Golf Cart Parade Winners – SJSU IT Division!

Dear Valued Colleagues,

I am pleased to announce that the SJSU IT Division won the Spartan Homecoming Golf Cart Parade Staff Award for the second year in a row! Indeed Spartan Pride and a strong team spirit were evident in the detailed design and exhibited in the IT Division golf cart execution. More prominent was the team spirit demonstrated by collegial support, time spent decorating, and a show of Spartan unity on the morning of October 12. I am proud to be part of such a cohesive team and division.

It was great seeing many of you on the parade path cheering us on. I also know some of you weren’t able to attend. Here are some photos from our event. Seeing many of you made the day memorable for me.

I want to recognize Maggie Panahi and the following people who participated in and helped prepare for the Homecoming Golf Cart Parade. This is Maggie’s 2nd year leading our team and she is amazing. Maggie brings leadership, energy and determination to everything she does. Most importantly, we would not have won first place without the many participating members of the SJSU IT team. The judges shared that SJSU IT has the most spirit based on the number of people in our division that showed up for the judging and event:

Maggie Panahi, Project Lead Daniela Zopiyatle Debashish Basak
Cole Gunter, The Spartan Willie Simon Mital Amin
James Anderson, The Driver Brent Jones Cameron Myers
Jewel Rodeo Tino Cru Norma Brown
Rashmi Kumar Suzanne Austin Charmaine Gaidoy
Jane Wang Cindy Scher-Hereth Darlene Bargas

I appreciate your spirit and your efforts on behalf of our division and can’t wait for next year’s event. I look forward to seeing more of us there next year.

Thanks-
Bob

MLK Library’s WiFi 6 Upgrade

A student using a laptop in MLK overlooking downtown SJ

SJSU IT has installed 125 of the latest WiFi 6 Access Points in the Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, thanks to the support of President Papazian. One of the biggest benefits of WiFi 6 is how it excels at managing many simultaneous connections. This will ensure that library visitors and all of their devices have a reliable, fast connection to our secure campus network. Looking forward, this upgrade will enable future technology strategies in IoT and smart facilities. 

The push to install WiFi 6 around campus is already paying off. Comparing data from the first day of Fall 2019 to the first day of Fall 2021, there was a 69% increase in WiFi traffic in the MLK Library — a big jump! As we look toward a more hybrid future, these usage and traffic trends will only continue. 

I want to be sure to thank Marco Rodriguez, Tino Cruz, Mark Tran, and Trevor Florez for their work on this project.

Our efforts to upgrade more of the campus to the new WiFi 6 standard is an excellent example of how we’re implementing solutions to address today’s problems that also build for the future. Ensuring that our university has a reliable, fast, campus-wide network is a foundational step in our long-term strategy for achieving the vision of Transformation 2030. 

Best regards,
Bob Lim
Vice President of Information Technology
and CIO at San Jose State University

Taking WiFi 6 Outdoors

A map showing the areas on campus that will receive outdoor WiFi

Thanks to the support of President Papazian, we’ve blanketed the majority of campus’ outdoor spaces with WiFi 6 connectivity. This is something we’ve received lots of feedback about from our faculty and students when talking about a return to campus. With these upgrades, new areas have been opened up for students to study and work while staying safely distanced from others and for more instructors to have the option to teach outside. SJSU is the first university in higher education to deploy Cisco’s WiFi 6 access points. 

Based on early data from the start of the Fall 2021 semester, this effort is already paying off for campus. Comparing pre-pandemic data from the first day of Fall 2019 with the first day of Fall 2021, we see big jumps in utilization. The number of devices connected to SJSU’s WiFi network went from 17,893 to 24,033, a 34% increase. That’s part of why it was so important to install WiFi 6 access points, which excel at managing multiple simultaneous connections. 

The jump in traffic on our Outdoor WiFi network was even bigger — a 108% increase, from 1.2GB of data on August 21, 2019, to 2.5GB on August 19, 2021. For reference, one gigabyte is equivalent to 10 hours of streaming 4k video. In past years, this kind of traffic would have strained the older WiFi access points, leading to congestion, slowdowns, and drops. As we move toward a more hybrid future, this kind of internet bandwidth consumption will only continue to go up.

Thanks go to Roger Gonzales, Shai Silberman, Tino Cruz, Trevor Florez, and Mark Tran, as well as Jay Kuncl from FD&O, who worked to get this ready for our campus.

