance. This system will be independent of UCInet (and thus the Internet) for reasons of security.

Planning began in the Fall. Most of the equipment has been received and work crews have been hired. Fiber optic cable will be installed over the rest of the year, and the HVAC equipment will be hooked up early in 2002.