Abstract

We request funds to update our pool of iBook laptops. These computers are approaching
four years of age and are quickly growing obsolete. Originally purchased with funds provided
by STF grant 2002-417, these laptops are among the most used resources available to astronomy
students. They have accompanied students around the world to many professional meetings
and serve as valuable tools for public outreach. Additionally, these laptops have been employed
actively in astronomical research, and are loaded with specialized software allowing observations
(e.g., using the 3.5m telescope in NM) and data analysis.
We stress that these laptops have accompanied students for extended periods of time (up to months)
and are equipped with specialized software, which requires demanding installation procedures. Thus,
we propose to maintain these computers separately from the Classroom Services Support pool.

Background

Modern science dictates the need for computing mobility: astronomers are often found on the road.
Unfortunately, such mobility is harder to come by for
astronomy students. Both undergraduate majors and graduate students have greatly benefited
from the laptops purchased with STF grant 2002-417. Yet in the four years that we have been
using these machines, their age has begun to show. These laptops are first-generation Mac G3/600MHz
computers with 128MB of memory, and the Mac OSX places significant stress on the hardware.
Furthermore, the old G3s are unable to show modern mpeg movies without severe jerking and
discontinuities, which is an increasing problem as animations become more essential in presentations and public
outreach. These machines have proven their value in many situations, and in order to maintain
this level of excellence, we are proposing the purchase of six laptops to replace our aged fleet.

The Astronomy Department student community consists of 24 graduate students and 61 undergraduate majors.
We rank nationally among the best Astronomy departments in the country, due in large part to our student
research and
presence at professional meetings. The laptops provided by the STF
have enabled these students to produce professional-grade presentations and deliver them to future employers.
Since most meetings are at least four days, the ability to check-out a laptop for an extended period of time
is critical. Furthermore, collaborations often require long-term visits, and these laptops have accompanied
students for research trips lasting months at a time.

In addition to professional meetings, these laptops have been an integral part of the
general exam process in the Astronomy Department. The general exam consists of one week of intensive study (outside of any class) on
a topic related to a student's thesis, followed by a colloquium level presentation. The ability to have a laptop
for an entire week enables the student to collect and organize the presentation, and deliver the
final product without the concern of file or system transfers.

The research that fuels these presentations also often dictates the need for mobile computing. The UW
Astronomy Department is a senior member of the Astrophysical Research Consortium, which owns and operates the 3.5m telescope at
Apache Point Observatory (APO). During the past four years, no less than 20 students have been involved with
research performed at APO. Our department has engineered software to remotely control this telescope. This
software, in turn, has been installed on our laptop pool, enabling students to observe from anywhere on Earth.
This allows for greater ease in scheduling, since a given observer is not required to be at the University
or at the observatory. Securing time on the telescope, which is a competitive process and costs $5K
per night for operations, demands interface reliability.
Unfortunately, we expect an increasing hardware failure rate as the student laptops age.
In addition, the analysis of astronomical data requires technical software, such as
the Image Reduction and Analysis Facility (IRAF) and the Interactive Data Language (IDL), which have been installed
on the laptop pool.

The computers provided by STF grant 2002-417 have been maintained, well-traveled, and critical to
the success of astronomy students. In light of the STF committee's past decisions on laptops, which
have often opted for the use of the central UW pool, we will demonstrate that the need for
extended check-outs, along with necessary specialized and proprietary software, justifies the need to update the
current astronomy laptop pool.

Benefits

Updating the laptop pool available to astronomy students will greatly improve the present
situation. The current pool of laptops is four years old and is at the end of its
useful tenure. This period of time is comparable to replacement cycles employed here at the
UW (see 2003-072, 2004-024,and 2005-007) and extends well beyond the the one-year warranty offered by Apple.
Of the original six STF-funded iBooks, five remain in a functional state. Those remaining are struggling mightily
under the current operating system and research and presentation software. Since the
original laptops' G3 processors are more than two times slower than current models,
this situation will not improve.

The laptops serving the Astronomy Department have been a valuable commodity to our students.
Our original proposal, 2002-417, illustrated the astronomy student's need for mobile computing,
specifically for professional presentations. During the four years we have had these laptops, their use
has been broad and extensive.

