FY03_2.1.9 Upgrade of Computer Science-Mathematics Computer LaboratoriesPage 1 of 6

Transcription

1 FY03_2.1.9 Upgrade of Computer Science-Mathematics Computer LaboratoriesPage 1 of 6 Submitting Organization(s) Major Unit: College of Arts and Sciences Department: Computer Science and Mathematics and Statistics Contact Person Name: Martin D. Fraser (Computer Science) Contact Person mfraser@cs.gsu.edu Contact Person Phone: Contact Person Name: Jean Bevis (Mathematics and Statistics) Contact Person jbevis@gsu.edu Contact Person Phone: Project Short Title 5-8 Word Project Title Upgrade of Computer Science/Mathematics Computer Laboratories 2. Total Requested Amount (reference to funding for Years Following removed) Fiscal Year 2003 $85, Executive Summary Project Description (Three or four sentences) This proposal is for an upgrade to the computer classes/laboratories that support courses in the departments of Computer Science, Mathematics and Statistics, Communications, and Art and Design. 4. Project Description This proposal is for an upgrade to the computer equipment that supports courses in the departments of Computer Science, Mathematics and Statistics, Communications, and Art and Design. This equipment will replace the current workstations in room 140 COE. The current machines (two year old Dell machines) will be moved up to room 757 and to replace the computers in that room that are 4 years old (Dell machines with a 266 Mhz PII and 128 Mbytes of RAM). Note that rather than having the normal three year replacement cycle for two separate computer labs, we are combining them and having a two year cycle for one lab and then moving the replaced machines to the other lab. Because we need to request very powerful machines, needed as discussed below, we can get four years service from these machines, rather than the normal three years service. Very high-end equipment is necessary to support the computer graphics and animation courses that are taught in this classroom. Two of these courses are cross listed in the

2 FY03_2.1.9 Upgrade of Computer Science-Mathematics Computer LaboratoriesPage 2 of 6 department of Communications and the School of Art and Design and have students from all three departments. These courses are taught in the COE 140 classroom using 3D Studio Max, a high end computer modeling and animation package, which is very resource intensive (see section 10). Every year there is a new version of 3D Studio Max that includes new and more computationally intensive features so the hardware must be continually upgraded so the students can use these features. In addition to the in-class time, the students use these machines extensively outside of class. It is estimated that they spend approximately ten to fifteen hours per week outside of class for these courses. Other graphics courses are held in COE 140 that involve programming using OpenGL and C++ to create interactive 3D virtual worlds, requiring both fast cpus and graphics cards, as described in section 10. For these courses we have installed copies of Renderman/BMRT, OpenGL libraries, and other specialized graphics software that the students use. In summary, the computers in this class are used for extremely resource intensive tasks using specialized software. Neither the computational capability nor the software is available anywhere else at GSU. 5. Relevance to Regents Guidelines This project directly supports Guidelines [1] (Technology fee revenues should be used primarily for the direct benefit of students to assist them in meeting the educational objectives of their academic programs.) and [3] (Technology fee revenues should be used for hardware and Network related expenditures that include support of general purpose or special purpose laboratories used by students for body productivity and more discipline related activities.) 6. Relevance to Strategic Plan(s) A major strategic goal of the University, College, and Department is to provide a high quality undergraduate education. For the Computer Science department, this means that our students must have access to the proper equipment so that their education will be competitive with other top level schools. Having systems such as these allows us to be competitive. 7. Impact on Students Served Provide a paragraph describing the number and types of students served or special audiences served. If appropriate, identify the number of hours in which the facility will be accessible to students, any restrictions regarding access, any special staff services that will be made available, or any specialized hardware or software that will be made available. Room 140 COE Computer Science:

3 FY03_2.1.9 Upgrade of Computer Science-Mathematics Computer LaboratoriesPage 3 of 6 CSc 4820/6820 Computer Graphics Algorithms. Two sections per year with a total of about students. CSc 8820 Advanced Graphics Algorithms. One section per year with 20 students CSc/Fllm/Grd 4840/6840 Computer Graphics Imaging. Computer modeling and image synthesis; one section per year with 24 students CSc/Flm/Grd/4841/6841 Computer Animation. One section per year with 24 students. CSc 4620/6620 Digital Image Processing. One section per year with 30 students. Department of Mathematics and Statistics Math 1111 College Algebra. Special sections use files developed to work with a mathematical oriented software package called StudyWorks. COE 140 accommodates 30 to 35 students in one of these sections. These students self select from a pool of over 2500 students who take Math 1111 per year. Math 1113 Precalculus. Special sections use files developed to work with WebCT. COE 140 accommodates 30 to 35 students in one of these sections. These students self select from a pool of over 1000 students who take Math 1113 per year. Math 2050 Informal Geometry, Math 4301/6301 Transformational Geometry, and Math 4371/6371 Modern Geometry. Special sections work with a software package called Geometer's Sketchpad. COE 140 accommodates 20 to 40 students in sections of these courses that are heavily populated by education majors COE 140 is open Monday-Thursday 8:30 AM to 9:30 PM and Friday 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM. Any of these times when there is not a scheduled class the room is open to students in any of the above courses. Room 757 COE Upper Division students in all of the Computer Science or Mathematics courses have open access to these computers during normal office hours (8:30 am to 5:15 pm M-F). 8. Justification of Funding Requirements for Fiscal Year 2003 Provide a specific description of the funding requirements in FY2003. Itemize and total the following categories of expense. If necessary, add lines to the table below corresponding to accounting objects of expense: PLEASE NOTE THAT ANY EQUIPMENT ITEMS LESS THAN $1000 SHOULD BE CATEGORIZED AS SUPPLIES. Object of Expense Itemized Descriptions Quantity Extended $ Total Staff Salaries Fringe Benefits Student Salaries Equipment (Note: Use standard Dell Precision 530 Workstations 25 $80,000

