With the number of high-tech jobs in Oregon expected to triple in the next six years, a recent grant from Intel to create a computer networking laboratory will help the University fill the state’s growing demand.
The Department of Computer and Information Science was awarded a $70,000 grant to add a 20-computer, configurable laboratory and eight new courses devoted to teaching the hands-on aspects of networking.
Many CIS courses are currently based on computer principles, said Virginia Lo, CIS undergraduate education director and one of the professors who put together the grant proposal. In the new laboratory-based courses students will “actually be doing the physical work of setting up a network,” she said.
The first course, Enterprise Networking, began this term.
“They actually started with taking the PCs out of the boxes,” Lo said.
The course is business-oriented. Students learn about installing hardware and software and network security issues.
Other new courses, scheduled to begin in the next three terms, will simulate network congestion and other computing problems and teach students how to adapt and deal with them, Lo said.
Jobs that demand networking skills will be one of the most intense areas of growth in the near future, she said.
The grant is part of Intel’s Faculty Fellows program, which is in its second year. Intel reviewed 30 grant applications and awarded five. The University’s grant is by far the largest of those selected.
Morgan Anderson, Intel’s education relations manager, said the microchip-manufacturing giant supports higher education in technical fields because there is a large demand for skilled graduates.
The support benefits the entire high-tech industry, not just Intel, Anderson said.
Partnerships between Oregon’s universities and private companies are crucial to Oregon University System’s ability to provide training in engineering and technology fields, said Bob Dryden, OUS vice chancellor for engineering and computer science .
In addition to funding programs such as the University’s CIS curriculum additions, industry partners can help direct educators toward the kind of skills that will be in demand in the future, he said.
“Having industry partners is critical because they’re really the ones we’re serving ultimately,” Lo said.
OUS hopes to at least double the number of graduates in engineering and high-tech fields in the next five years, Dryden said.
The industry partnerships “help us jump-start the system and more rapidly achieve the state of the art level than if we just had to rely on state resources,” he said.