Please note - Swinburne University of Technology

C
=j Computer Services and
% lnformation Technology (CSIT)
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Acting Manager
$ A. Young, BEng, MEng, MlREE
3. E-mail: Allan.Young@swin.edu.au
General enquiries: 214 8509
E-mail: enquiries@swin.edu.au
Computer Services and lnformation Technology (CSIT) is the
section of lnformation Services responsible for providing
computing and communications services to the entire -
University community to support teaching, research and
community objectives.
CSlT is customer focused and provides a range of direct
customer services as well as supporting the underlying
computing and communications infrastructure. A Network
Access and Code of Practice document is available from the
Help Desk to explain the services provided to users and the
conditions governing their use.
Facilities
The facilities group, which includes a team of student cadets,
is responsible for managing and maintaining the Computer
Access Laboratories in the Engineering Building. Over 100
PCs are provided in the West Wing laboratory running a
range of software packages for all University students and
staff. Books, disks and mice are available for loan in the West
W~ng.
Facilities is responsible for all aspects of managing the West
Wing such as evaluating and purchasing hardware and
software and managing and maintaining printing facilities,
backup and recovery and stock control. There is a student
help desk located in the West Wing to provide software and
hardware support to users of the laboratory. The West Wing
help desk is operated by the cadets and is open whenever
the West Wing laboratory is open.
Facilities also operate a small laboratory located in EN402
which is provided specifically for supervised teaching
applications and must be pre-booked. For bookings contact
Ken Tan. Telephone: 214 8382 or
E-mail: Ken@stan.xx.swin.oz.au
Opening hours for the West Wing during teaching periods
are:
Monday-Friday 8.00am-9.30pm
Saturday 12.00pm-5.00pm
Sunday 1.00pm-5.00pm
The West Wing is not open every weekend so please phone
2 15 8574 to check before coming in.
PC Support Services
CSIT manage a central PC support service. This service
provides first level hardware maintenance and software
support for Macs and PCs in the Higher Education Sector
TAFE Division and Corporate Services.
In addition to maintenance services, the PC Support group is
able to provide advice on the selection of PC hardware and
software, and assist in the installation and configuration of
recommended computing and peripheral equipment. The
group is also responsible for providing access to the
University's local area network and the centrally managed
network file servers.
For PC support contact the Help Desk on 214 5222,
E-ma~l:Helpdesk@buster.c.c.swin.edu.au
System Support Services
The System Support Group manages the IBM AS1400 which
supports Swinburne's Management Information System
(MIS). The centrally controlled mainframe IBM 3090 was
decommissioned in 1994. All administrative work which used
to operate on this machine has been converted, as part of
the MIS, to run on the AS1400 thus putting the University's
whole administrative workload onto this system. This
involves the management of applications which support
student records, finance, human resources and physical
resources. The group also provides performance monitoring
and capacity planning for these systems with access prov~ded
to all teaching departments and corporate divisions.
The group also supports two UNlX based Encore Multimax
systems. One of these systems is dedicated to providing the
electronic cataloguing and borrowing system (DYNIX) from
the Central Library, the other is a teaching machine which
supports undergraduate programs in UNlX languages such as
Pascal and C, and applications such as ORACLE.
System Support is also responsible for a group of RlSC 6000s
for the CIM centre. These power PCs support engineering
packages such as CATlA and Lusas.
Network Services
Managing the University's data network infrastructure is one
of CS1T's major responsibilities. Network Services is
responsible for installing, managing and maintaining most of
the University's local and wide area network (LAN and WAN)
connections.
The WAN currently consists of a high capacity microwave link
between the Hawthorn and Prahran campuses of the
University and ISDN (Integrated Digital services Network)
connections to Mooroolbark and from Mooroolbark to
Glenfern Study Centre
The network integrates over 2000 PCs, including Macs,
between each of these sites to University resources such as
host computing systems (ASl400, CRAY and many other
UNlX hosts), library, file servers and electronic mail (e-mail).
The network also provides all campuses with access to the
Australian Academic and Research Network (AARNet) and
the worldwide INTERNET system, which offers extensive
services.
The LANs are based on the IEEE 802.3 network standard and
operate on fibre optic backbones and unshielded twisted pair
cable to the workstation interface. Most hub and routers on
the network are managed by UNlX workstations using SNMP
(Simple Network Management Protocol).
Customer Liaison
Customer Liaison provides the all important interface
between the computer service provider and the consumer
with responsibilityfor the promotion of CSIT and the
marketing and sipport of'services provided by CSlT to the
Swinburne communitv. This includes su~oort for the interface
between the Dynix ~i6rary system and other administrative
systems and responsibility for the library database as well as
consulting to all sectors of the University which relate to the
services provided by CSIT.
The Technical Publications Officer is responsible for the
desiqn and production of a comprehensive user quide and
oth& supporting documentation. The Technical Publications
Officer also Drovides information to im~rove the usabilitv of
CSIT facilities and services and a quarterly '
information technology newsletter, Access.