With a demanding and savvy base of users and a big footprint, the people in charge of managing the technological infrastructures of colleges and universities face a major challenge. Just ask Rich Siedzik, Bryant University’s director of computer & telecommunications services.

A few statistics tell the story – across campus, Byrant has more than 8,000 data ports, 340 Wi-Fi hotspots, and more than three dozen core servers that power everything from e-mail access to safety monitoring. Siedzik talked with PBN recently about Byrant’s latest innovations and how his department keeps the school up-to-speed.

PBN: Bryant recently received a Campus Technology award for safety innovations. Could you explain a little more about what the university has done?

SIEDZIK: We first used the IP Interoperability and Collaboration System (IPICS) in daily campus operations to enable direct communication among campus public-safety, campus-management and residential-life departments. However, after the tragic shootings at Virginia Tech, we realized that IPICS also had the potential to connect campus public safety officials to one another and to off-campus public safety officials during a crisis.

Our goal was to use our IPICS network to improve public safety response time and tighten integration between public safety agencies and the campus. To achieve greater interoperability with local first responders, and make it possible to better respond to normal day-to-day events as well as more serious life safety issues. We extended our interoperability network to public safety agencies (primarily Fire) within a tri-state region (Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut).

We worked closely with Smithfield’s Fire Department and Harmony Fire Department, to extended IPICS to a number of public-safety agencies, first in Smithfield, then to the neighboring communities of North Smithfield, Cumberland, Glocester, Foster, Woonsocket and neighboring Connecticut’s Quinebaug Valley Regional Dispatch Center. We’ve also connected with Rhode Island’s E-911, Rhode Island’s Emergency Management Agency and the state’s chapter of the American Red Cross. We are in the process of adding a community in nearby Massachusetts.

As a result of extending our interoperability network into the local communities we’re utilizing technology to improve inter-agency collaboration, help agencies speed response time, and increase safety and security to both the campus and the community at large.

PBN: Do you still see more opportunities to use technology to improve campus safety?

SIEDZIK: Absolutely. Bryant’s campus-safety plan continues to be a campus-wide effort involving campus leadership focused on the goals of prevention, deterrence, detection, notification and response when it comes to crisis-management and life-safety situations. By deploying advanced communications systems like IPICS, Bryant is taking the first of what will be many steps to increase campus safety by converging safety systems with information systems and information-delivery systems.

Bryant is effectively defining a new role for IT in campus safety – leveraging the use of technology infrastructure to enhance safety by converging physical safety and IT systems together to protect students, faculty, staff and visitors.

We continually look for new ways of tying single-purpose systems together and creating new collaborative opportunities. These systems become much more effective when they work together rather than in isolation.

PBN: Bryant is planning a pilot project using tablet laptops from Lenovo, the Chinese computer company. Could you describe it?

SIEDZIK: Bryant has received a grant from Lenovo to equip its new state-of-the-art science labs with sixteen Lenovo x61 Tablets. These high-performance convertible laptops will be used by students and faculty to support an initiative in computerized learning in microbial sciences. Specifically, the tablets will be used to collect and analyze observational data, create graphics, generate GIS maps and support image and genetic analysis as well as provide the means to aid in the electronic distribution, collection and grading of course materials.

The unique attributes in using tablets over conventional computers in this environment is that it allows students to take notes in their natural form of handwriting and provides the ability to annotate over electronic course materials. For students, annotation becomes a very useful mechanism in personalizing content for referencing and supporting their retention of classroom instructions.

PBN: What are the biggest challenges in the technology sphere that college administrators face today?

SIEDZIK: As is the case with most colleges and universities, we have budget constraints and we have been very fortunate to have excellent creative staff and industry partnerships to implement state-of-the-art technology on campus.

Unlike any other industry, higher-ed campuses are constantly challenged in providing technology services that not only support daily needs of administration but also support faculty research as well as academic, entertainment and social-networking needs of students. At Bryant University, we have over 3,000 students, of which the majority live on campus and demand 24/7 access and reliability of our network infrastructure. Having to provide such a robust, secure and stable network to accommodate this dynamic environment, and at the same time balance its uses to allow for academic freedom and protect the rights of users with data privacy and intellectual property, is a big challenge.

Other challenges we face include reducing costs while increasing efficiencies – basically providing more services for less – and the human challenge of inspiring a change in mindset to adapt technology as a tool of progress and not an obstacle of routine processes.

PBN: What do you think are future trends in the use of technology on campus?

SIEDZIK: At Bryant, we have taken careful steps in our strategic planning to develop and provide a combined network infrastructure that supports data, voice and video. By doing this, we have prepared ourselves to be in a position to quickly adapt and support the technology trends that can have a positive impact on our students’ academic experience as well as their time living on campus as a resident of our community. With that said, some of the future trends that we see making their way onto our campus in support of our planning include:

• Virtual technologies.

• Web-based collaboration environments.

• Web 2.0.

• Smartphones.

• Virtual learning spaces.

• Web-based self-serve academic and administrative environments.

• Network-based facility management.

• Open-source solutions.

• IPTV.

• Portal services.

• Mashing.

• Institutional and global Web-based collaboration.

• Mobility.

• Greater consideration of software as a service (SaaS).

• Greater consideration of cloud computing.

A good example of our early adoption of an emerging trend is a pilot we have underway with dual mode phones (Wi-Fi and cellular enabled) and fixed mobile convergence (FMC). We are testing mobile phones on campus that allow our users to do four-digit campus and local dialing over our Wi-Fi infrastructure and thus save the cost of the cellular minutes. The system will automatically and transparently transfer a call between the Wi-Fi network and the cellular network whenever the user roams into or out of our Wi-Fi coverage area.

Bryant’s Director of Academic Computing & Media Services, Phil Lombardi, assisted Rich Siedzik with his responses.

Bryant University is a business, liberal arts and technology school with more than 3,600 undergraduate and graduate students. To learn more, visit www.bryant.edu.