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Annual Report Home | Executive Summary | New, Improved, and Continued Services | Research Services | Project/Initiative Highlights | Professional/Personal Activities | By the Numbers

Executive Summary

Kevin Morooney, Senior Director

Welcome to Academic Services and Emerging Technologies 2005 Annual Report. The report captures the accomplishments in ASET that improved and extended services to a broad range of constituents and service areas.

New, Improved and Continued Services reflects primarily the efforts and accomplishments of the Applied Information Technologies Group (AIT) in ASET. A major goal of AIT this year was to enrich infrastructure services to IT units across Penn State, as well as enhance services that directly serve Penn State students, faculty, and staff. As this section demonstrates, considerable strides were made to help make others' jobs more efficient as they provide services to their local constituencies.

Research Services reflects primarily the efforts and accomplishments of the Graduate Education and Research Services (GEaRS) group in ASET. The group pursues cutting-edge advances in research computing technology in partnerships with faculty members and in strong technical collaborations with various technology companies and institutions.

Project Initiatives/Highlights reflects primarily the efforts and accomplishments of the Emerging Technologies (ET) group in ITS. ET is charged with working with ITS peers in areas they deem emerging and strategic. When done right, these collaborations lead to reduced time to market for new services. In only its third year, ET has established a wide footprint of activity in ITS.

Professional/Personal Activities is a listing of the many and varied activities ASET staff have participated in throughout the year.

By the Numbers is a quick fact section to present some "wow" numbers associated with various services and initiatives. Penn State is a large institution and a quick glance at this section reinforces this notion.

There are some activities that an annual report just can't capture. Implicit to every section in this report is a significant improvement in how ITS is working together to solve problems that lead to new and improved services. There is a blending in information management and expectations and for ITS to remain relevant we must learn how to blend with our peers in ITS, our peers in other administrative units, our peers in academic areas, and our peers nationally. This is by no means easy - it requires a tireless commitment to staying informed and informing others. The accomplishments outlined in this report for 2005 reflect a tremendous amount of energy poured into working with our peers, without whom none of this could have been made possible.