Hello-
I am attempting to produce a model for providing computing support to
researchers in the life sciences here at University of California, Irvine, and
thought it would be helpful to get a sense of how these is being done at other
academic instituions. I hope this is an appropriate forum for this issue. If
you would respond to me on any or all of the following, I will gladly
summarize the results. If you have undertaken such a survey, I would be glad
to know the results as well. Please mail directly to me- lpearlma at uci.edu -
if possible. Thank you in advance for your assistance. Although this is
aimed primarily at support providers, I would be happy for input from end
users as well.
1- What types of resources is your institution providing for life scientists?
2- Is support provided centrally- by something akin to a campus Office of
Academic Computing, or locally- by the School, or College?
3- What is the background of the support provider(s)- education, degrees,
experience, etc. How many support folks, their positions?
4- How many users do you have- number of faculty, grad students, etc.
5- How do you fund computing- hardware, software, salaries, etc.
6- What is the infrastructure- what types of servers do you have (operating
system, etc). Do you have a campus backbone? What prototcols are allowed on
the backbone?
7- What types of training do you provide? Is there a cost involved to the
user? Who provides the training?
8- How do you determine needs? How do you determine how those needs are met?
Is there a formal committee, or ......?
9- If you could set up a structure from scratch, what would you be sure to
emphasize or do.. and not do?
10- What specific resources do you provide (in terms of software, hardware,
personnel)?
11- Of these, which do you feel your customers use most? Find least useful?
12- What factors do you feel are most important in successfully providing
computing support to life scientists.... least important?
Please include any other info you feel would be helpful in my analysis, and
again, thanks!! I will summarize and post back!!
Leslie Pearlman
Computing Resources Manager
School of Biological Sciences
University of California, Irvine
Irvine, CA 92717
lpearlma at uci.edu
voice- 714-856-424