4 FY03_2.1.9 Upgrade of Computer Science-Mathematics Computer LaboratoriesPage 4 of 6 dollar amounts and replacement Item 2 $ thresholds from sections 10/11, or Item 3 $ provide explanation in sections Item 4 $ 10/11) Item 5, etc $ Software Maintenance or Contractual $ Services Item 2, $ Supplies Construction Services (Requires review of Planning & Facilities) Network Connections and Infrastructure Costs (Requires Item 2 $ review of UCCS) Item 3, etc $ Other Expenses (explain) TOTAL $ 9. Consequences of Partial Funding State what the consequences would be on the effectiveness and viability of the proposal if it were only funded in FY 2003 at the following percentages of the requested total: Since this is an upgrade for a classroom it needs to be funded at the full level. 10. Standard Dollar Amounts In constructing the budgetary requests in step 8 above, computer workstations should be budgeted at the following levels: Windows/Intel processors workstation, including monitor: $1,800 Apple Macintosh models $3,170 Requests departing from the above standard amounts require documentation of the specific programmatic need that requires departure from this standard. (See Attachment 2: Standard Windows/Intel instructional workstation.) Please explain any requested departures below: Each Dell workstation costs $3,400. A current configuration consists of dual 1.70 GHz Xenon Processors, 512 GBytes RAM, an 18 GByte SCSI 10,000 RPM disk, a Quadro Pro 2 graphics board with 64 Mbytes VRAM, and a 19 inch monitor. It should be noted that, when the current machines were purchased two years ago a comparable high end machine was $4,900 so the price is dropping quickly, even at the high end. Extremely fast computers with excellent graphics boards and fast disks are required because of the requirements for the Computer Graphics classes. Creating images and animations using 3D Studio Max is very resource intensive. For example, computer animations require 30 frames per second so a two minute animation requires 3600 frames. If each frame requires seconds to render (not an unusually long time with the current machines) then a single animation will require hours to render! Even some images may require several minutes to render. This makes it impossible for

5 FY03_2.1.9 Upgrade of Computer Science-Mathematics Computer LaboratoriesPage 5 of 6 students to experiment and do re-rendering. Since Max is threaded, it takes advantage of dual processors which is why they are being requested. The new computers are over 4 times faster than the current machines, thus allowing students to create more images/animations in the same amount of time. As students create complex models these also require large amounts of memory and a very fast graphics card, otherwise the model and scene complexity is severely limited. These programs produce very large files that must be read into/out of memory quickly so a very fast disk is required. The students store their work on writable CD-Roms since the files are much too large for floppy disks (a typical student animation is more than 30 mbytes). Other graphics courses are held in COE 140 and the students will use the requested equipment for their assignments. CSc 4820/6820 (Computer Graphics Algorithms) and CSc 8820 (Advanced Computer Graphics Algorithms) use technologies such as OpenGL and Renderman (actually the freeware BMRT package). These all require excellent graphics cards and a large amount of processing power. The Renderman/BMRT system (used to make movies such as Monsters, Inc.) can create very high quality single images using Ray Tracing or Radiosity. A single complex Radiosity image can require eight hours to render on a slow machine. The other systems are oriented towards fast real-time interactive graphics, e.g., as in games. These require the fast graphics cards and high-speed processors for good performance. These courses also use 3D Studio Max. 11. Standard Replacement Thresholds All equipment being requested due to obsolescence or inadequacy of existing equipment must be itemized on the form provided in Attachment 3: Itemization of Equipment to be Replaced. Each item for which replacement funding is being requested will be in one of the following two categories: The machine sin Room 757 are 266 MHz PII s and are below the current standard. The current machines in Room 140 COE are Dell Precision Workstations with dual 800 MHz CPUs. These are still very powerful machines and will be moved to room 757 and used in that laboratory. 12. Prerequisite, Non-Technology Fee, Funding None 13. Matching Funds None 14. Staffing and Other Support Availability The departments pay for two full time system administrators (Schaochieh Ou and Sharon Collins) who oversee the computer laboratories. Martin D. Fraser and Jean

6 FY03_2.1.9 Upgrade of Computer Science-Mathematics Computer LaboratoriesPage 6 of 6 Bevis are their supervisors. 15. Space Availability These are replacement machines and will use the same space. 16. Impact on Facilities None. 17. Impact on Computing/Network Infrastructure None. 18. Post-Project Assessment Criteria The students in the affected courses will be able to use the machines to enhance their learning experience. 19. Review and Acknowledgements Attach electronic notes or documentation showing that the following units or administrators have reviewed or acknowledged this proposal: Dean or functional unit endorsement Matching funds commitment from appropriate fiscal officer CBSAC approval, if necessary University Computing and Communications Services review or acknowledgement, if necessary Planning and Facilities review or acknowledgement, if necessary