START – Monday 6/17/2013, 7:00 AM

STOP – Wednesday 6/19/2013, 4:00 PM

NOTE – This upgrade will have no downtime for any of the campus wireless networks including UCSD-PROTECTED, UCSD-SCRM, UCSD-GUEST and eduroam. The window of maintenance was set to accommodate unforeseen challenges associated to large scale projects. It is our goal to complete the work ASAP.

Monday – Friday
8 AM – 4:30 PM

PHONE SUPPORT

Monday – Wednesday, June 17th -19th
8 AM – 4:30 PM

Thursday – Friday, June 20th – 21st
8 AM – 6 PM

Saturday – Sunday, June 22nd going forward
4 PM – 7 PM

Monday – Friday, June 24th – 28th
8 AM – 6 PM

Monday – Friday, starting July 1st
7:45 AM – 7:30 PM

We will be staying open until 6 PM from June 20th – June 30th for Conference Guest support.

Please note that Classroom Support / Lab calls will still go through, but we will not have a dedicated person answering this phone during the two weeks between Finals and Summer Session I. We will be resuming classroom support hours / staffing (7:45 AM – 7:30 PM) once summer session begins on July 1st.

With over 1,900 computers in 110 computer labs throughout campus, Erick has plenty to keep him busy. “Let’s say your computer needs a part or it’s having issues that [are] not software related,” Erick said when describing his job duties, “They call us and we’ll check it.” Erick often interacts with students and faculty when he is out in the field fixing computers, helping them on the spot. “Most [issues] are simple stuff like connectivity issues, but there’s about 30% you find that you’ve got to tell the professor or the students, ‘I’ve got to take this machine out and bring it to the shop so I can work on it, order a part or two.’” Erick always finds it highly satisfying to complete repairs and get computers back into tip top condition.

Erick and Hardware Technical Services use the summer, when there are less students on campus, to do complete upgrades to some of the labs on campus. The process is so intensive that it takes three days of nonstop work by Erick and the team to complete a full computer lab upgrade. Over the course a summer the Hardware Technical Services team will upgrade three or four labs.

Erick also helps solve hardware issues in the ACMS computer room, which houses servers for ACMS, the GoVirtual computing lab, and supports other departments on campus. This summer Erick will be helping to migrate all the servers in the computer room from one physical network to another, as part of an upgrade of the network switches.

A 16 year veteran of UC San Diego, Erick worked at The Library before joining ACMS. When describing why he was drawn to working at UC San Diego, Erick said, “It’s a beautiful campus and I like the people that work here, the community. It feels like almost family.” Two of Erick’s favorite movies of all time are A Christmas Story, which Erick watches at least twice every year, and the classic World War II flick Kelly’s Heroes. What might surprise people if they pop in on Erick while he is in the middle of repairing a computer is the classical music—most often the compositions of Chopin—that he plays while he works.

The next time you encounter a hardware issue with a computer in one of the ACMS labs, just drop helpdesk@ucsd.edu a note and Erick and the Hardware Technical Services team will get everything cleared up as soon as possible. Keep up all the excellent work Erick!

ACMS Aces is a series of articles that highlights the dedicated employees of Academic Computing & Media Services at UC San Diego. Keep checking back to find out more about the people behind the magic at ACMS!

Learn about online teaching this summer. The workshop is being organized by the Division of Social Sciences, in conjunction with Academic Affairs, Calit2, Academic Computing & Media Services, and the Center for Teaching Development, and is for instructors who are interested in developing an on-line course in the coming year. Special focus will be on the use of online material that can be incorporated in existing face-to-face courses (so-called blended classes) and which then also facilitate ‘flipping the class.’

The workshop is open to all instructors on campus, although enrollment may be limited due to space limitations.

RSVP HERE!

Check out where our former technicians, including this year’s graduating seniors, are employed now!