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Newsletter inside|out - IT news at ETH Zurich (26.06.2018)
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| Dalia Simic, Michail Ussow and Stefan Geissler, Managed Services group, ITS SDL (from right to left) are heading off into a new future with online exams, taking a treasure chest full of tablet PCs with them. |
Bold engineers transport mobile treasures |
Online exams have been available at ETH for around ten years now, and they are continually gaining in importance. The Managed Services group has therefore designed the new service "Online exams with mobile devices". This was developed together with the Educational Development and Technology department (LET) on behalf of the executive board. Due to the growing needs of the examinees, the examination options are being extended (keyword: freehand). By moving away from the previous examination rooms, new and additional kinds of exams will be possible.In the past, online exams, were held in centrally managed computer rooms with devices that could not be removed from the rooms. However, in order to be able to use different examination locations, mobile devices are to be used, which can be transported and set up simply and securely. The system engineers from Managed Services work in close cooperation with colleagues from LET so that appropriate transport carts can be developed, such as the one shown on the photo. The carts must meet the needs of the teachers as well as the requirements of ITS, which is responsible for maintaining them. What's more, the mobile devices require a different kind of handling as well as various adjustments. The first pilot exams ran very smoothly and represented an important milestone during the 1st quarter 2018, also in relation to the established support processes. In future these exams should also be possible via specially secured WLAN areas, which are currently being set up in close cooperation with the section ICT Networks (ITS NET). Thanks to this project, ITS can establish itself as a reliable partner for the teachers. Further information and pictures of the new examination location ONA in the ITS Blog. Reinhard Hess, Group Manager Managed Services (ITS SDL)
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| With the new mail filter, David McLaughlin and Matteo Corti, (both ITS BD), scan incoming mail like Sherlock Holmes with detailed observations and matter-of-fact reasoning. |
MailCleaner: the new mail filter service |
Since IT Services developed its in-house mail filtering service 15 years ago, the volume, variability and harmfulness of unwanted mails have increased dramatically. The corresponding support now consumes an ever-increasing amount of the available resources. For this reason, ITS searched for alternative, commercial solutions, and after careful consideration, chose a product called "MailCleaner".MailCleaner is a mail filter gateway developed in Switzerland and already in use by various Swiss universities (incl. EPFL). The product runs on our virtual servers at ETH Zurich and receives software and-rule set updates at regular intervals. One absolutely new feature offered by IT Services is a web interface that includes an individual quarantine for each mailbox. Via this web interface, any emails that have landed in the quarantine box can be forwarded to the mailbox or reported back to the company for filter adjustments (false positives). Undesired emails, which nevertheless still find their way into the mailbox (false negatives), can be reported to a specific mail address as an attachment. Filter adjustments are not made directly, but instead are made within the scope of a gradual and continuous process. This process becomes more effective when the users get involved. The migration from the in-house mail filter system to MailCleaner was completed last year for some individual mail domains. The goal is to migrate all mail domains that use the IT Services mail filtering service by the end of 2018. Further information on the service can be found under Mail filter. Daniel Koch, Group Manager ITS Messaging (ITS BD)
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| Francesca Müller, Katharina Leith (ITS PPF) and Gregory Wüest (from left to right) open the Compicampus doors when others are going home. |
Compicampus – IT courses for students |
It all started 15 years ago with the idea of offering free OpenOffice courses at ETH. The initiators were overrun with questions and requests from participating students. The ITS Compicampus evening courses have now become an integral part of campus life. They make it easier above all for new ETH students to gain access to IT applications that are needed for the degree courses. Students like Gregory Wüest, who also benefited from the courses in the past, are now passing on their knowledge as tutors.Matlab, ChemDraw, Python, R, Linux, C++, LaTeX: The new Compicampus courses are made available to the students on the second day of each semester. All of the course places, which are in great demand, are fully booked within a matter of hours, around 2500 in total for each semester. This success story was started at the beginning of 2003. Back then Dieter Henning, Beat Birkhofer and Markus Dapp had the initial idea, and soon after they started offering the first OpenOffice, Linux and LaTeX courses at ETH. Back then the software was still provided on a CD via internal post. That's all a thing of the past now – but the idea behind Compicampus is still there and ITS and department employees, students and alumni are still the Compicampus teachers. They pass on their knowledge with a great deal of enthusiasm until late in the evenings, when many have already finished work for the day. Compicampus provides tuition on exciting IT topics in a highly focused manner, as only 2.5 hours are available to pass on the material. A concept that is demanding but also rewarding. Katharina Leith, Head IT Training (ITS PPF)
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