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1. Describe the computing facilities used by students in the program. Indicate the types of software available in each category. Specify any limitations that impact the quality of the educational experience.
Institutional computing facilities:
It is noteworthy that all computer facilities at KFUPM have been substantially enhanced since the last ABET visit in 2001. The following sections present the current status of the computer facilities at KFUPM. There are two different sets of computing facilities provided to the students of Computer Science Department. These include facilities provided by the Information Technology Center (ITC) of the university and the computing facilities provided by the College of Computer Sciences & Engineering. Both will be described below:
A. Information Technology Center (ITC)
The ITC is the core department responsible for taking care of the IT and computing related needs of students and faculty. The facilities provided by ITC to students include 24 hours labs with support, messaging and collaboration services, windows/UNIX accounts, home directories, web space, wireless LAN, remote access dialup service and LAN connectivity in student dorms.
A.1 Available PC
ITC operates five general-purpose PC labs throughout the campus. These labs provide PC's for accessing the network as well as printing facilities. The locations and operation hours for each of these labs are announced at ITC website. In addition, ITC technically supports 50+ departmental labs. The total number of institutional computers accessible to students as of the end of January 2007 is 3150, with a student-to-available institutional computer ratio of 2.86 (Year 2006).
A.2 The Network
Networking facilities at KFUPM have seen exponential growth over the last five years. Networking facilities, which started with Novell based PC labs, now comprise a fiber optic Gigabit Ethernet backbone serving more than 10,000+ fast-Ethernet switched network points. All faculty offices, classrooms and PC labs are connected to the network. Faculty housing and multi-story student dorms buildings are also connected to network. The network is enhanced to provide wireless LAN (Wi-Fi) connectivity to all academic buildings across the campus. A total of 390 access points have been installed across the campus. Dial-in facilities are also available for remote access to KFUPM Intranet and Internet resources.
■ KFUPM Enterprise Network Infrastructure
KFUPM Enterprise network serves to provide services to KFUPM community for research and academic purposes. All computers at KFUPM campus are connected to KFUPM enterprise network. The network consists of a redundant Gigabit Ethernet backbone over fiber optic cables. All the academic buildings in the campus are connected to the backbone of ITC (Bldg-14) using single mode fiber optic cables. Some of the remote buildings with a small number of users are connected to the main campus network over leased telephone lines using HDSL (High Speed Digital Subscriber Link).
KFUPM enterprise backbone used state-of-the-art equipment from Cisco and was upgraded to gigabit Ethernet technology in 2001.Cisco Catalyst 6500 series gigabit switches were chosen in redundant configuration for the backbone. Network inside the buildings consist of Catalyst 3550 gigabit edge switches which serves to connect the building network to the backbone using FO cables. At the desktop level, fast Ethernet switches connect to the edge switches using gigabit uplinks over copper cables (UTP). Use of UTP cables for gigabit uplinks inside the buildings has reduced the network costs and makes it easier to maintain. Switches in the backbone and edge devices have full routing capabilities. This gives flexibility and control in network operations.
Most of the Academic buildings are connected to building 14 (ITC) through single mode fiber. The remaining buildings with fewer users are connected through HDSL. The entire Enterprise network is logically divided into different VLANs for faculty, staff, students and wireless users for enhancing security. Thus each building has a VLAN for faculty, staff, students and wireless users created on Layer 3 and Layer 2 switches. VLAN implementation also increases the overall manageability and increases the bandwidth efficiency by preventing huge broadcast network traffic clogging the usable bandwidth.
■ KFUPM Enterprise IT Security
► Cisco ASA firewall is being used to protect threats from inside as well as outside.
► Intrusion Detection System (IDS) is being used to monitor suspicious activity and traffic for external as well as for important servers inside the server farm.
► Providing VPN services to the KFUPM community for remote access using state of art security infrastructure.
► Preparing and implementing security policies and guidelines.
► Performing audits and security health checks of the entire KFUPM IT infrastructure.
