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Professional and Personal Activities

**THIS DOCUMENT WILL BE FINALIZED ON AUGUST 14, 2006**
In addition to regular job responsibilities, many ASET staff members participate in both professionally- and personally- oriented activities by serving on University and/or national committees, attending and presenting at University-based and national conferences, teaching seminars and/or by serving as community volunteers. Please note that the information below is based on the annual report submissions; therfore, some participants/activities as well as dates, places, and other information, may not be reflected on this list.

New Hires, Departures and Retirements

This year, ASET welcomed new staff members Dan Gao (AIT) and Anshuman Gupta (GEaRS), Jin Sung An (ET intern), and part-time employee Claudia Caracci (ASET Communications).

ASET said farewell to Hannah Williams in November 2005, who took a new position in the Center for Gravitational Wave Physics. ASET also bid farewell to Ray Masters, who retired in June 2006.

Graduations

ASET also celebrated the May 2006 graduations of Claudia Caracci, Jeremy Hill, and Phil Sorber. During their respective roads toward Bachelor's degrees, Claudia worked with ASET part-time as a work study student, while Jeremy and Phil worked full-time.

Of Special Note

Diversity Tranining
During 2005-06, ASET staff participated in ITS-wide, diversity-related seminars organized by ITS OHR staff, and taught through HRDC. The courses represent a continued effort to improve acceptance and further development of diversity awareness in the workplace. Initially, the courses were organized as a response to the Office of Human Resource's Faculty/Staff survey results made available to the University community.

Leadership Training
In addition, Jerry Mihaly, Jeff Nucciarone, and Jim Vuccolo completed the 56-hour Mastering Supervision Course offered through Penn State's HRDC program. Others have taken part in either the local or traveling MOR Associates Information Technology Leadership Program (ITLP), including John Kalbach, Steve Kellogg, Jim Leous, George Otto, and Renee Shuey.

ITS Event Participation
Many staff in ASET, along with all other ITS units, participated in the 2005 ITS Event, which focused on personal and institutional digital identity management.

Presentations and Papers

Al Williams and Bryan Katyl presented a Windows Vista Update at the June 28, 2006 ITS All-staff meeting.

Web 2.0 & the Higher Ed Enterprise: The Path Less Taken, C. Camplese and J. Leous, Penn State Web Conference, June 13, 2006.

Using the Penn State Search Engine (and latest updates, 2006), J. D'Angelo, J. Hill, and J. Leous, Penn State Web Conference, June 13, 2006.

The Reengineering of Penn State WebMail: A Systems and Software Overview, C. Hubing and J. Kalbach, Penn State Web Conference, June 13, 2006.

Re-Engineering EASY (Workflow Systems) Utilizing Modern Tools, D. Hoffman and J. Vuccolo, Penn State Web Conference, June 13, 2006.

Leveraging Penn State Identity Management System for Web Applications, S. Kellogg, Penn State Web Conference, June 13, 2006.

Emerging Web Technologies: Building New Connections in Higher Education, M. Greenfield, State University of New York at Buffalo and J. Leous, Penn State Web Conference, Pre-Conference Tutorial, June 12, 2006.

Services and Privileges Managing Groups and Roles and Risks and Trends in Authentication panel discussions, S. Kellogg (participant), CIC Identity Management Conference, Indianapolis, IN, June 5-6, 2006.

Federated Identity and Sharing Resources Byond Campus panel discussion, K. Morooney (participant) CIC Identity Management Conference, Indianapolis, IN, June 5-6, 2006.

Federations: Here and Now, R. Shuey, PESC Third Annual Conference on Technology and Standards, Washington, DC, May 1, 2006.

The Tin Man Speaks, ITS Academic Computing newsletter article on preparing an animated presentation. John Wagner, May 2006.

NSF grant proposal (awarded):  A Workshop on Effective Approaches to Campus Research Computing Cyberinfrastructure, K. Morooney, National Middleware Initiative Program, April 2006.

