Centennial Campus is flourishing. In the last couple of years new buildings have sprung up, departments have shifted bases and research labs are prospering.

For a large population of students, Centennial Campus is home. This is especially true for students in various disciplines in the College of Engineering, such as computer science, electrical and computer engineering. And by the completion of the campus, the entire College of Engineering will function on Centennial Campus.

But already many of these students are feeling a resource crunch due to the lack of 24-hour computing facilities and the lack of continuous transportation on Centennial Campus. These two issues combine to make life difficult for students who wish to find computing resources late at night or during weekends to finish their assignments.

The Electrical and Computer Engineering Graduate Student Association (ECEGSA) took note of this issue when some graduate students in their department happened to bring it to the attention of their officers.

Rachana Gupta, a doctorate student in electrical engineering and secretary of the ECEGSA, is also a student representative on the College of Engineering computer committee.

She raised this issue during a COE meeting on Sept. 13. “I said that the ECEGSA received comments and complaints about the lack of 24-hour computer labs on Centennial Campus and that most graduate students work late at night and on weekends.”

David Thuente, director of graduate programs for computer science, is a strong supporter for 24-hour labs on Centennial Campus. He is also a member of the COE computer committee and was in complete support of the initiative when Gupta brought it up.

“Most classes for graduate and undergraduate students in computer science and electrical engineering are on Centennial Campus,” he said. “These are also the two largest graduate programs in the College of Engineering.”

Most other departments in the College of Engineering have their own labs to which students have complete access, according to Thuente. But since the computer science and electrical engineering programs have huge graduate student populations that are not supported, the students do not have access to the labs they need.

The College of Engineering has an Information Technology and Engineering Computer Services (ITECS) which is responsible for managing its computing resources. Chris Muller represents ITECS at the COE computer committee and has been working on resolving this issue. “ITECS provides a 24/7 computer lab in Daniels Hall, located on North Campus.”

“Even after the construction of Engineering Buildings I and II (on Centennial Campus), a location on North Campus seemed to provide the most convenience for after-hours use by students while still providing access to off-campus students.”

Nikhil Deshpande, a masters students in integrated manufacturing systems engineering, is the president of Maitri, the Indian graduate students association. He pointed out that international students, who constitute a large percentage of graduate students, live off-campus but close to Centennial Campus.

“Not having a 24-hour lab on Centennial Campus, and the fact that students have to walk to and from main campus late at night, puts their safety at risk,” he said.

The Wolfline stops running after 2:00 a.m. from Sundays to Wednesdays and after 2:30 a.m. Thursday through Saturday.

According to Muller, access to EB I and II after normal class hours is limited due to safety and security considerations. Chemical engineering and manufacturing engineering students have access to the building and computer labs because their departments require them to purchase fobs to access the building.

However, “Computer science and electrical engineering departments don’t require their students to purchase fobs,” Muller said.

This limits entry into the building that hosts the labs after regular class hours — labs that are funded by student fees.

“College of Engineering computing labs are operated through students fees,” he said. “At the current level of support, opening a 24/7 lab on Centennial Campus would most likely necessitate shifting the resources currently used to operate the Daniels labs on a 24/7 basis.

“This would then result in 24/7 access to computing labs being limited only to students whose departments are located in EB I and II.”

On the other hand, “It is a question of where rather than when. I think the need for a 24-hour lab on Centennial Campus is much more than for one on main campus,” Thuente said.

Graduate students are more likely to work between the hours of 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. — more so than undergraduate students, according to Thuente.

“Consequently, the reason for having a 24-hour lab on Centennial, rather than Daniels Hall, makes sense,” he said. “Also, various applications and specialized software may not be available on the students’ personal machines. Graduate students may need access to these applications which, typically, are not available even through regular unity labs.”

Muller points toward the Virtual Computing lab as a 24-hour, on-demand access point for engineering applications anywhere an internet-connected PC is available.

Thuente believes that this is a serious problem for graduate students more than undergraduates.

“Undergraduate students are, more or less, expected to possess laptops or desktops while this is not true for graduate students,” he said.

According to him, a large number of graduate students in electrical engineering and computer science are not funded and hence do not own computers when they come into the program.

ITECS has been taking steps to understand and resolve this issue though.

“ITECS will be tracking and examining usage patterns in all College of Engineering labs this semester in an effort to determine if lab resources are appropriately distributed to provide the best possible support for all College of Engineering students,” Muller said.

The ECEGSA is also trying to understand this problem better. They are working toward obtaining concrete numbers to support their case.

“We will conduct a survey among various students in the departments that reside in EB I and II, and perhaps all over Centennial Campus,” Gupta said. “We also intend to get advice on this topic from faculty members who teach.”

Thuente believes that most faculty members are not aware of this resource crunch, and he will work toward highlighting this problem, both to his colleagues, as well as to the College of Engineering.

“I have spoken in the past in favor of this issue and will speak again in the future,” he said. “Any kind of support and students’ views on this issue are welcome.”

Meeta Yadav, a doctorate student in electrical engineering and vice president of ECEGSA, also feels as though engineering students need more computing time.

“We feel the need for extended hours in the labs in EB II on Centennial Campus and hence brought up the issue with the COE computer committee,” he said. “The college has been very cooperative and open on this topic and is actively working on our request.”

Students will have to wait to see how this issue is resolved. ITECS has extended the hours for the EB I and II labs this semester, but they are still not open all night.