■ Student Dorms Network
KFUPM constantly keeps on striving to improve the services provided to the students and to be at the forefront of technology use in education. Online education and computer networks are playing an ever increasing part in improving the quality of the learning experience of the students. To further enhance the services an ambitious project was started to provide network connectivity to all the student dorms. These include a total of 28 buildings. Each room is equipped with two fast Ethernet connections. This includes equipping more than 1800 rooms with network connectivity. A separate network backbone with gigabit connectivity has been made for this purpose. All the dorm buildings would be connected to a newly built network center in the student reception building. Cisco Catalyst 6500 switches which are being used in the main campus backbone have been chosen for the student dorms network backbone in a fully redundant configuration. These switches have extra capacity to support new student buildings in future. The new backbone is being connected to the existing backbone within ITC network center using multiple gigabit connections in a fully meshed configuration. It is worth mentioning over here that the student dorms network project includes laying more than 20,000 meters of fiber optic cables. In addition more than 130,000 meters of UTP cabling has been used.
As a result of these projects, 39 buildings (academic and remote) and 28 student buildings have been connected with more than 10,000 nodes cabled.
■ Availability of Wireless Network
KFUPM has a complete Cisco wireless LAN deployment with nearly 400 Aironet 1200 series Access Points.
KFUPM has IEEE-802.11g (Backward compatible with 802.11b).
Operating frequency uses available/unlicensed 2.4/5 GHz ISM Band. It provides higher data rate (up to 54 Mbps).
KFUPM has secured communication via Meetinghouse AEGIS client, used for secure authentication and communication.
Total 39 buildings are covered including all academic buildings. Moreover, three (3) students’ activity areas in student dorms are covered. Three (3) outdoor areas are covered as well to provide ubiquitous coverage between important buildings.
All the above areas have good coverage and good signal strengths.
■ ITC Remote Access Service
Remote Access Service (RAS) system was introduced in the month of May 2002 through which 240 users can simultaneously connect to ITC network using dialup connection. Due to its availability and reliability, ITC RAS system is heavily used by the KFUPM community for connecting their computers from remote locations. This system also has callback facility, limited to some users. RAS users are being authenticated using a centralized database taken from the ITC active directory so that users will have one username and password for all signing on. Detailed reports of RAS usage are generated daily.
A.3 Available Software
The use of software at King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals is governed by an approved software policy of the university. This policy is applicable to the University community and refers to all computing resources whether individually installed, or shared, stand-alone or networked. Faculty, staff, and students of the University are required and expected to obey the laws and legal agreements governing software use for educational institutions of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Because such violations are also against University policies and rules, disciplinary action is taken where appropriate. For more information this policy, please refer to “Appendix II – Institutional Profile”. A partial list of software available to students includes, but is not limited to:
- Adobe Acrobat Writer 6.0
- Adobe Illustrator 10
- Adobe Photoshop 7.0
- Dream Weaver MX 2004 (New)
- Flash MX 2004
- Macro Media AuthorWare 7.0.1
- Microsoft Office 2003
- Microsoft Office 2003 Front Page
- Microsoft Office 2003 Professional
- Microsoft Office Project 2003
- Microsoft Office Visio 2003
- Oracle 11i E-Business Suite
- Oracle Database 10g R2 (10.2.0.1.0)
- Oracle Developer Suite 10g
- Savvion Process Modeler
- Symantec Corporate Client
- Trend Micro Office Scan 8.0 (Vista Compatible)
- Visual Studio 6.0
B. College of Computer Sciences and Engineering Facilities
The facilities provided by the College of Computer Sciences & Engineering are in addition to the facilities provided by ITC. In fact, the college maintains its own IT and computing infrastructure and support staff to meet the ever increasing computing demands of its students and faculty. These services mainly include general purpose and specific labs, separate UNIX and Windows based storage space, web space, table space on database servers (ORACLE, MYSQL, and MS SQLSERVER), remotely accessible UNIX servers (around 40), e-mail service, senior project experimentation lab, and support on various software used by students.
In addition to the departmental instructional labs that are described in the next section, the department has access to college instructional labs. The College of Computer Sciences & Engineering (CCSE) provides additional computer labs and server resources. CCSE labs provide Unix and Windows facilities as follows:
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22-335: 35 Windows XP Dell GX 240 Pentium IV, 512 MB RAM machines. Open 24 hours. Primary function: Instructional and General Purpose Lab.
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22-410: 36 Windows XP Dell GX 240 Pentium IV, 512 MB RAM machines. Open 24 hours. One HP 9000 DN printer. Open 24 hours. Primary function: Instructional and General Purpose Lab.
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23-017: 36 IBM Pentium IV machines running Windows XP. The RAM is 512 MB. Primary function: Instructional Lab.