The Outdoor WiFi initiative is an excellent example of how we’re implementing solutions to address today’s problems that also build for the future. Ensuring that our university has a reliable, fast, campus-wide network is a foundational step in our long-term strategy for achieving the vision of Transformation 2030. 

When we look at the list of campus technology initiatives we’re working on for Transformation 2030 — integrated cameras, entry sensors, IoT devices — almost everything requires an always-on connection. We have to provide our university with a wireless network that’s stable and reliable enough to support those systems in addition to the needs of our students and faculty.

Best regards,
Bob Lim
Vice President of Information Technology
and CIO at San Jose State University

Technology in the Fall 2021 Welcome Address

The introductory slide of President Papazian's technology video

Last week, President Papazian acknowledged the SJSU IT team’s work in her Fall Welcome Address and videos. This is a huge recognition of our multi-year efforts, especially in digitization/automation and network infrastructure. 

Automating SJSU’s thousands of paper forms and manual processes is a huge volume of work. I know that seeing her mention that in her message means a lot to the team working on digitization. Our network team is proud that the quality, speed, and reliability of our new WiFi 6 access points has led to much higher utilization by our students, faculty, and staff. Seeing that reflected in her message is huge for them, too.

And personally, the future-forward mentions, such as the CRM and eventual IoT, were great to read. I’m very excited about how President Papazian and I can build toward her vision and Transformation 2030. 

You can read the full 2021 Fall Welcome Address on President Papazian’s Blog. Her spotlight on the Latest in Technology at SJSU can be seen on YouTube.

Best regards,
Bob Lim
Vice President of Information Technology
and CIO at San Jose State University

Proactive Health Checks

The Economics Computer Lab

To prepare campus’ repopulation, the SJSU IT customer support team performed proactive support on hundreds of technology-enabled spaces across campus. Some of the rooms had not been used since March 2020, and we wanted to be sure that the technology our campus needed was ready to go from day one of Fall 2021. For our Proactive Health Checks, SJSU IT technicians went to each SJSU IT-support room to test technology solutions and resolve issues before they became problems. We also performed proactive checks to verify the function of our campus network. 

Classrooms

Before the start of the semester, SJSU IT support staff proactively identified and resolved 76 classroom-related items in SJSU IT-supported classrooms, including replacing missing cables and addressing audio/visual challenges.  We are now performing Proactive Health Checks on a weekly basis for technology setups in all SJSU IT-supported classrooms. 

Thanks go to the entire Instructional & Meeting Spaces (IMS) Team: Daniela Zopiyatle, Cameron Myers, Fred Asuncion, Rod Maciel, Andy Yeung, Frank De Fanti, Phil Braverman, Danny Vo, Bruce Kelbert, Devona Williams, and Darlene Bargas.

Conference Rooms

We also checked each SJSU IT-supported conference room to ensure that physical hardware and virtual technology are working properly. We found minimal issues during the health checks performed before the start of the semester, all of which were fixed. This proactive support will be done monthly going forward. 

Many in our Customer Service unit, including Lor Vang, Lucas Chung, Belinda Nguyen, Chris Bradford, Matt Loo, Raymond Koc, Kirk Nguyen, April Lee, Bruce Gardner, and Jason Ferguson, flawlessly came together to support this important initiative. 

Network, WiFi, Printers, & Telephones 

Our network infrastructure and phone teams performed thorough reviews of university hardware and fixed issues before they became problems, ensuring reliable and prompt connectivity. Before the start of Fall 2021, these teams have:

  • Ensured critical components like WiFi, phones, and printers work properly by validating the connectivity of over 22,000 network ports.
  • Performed health checks on 323 network connectors to ensure all ports in classrooms and conference rooms are operational.
  • Eliminated potential WiFi dead spots by validating the indoor coverage of over 3,100 access points.
  • Validated that 3,700 phones are operational and ready.
  • Helped eliminate potential login problems for faculty and staff by setting the authentication servers. 

System checks require a lot of work, so I want to thank Sean Davis, Tristian Anthony, Toby Shaw, Brent Jones, Tino Cruz, Trevor Florez, Mark Trann, Shai Silberman, and Atul Pala.

Best regards,
Bob Lim
Vice President of Information Technology
and CIO at San Jose State University