Improving the End User Experience with Social Software, J. Leous, Penn State User Services Conference 2006, University Park, PA, April 5, 2006.

IT Futures at Penn State, opening keynote address, K. Morooney, Penn State User Services Conference 2006, University Park, PA, April 5, 2006.

The Impact of Managing Digital Identities in the Increasingly Connected Worlds of Higher Education, K. Morooney and R. Shuey, Internet2 Spring 2006 Members Meeting, Arlington, VA, April 26, 2006.

LionShare Working Group: Deployment Update, D. Morr, Internet2 Spring 2006 Members Meeting, Arlington, VA, April 26, 2006.

PKI Adoption and USHER, D. Morr, Internet2 Spring 2006 Members Meeting, Arlingon, VA, April 26, 2006.

Cooler In The Shade, an Introduction to Shader Networks, J. Wagner article in Academic Computing Newsletter - Spring 2006.

Authentication, Authorization, and Identity Management, M. Earnest, Penn State Security Day Conference, University Park, PA, March 28, 2006.

Preparing the Statkeholders:  Service Providers, Faculty, and the Hoi Polloi, K. Morooney, Leveraging Campus Authentication Across Boundaries - An NSF Middleware Initiative Conference, February 2006.

Why Wikis Work, J. Leous, Student Affairs Development Day, University Park, January 27, 2006. (Jim Leous also presented this topic at University Faculty Senate Computing and Information Systems Committee Meeting, University Park, October 25, 2005).

Elucidation of directionality for co-expressed genes: predicting intra-operon termination sites, A. Gupta, C. D. Maranas, R. Albert, Bioinformatics, 2006, Vol. 22, Num. 2, Pg. 209-214.

Large-scale inference and graph theoretical analysis of gene-regulatory networks in B. Subtilis. C. Christensen, A. Gupta, C. D. Maranas and R. Albert, Physica A., accepted for publication.

Aligning Sales Plans with Available Resources in Systems with Order Configuration Uncertainty: A Sales and Operations Planning Perspective, C. Chen-Ritzo, T. Ervolina, T. Harrison and A. Gupta, Management Science, 2006, Under review.

Eating our own Dogfood, J. Leous, ITS New Employee Orientation, University Park, PA, November 17, 2005.

A Taxonomic Approach to the Organization of Penn State Web Space, M. Pelikan, Jin Ma, M. Smith, J. Leous, Digital Library Federation Fall Forum 2005, Charlottesville VA, November 7, 2005.

Social Software, J. Leous, ITS Training Seminars, University Park, PA, November 1, 2005.

High Resolution Tools for Access Grid Collaboration, G. Burris, ACM/IEEE SuperComputing 2005, Seattle, WA, November 2005.

Whom Do You Trust?, K. Morooney and J. Leous, ITS Forums, University Park, PA, October 18, 2005.

Introduction to Kerberos, D. Morr, Penn State Linux Users Group, University Park, PA, October 11, 2005.

Getting Your Own Start in the Digital Arts, J. Wagner article in Academic Computing Newsletter - Fall 2005.

Mobile Device Convergence, M. Pelikan and J. Leous, Library Tech Talk, University Park, PA, September 28, 2005.

Diverse Software Solutions & What's New With PASS, ITS Roadshow, Penn State Harrisburg, September 28, 2005.

LionShare 1.0 Preview, D. Morr, Internet2 Fall 2005 Member Meeting, Philadelphia, PA, September 20, 2005.

Aerospace 597B: An Introduction to Computational Science Tools, J. Leous, University Park, PA, September 12, 14, and 19, 2005.

Using the Penn State Search Engine, J. D'Angelo and J. Leous, ITS Training Seminars, University Park, PA, September 9, 2005.

Molecules, Music, and Middleware, K. Morooney and R. Shuey, Mid-Atlantic Regional EDUCAUSE, September 2005. (Renee Shuey also presented this topic at HighEdWebDev, Rochester NY, 2005).

ET, Shibboleth, and Napster, J. Leous, ITS New Employee Orientation, University Park, PA, August 23, 2005.