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22-418: 24 IBM Pentium IV machines running Windows XP. The RAM is 512 MB. One HP 9000 DN printer. Primary function: Instructional and General Purpose Lab.
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22-413: 28 HP Pentium IV PCs running Mandrake Linux version 10.1. One HP 9000 DN printer. Open 24 hours. Primary function: Instructional and General Purpose Lab.
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22-333: 22 HP Compaq Pentium IV machines running Windows XP. The RAM is 512 MB. 2 HP 9000 DN printers. Open 24 hours. Primary function: General Purpose Lab.
CCSE Unix Network File, print, and computational servers provided by the college include a Sun NAS Server N8400 with 3 TB of disk space, several high end SUN and HP servers for Solaris and Linux, respectively, several smaller servers including SUN V120 and V240 servers for remote access by users, and associated backup facilities.
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Program computing facilities:
The department maintains its own laboratories, servers, and office and research systems. Workstations are provided in the instructional laboratories, and additional systems are supported in faculty and graduate student offices, administrative offices, and research labs. Laser printers, scanners, and other peripheral resources are also provided.
Departmental Instructional labs include:
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Senior Project Lab (22-343): 18 Windows XP Dell GX 260 Pentium IV, 512 MB RAM machines. Primary function: General Purpose Project Lab.
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Database Lab (22-336/1): 35 HP Compaq Pentium IV machines running Windows XP. The RAM is 512 MB. Primary function: Instructional and general purpose lab.
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Software Engineering Lab (23-018): 35 HP Compaq Pentium IV machines running Windows XP. The RAM is 512 MB. Primary function: Instructional lab
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General Course Instruction Lab (23-015): 30 Windows XP HP Compaq Pentium IV, 512 MB RAM machines. Primary function: Instructional Lab.
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Network Lab (23-016): Various layer 2 and layer 3 networking devices from CISCO and 3COM, including CISCO 3500 layer 3 switches, CISCO 2600 routers and layer 2 3COM switches. In addition to networking hardware, the lab also has 20 Pentium IV IBM machines running Windows 2000 Server platform. Primary function: Instructional.
Students are also provided access and support on several licensed and freeware software, both on UNIX and Windows platforms.
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Other computing facilities:
Please Refer to ABET Self Study Questionnaire Volume 2
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2. Describe the computing facilities planning, acquisition, and maintenance processes and their adequacy. Include discussion of these topics for university-wide computing facilities available to all students (if used by your majors), your own laboratories and equipment (if applicable), and facilities controlled by other departments and/or schools (if used by your majors).
Please Refer to ABET Self Study Questionnaire Volume 2
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Discuss how you assess the adequacy of your laboratory and computing support.
Please Refer to ABET Self Study Questionnaire Volume 2
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Please attach any equipment replacement plans to this report.
Standard V-1. Each student must have adequate and reasonable access to the systems needed for each course.
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Student Access
State the hours the various facilities are open. State whether students have access from dormitories or off campus by direct access, modem, etc., and describe this access quantitatively.
Please Refer to ABET Self Study Questionnaire Volume 2
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Standard V-2. Documentation for hardware and software must be readily accessible to faculty and students.
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Documentation
Describe documentation for hardware and software systems available to students and faculty in the computer science program. Explain how students and faculty have adequate and timely access to the documentation.
Please Refer to ABET Self Study Questionnaire Volume 2
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Standard V-3. All faculty members must have access to adequate computing facilities for class preparation and for scholarly activities.
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Faculty Access
Describe the computing facilities available to faculty for class preparation and for scholarly activities. Include specifics regarding resources in faculty offices.
Please Refer to ABET Self Study Questionnaire Volume 2
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Standard V-4. There must be adequate support personnel to install and maintain the laboratories and computing facilities.
E. Support Personnel
1. What support personnel are available to install, maintain, and manage departmental hardware, software, and networks?
Please Refer to ABET Self Study Questionnaire Volume 2
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2. Describe any limitations due to this level of support?
Please Refer to ABET Self Study Questionnaire Volume 2
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3. Are any faculty members expected to provide hardware, network, or software support? If so, describe this expectation including how such expectations are addressed in evaluation, tenure, promotion, and merit pay decisions, and indicate what, if any, released time is awarded for this effort.
Please Refer to ABET Self Study Questionnaire Volume 2
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Standard V-5. Instructional assistance must be provided for the laboratories and computing facilities.
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