Overview of ECE Academic HP Labs

The intent of this message is to provide background and some explanations as to why Electrical & Computer Engineering computing operates as it does.

Some of the topics are written in response to the surveys collected in the student labs. The results of those surveys help us to plan expenditures and make or modify the policies that govern the facilities.

Index

• A Short History of the Lab Fee
• About "Engineering Region 4"
  • Choice of Workstations
  • Keycard Access
  • Heating and Cooling
  • Number of Seats
  • Choice of Software
• Contact Information

A Short History of the Lab Fee

In the early 1990's the College of Engineering realized that it could no longer afford to keep its computing facilities up to date so long as it had to rely upon the inconsistent funds provided by the University. By 1993 the problem was so acute that the College of Engineering sought approval from the OSU Board of Trustees to collect a $120 per quarter computing lab fee from each Engineering student. Approval was granted and the Engineering Computing Lab Fee was instituted in Spring Quarter 1993.

For purposes of decision making and allocation of the collected lab fees, the College was organized into seven computing regions. Most regions were comprised of several departments, however Electrical & Computer Engineering (the just "EE") was sufficiently large that it was the only department placed in Engineering Region 4 (ER4). The direction of Region 4 is set by the Region 4 Computing Committee which is comprised of ECE faculty and students. Committee meetings are open to anyone.

Students who are have majors in the department pay the computing lab fee whenever they enroll. Their fee, less an overhead amount of about 5%, goes into Region 4's student fee account. Lab fee money can be spent only on computing items that directly support instructional computing. Permitted items include hardware (computer and network), access (keycard, lab furniture, consultants), and software. Computing fee dollars may not be spent on items such as paper, toner, lab cameras, staff salaries, and "supply" items.

The College of Engineering also contributes money to each region. These funds can be spent on computing related items which cannot be bought using student lab fees. Such expenditures include staff salaries, HVAC, tools and operational supplies, among other things.

In July of 1997, the "Regional" structure was abandoned, with control over the regional facilities reverting to the Departments. As Region 4 served only ECE, this wasn't much of a problem for this department. The site manager now answers directly to the department chair.

About ECE Academic Computing (aka ER4)

In this section you will find background on why things are the way they are today, and what the future may hold for ER4.

• The single strongest driving force behind choice of hardware platform is the availability of the software required by the students classwork to run on a given platform. Today, this requires both Unix (Red Hat Enterprise) and a Windows (XP) systems.
• The initial decision to use a Unix based platform was strongly influenced by the package Matlab, which at the time was only available under Unix. Today, portions of Mentor Graphics and Cadence continue to be unavailable under the Windows platform.
• The move into the Windows arena was partially driven by the availability of such packages as Xilinx and PSpice which best suit certain ECE classes. These packages are PC specific. In addition there was significant demand from some students for this OS.
• In addition to the practical matters of software availability, the committee believes that exposure to a variety of state-of-the-art systems, is a very important ingredient to the success of the student in the marketplace.
• Recent feedback from industry representatives indicates that exposing students to Mentor Graphics and similar packages makes those students very attractive in industry, and the recent increase in ECE hiring is, in part, due to improving these types of computer-related skills of our graduates.

Keycard Access

In 1995 ER4 joined the other computing regions in installing card readers. As of today, card readers are available on both buildings and on all the ER4 labs. Access is granted to all students taking ECE classes.

Heating and Cooling

Neither Dreese nor Caldwell were designed to carry the heat loads generated by computers and the people using them. The predictable result is that DL557 and DL817 can be uncomfortable at times. Unfortunately there is no source of funds to pay for an overhaul of the HVAC system. Fortunately DL517 had a pre-existing HVAC unit when ER4 assumed use of the room.

The remodeling of CL260 resulted in a brand new facility with its own HVAC system designed to handle the heat generated by the people and machines contained within. In practice it has been found that when the lab is not full, the lab can be considered "cold" by some users. When the lab is full, it can be considered "hot" by others. For most of the quarter, that lab is full, and so we error on that side of judgment. If you are going to be in the lab at an unpopular time, no matter the outside temperature, you may want to bring a sweater or jacket for while you are in the lab if you fall into the "cold" category.

Number of Seats

Surveys show that most students feel here are an adequate number of computers in the labs, though there is a significant minority who would like additional seats. Unfortunately the department does not have space for an expansion of the ER4 facilities.

Choice of Software

ER4 exercises great restraint when considering new software products. It is very easy to start buying all sorts of software and end up confusing students and faculty alike. Therefore, the ER4 committee tries to ensure that any product added: 1) addresses an instructional need of the department; 2) does not significantly duplicate an existing functionality; and 3) is a market leader and a good value. Additionally, an expensive product will not be purchased using lab fee money unless it can be demonstrated that it is a benefit to multiple students, generally across multiple courses.

The software below comprises the core offerings of ER4:

• Matlab: The ECE department faculty pretty much brought Matlab to OSU about a decade ago. It was a quality package then and is still highly regarded today. Matlab gives OSU a significantly reduced cost site license, which is paid for by your student lab fee.
• Maple: Maple is a widely used symbolic math package.
• LabView: National Instruments offers this widely used package as "graphical programming for instrumentation". It is available in the department not only the ER4 workstations but on many instructional lab PCs as well.
• Mentor Graphics: This package was the cornerstone of ER4's instructional offerings in the mid-to-late 1990's and Mentor was integrated into many of the ECE courses and research at that time.
• Xilinx
• Cadence: is a complete microchip EDA system, capable of developing professional, full-scale, mixed-signal microchips and breadboards. The modules included in the toolset are for schematic entry, design simulation, data analysis, physical layout, and final verification. The Cadence tools at Ohio State are the same as those used by professional mixed-signal microelectronics companies in the United States.
• ECEsof: A premier microwave design tool from HP.
• C, C++, FORTRAN, PASCAL compilers: ER4 provides most of the common development tools, including language compilers on the Unix systems and Visual Studio under Windows.
• MS Office: Microsoft has a campus wide agreement that allows ER4 to provide MS Office on all the region Windows systems.

Contact Information

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