Expanding the boundaries of virtual reality for building design and construction. G. Otto, J. I. Messner, L. Kalisperis, ASCE International Conference on Computing in Civil Engineering 2005, Cancun, Mexico, July 11-15, 2005.


Conferences (attended)

Jake Akers, Mark Campbell, Jeff D'Angelo, Chris Hubing and Brett Rodgers attended the Large Installment of System Administrators (LISA), fall 2005, San Diego, CA.

Craig Anthony attended the Spring 2006 Internet 2 Members Meeting, April, 2006, Arlington, VA.

Gretta Armstrong attended the Spring 2006 Internet 2 Members Meeting, April, 2006, Arlington, VA.

Mike Burns attended EDUCAUSE | NMI-EDIT Signet and Grouper Early Adopters Workshop, March 2006, Los Angeles, CA.

Danny Coughlin attended:

Rich Cropp attended:

Jeff D'Angelo attended the Penn State Security Conference, spring 2006.

Karen Hackett attended:

  • Penn State Web Conference and pre-conference tutorials, University Park, PA, June 12 and 13, 2006.
  • University at Buffalo Portal Summit, Buffalo, NY, April 28, 2006.
  • HighEdWebDev2005 in Rochester, NY, November 2005.

John Kalbach attended the Spring 2006 Internet 2 Members Meeting, April, 2006, Arlington, VA.

Jim Leous attended:

  • Federal/Higher Education PKI Coordination Meeting, June 15, 2006, Washington, DC.
  • University at Buffalo Portal Summit, April 28, 2006, Buffalo, NY.
  • Digital Library Federation Fall Forum 2005, November 2005, Charlottesville VA.

Heather Lohr attended the Penn State Women's Leadership Conference, spring 2006.

Bill Mountz attended CIC TechForum, University of Minnesota, MN, September 2005,

Derek Morr attended:

Renee Shuey attended:

Jim Vuccolo attended EDUCAUSE | NMI-EDIT Signet and Grouper Early Adopters Workshop - Los Angeles, CA - March 2006

John Wagner attended ACM SIGGRAPH - August, 2005.

Bob Walters attended EDUCAUSE Camp: Identity and Access Management Integration Workshop, spring 2006.

Al Williams attended:

Seminars and Course Support

Typically, ASET staff participate, often as presenters, for a variety of seminars and courses, inclusive of credit courses, ITS Training Seminars, Network of People (NWOFP) meetings, ITS Forums, ITS- and University-wide events and/or meetings, and new ITS staff orientation sessions, to name a few. Most of this participation is captured in the presentations and publications section noted above.

While GEaRS staff are certainly part of these activities, this group's mission to the research/research computing community lends itself to shared responsibilites among its staff for a variety of seminars, course support, and outreach activities; therefore, this group's efforts/activities are summarized and categorized, in a more general "overview" manner, below.

  • Seminars:
    • Introduction to High Performance Computing at Penn State
    • Introduction to MPI (Message Passing Interface)
    • Introduction to OpenMP
    • Matlab/Mathematica/Maple
    • ANSYS
    • ABAQUS
    • Patran/Nastran
    • Gambit/Fluent
  • Credit course support:
    • Aerospace 597 (ICS Seminars)
    • Aerospace 598
    • Agricultural and Biological Engineering 513
    • Architecture 481
    • Architecture 597: Graphic Communication and Information Display: Methods for achieving knowledge and understanding of complex systems through creative scientific visualization and visual problem solving, and the creation of visual venues for the display and communication of complex problems and their solutions. This course was taught exclusively through the GEaRS group.
    • Architectural Engineering 597
    • Art 121
    • Chemistry 427
    • Chemistry 529
    • ICS Fall Seminar
    • Industrial Engineering 480
    • Information Science and Technology 496
    • Kinesiology 535
    • Kinesiology 566
    • Mechanical Engineering 461
  • Outreach activities:
    • ACCESS Grid Seminar: Ray Masters created and presented an ACCESS Grid tutorial on OpenDX to the faculty at the University of Sheffield, United Kingdom (Worldwide Universities Network (WUN) event).
    • GEaRS HPC and Visualization services and staff were represented at:
      • Graduate Student Association Social
      • Materials Day
      • Computations Day
      • Osmond VR Facility Open House
      • OR Colloquium (Fall 2005)
      • Smeal Faculty Networking Luncheon (Spring 2006)
      • Virtual Conference on Genomics and Bioinformatics (hosted local Access Grid access)
      • SC Global and SC Desktop (Hosted local Access Grid Access)
      • VR for construction planning meetings with A/E and external contractors: GSA; Jacobs; and Shaw, Stone and Webster
  • Representation at Conferences and Workshops:

Professional Development (University-oriented)

Gavin Burris served on the planning committee for SC Global 2005, the Access Grid component of SC 2005, Seattle, November 2005. He also provided volunteer technical support for this event.

Karen Hackett served on the following committees:

  • University's Commission for Women (CFW) as past-chair. She also served on the Banquet Committee/25th Anniversary Celebration Committee, and the Executive Committee. Her membership, after a five-year involvement, was completed on June 30, 2006.
  • Web 2006 Steering and Program Committees
  • ITS The Event 2005 Planning and Publicity Committees on behalf of ASET (appointed to 2007 Event Planning and Publicity Committees in June 2006).
  • TLT Symposium Operations Committee (appointed in June 2006).

Heather Lohr completed HRDC's Office Professionals Certificate course, 2005-06.

Ray Masters served on the College of Arts and Architecture ad hoc committee to formulate and implement the new College-wide interdisciplinary degree program in Digital Design, Art and Fabrication, now known as the Interdisciplinary Design Studio and awarding the University's new Bachelor of Design degree.

Elena Slobounov completed the Toastmasters International Competent Leader program and serves as Vice President of Education for the State College chapter of Toastmasters International. Elena also continues to serve as an active member of the Penn State Commission for Women Mentoring Committee.

Personal Activities

Abdul Aziz judged at the Seventy-Second annual state meeting of the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science (PJAS). Abdul also serves as a Certified U.S. Soccer Federation Referee.

Ray Masters continues to serve as the Vice-President of the Nittany Valley Chapter 1327 of the Experimental Aircraft Association. Ray also serves as a volunteer counselor in the Centre County Chapter of the American Cancer Society's Man-to-Man Prostate Cancer Education, Support and Counseling program.

Jim Leous continues to serve as the assistant coach of the State College Varsity Ice Hockey Team where he works with the goaltenders and special teams.

Jim Leous is the advisor of the Penn State Linux Users' Group (LUG).

Kevin Morooney continues to serve as the head coach of the State College Area High School's Girl's Varsity and Junior Varsity Soccer teams.

Bill Mountz continues to serve as ASET's sexual harrassment resource person.

Al Williams served as Director of eBusiness on the SHARE Board of Directors

David Beyerle returned to ET after serving in Bayji, Iraq for 11 months as the communications officer of "Task Force Dragoon," a motorized infantry task force comprised of Pennsylvania Army National Guard soldiers. While there, he oversaw tactical radio communications, LANs employing satellite backhaul, and satellite-based command and control systems. He also consulted with the unit's intelligence section on tactics, techniques, and procedures to geolocate suspected enemy radio emissions. He evaluated arson damage to the As Sinyah commercial telephone central office power system, and solicited bids for the construction of a 3000 Watt FM radio station to service the populace of Salah ah Din province and for the coalition forces to further their information operation campaign. Finally, while there, he attended training on employment of commercial off the shelf networking equipment in a tactical environment at "Baghdad Signal University" at Camp Victory, Baghdad. Upon his return, he has resumed his ET duties, following the developments in the emerging 802.16 Wireless Metropolitan Area Network (Wireless MAN) space, and is evaluating some potential backhaul scenarios for the State College Municipal Wireless initiative. He is also pursuing use of some desktop conferencing/chat tools in the academic setting.