For instance, these laptops have traveled all over the world, including: <br>
<ul>
<li>Albuquerque, NM - American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting (2002) <br>
<li>Ascona, Switzerland - 2005<br>
<li>Aspen, CO - National Virtual Observatory Summer School (2005) <br>
<li>Austin, TX - Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science meeting (2004)<br>
<li>Baltimore, MD - Space Telescope Science Institute (2004,2005)<br>
<li>Banff, Alberta, Canada - Western Regional Nuclear & Particle Physics Conference (2005)<br>
<li>Brussels, Belgium - 2004<br>
<li>Cornell, NY - Division of Dynamic Astronomy meeting (2003)<br>
<li>Dublin, Ireland - 2005<br>
<li>Flagstaff, AZ - Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) meeting - 2003<br>
<li>Kyoto, Japan - 2005<br>
<li>Las Vegas, NV - Dynamics of Galaxies: Baryons and Dark Matter meeting (2005)<br>
<li>Milan, Italy - 2005<br>
<li>Minneapolis, MN: AAS meeting (2005)<br>
<li>Moffett Field, CA - NASA Ames Research Center (2004)<br>
<li>Orlando, FL - National Society of Black Physicists/National Society of Hispanic Physicists (NSBP/NSHP) meeting (2004)<br>
<li>Philadelphia, PA - 2005
<li>Pittsburgh, PA - SDSS meeting (2004)<br>
<li>Portsmouth, England - SDSS meeting (2005) <br>
<li>San Jose, CA - NASA Harriet G. Jenkins fellowship meeting (2005)<br>
<li>Sunspot, NM - (multiple times) Apache Point Observatory<br>
<li>Terschelling, The Netherlands - Island Universes meeting (2005)<br>
<li>Tokyo, Japan - 2005 <br>
<li>Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (multiple times)<br>
<li>Washington, DC - NSBP/NSHP meeting (2004) <br>
</ul>
In addition to being used at professional meetings, these laptops have
had a profound impact on the UW campus. As discussed above, the laptops have been
extensively used in preparation of graduate student general exams. Furthermore,
these computers have found a variety of uses in public outreach programs. These include
the Astronomy Department open house, public talks, K-12 outreach, and multimedia presentations for
students traditionally underrepresented in Astronomy as part of our
<a href="http://www.astro.washington.edu/premap/index.php">Pre-MAP</a> (Pre-major in
Astronomy) program. These uses have been an unexpected, but welcome, addition to
those originally outlined in STF proposal 2002-417.

Finally, we wish to emphasize our need for a laptop pool maintained separately from the
central campus pool. Each of the trips listed above were longer than the maximum of three days now
available to students through the
<a href="http://www.washington.edu/classroom/computing/stf.html">Classroom Support Services pool</a>,
with some being up to two months long.
Additionally, specialized software such as IRAF, IDL, and the
3.5m Telescope User Interface (TUI), which are commonly used by
astronomy students, requires intensive installation procedures. Having to install this
software each time a student checked out a laptop could easily consume one day, severely
restricting the amount of work a student could accomplish. Thus, in order to maintain
the high level of productivity of our students, updating the current
laptop pool is essential.

Student Access

These laptops will be housed in the Astronomy Department Office on the third floor of
the Physics and Astronomy Building. Astronomy students will have access to these computers,
along with physics students working with astronomy professors. Students may check out these
laptops by signing them out, for a maximum of one week. If more time is needed, the student
may petition the staff for an extended check-out period. The laptops will be available on a
first-come, first-served basis. A calendar will be provided in order to check out laptops in
the future. This system is currently in place with the laptops from STF proposal 2002-417 and
has performed very well.

Available Resources

<i>Computing</i>: The Astronomy Department currently houses a significant computing network.
The computing system is composed of about 80 PCs running Linux. These PCs form the core of our Condor system
(see 2002-405,2003-062,2006-010), and
along with a 64 processor Astrophysics Cluster, two 12 processor clusters, and gigabit Ethernet comprise
the backbone of the Astronomy Department's hardware resources. In addition, we have a wireless network and
five iBook laptops provided by STF funds. Note that one of the original six iBooks purchased with STF
funds has suffered a hardware failure.

<i>Accessories</i>: In order to provide protection for the laptops while traveling, we request shoulder bags
for transport.

<i>People</i>: Senior graduate students (John Bochanski and Rok Roskar) have volunteered to maintain and manage
these laptops, with the assistance of the office staff.

<i>Space</i>: The laptops requested in this proposal are mobile and simply require a secure file cabinet for storage.
This will be maintained by the Astronomy Department Office.

Installation Timeline

There are no restrictions on the installation of these laptops. They will be purchased immediately
upon receipt of necessary funds.

Departmental Endorsement

"The Department fully endorses this proposal for STF Funds.

The first-generation laptops were initially instrumental for training the graduate students in the technology of digital
presentations and spreading the technology to every facet of our program: their research presentations at international
meetings, operating our $10M telescope in New Mexico remotely over the Internet from wherever the student users happen
to be, talks in classrooms on campus and in K-12 schools and to the public, and for a multitude of other purposes.
Indeed, the technology of digital presentations took root quickly in the ranks of the graduate students four years ago
and--like much other new technology-- spread rapidly from them to the faculty ranks. As it turns out, the research
software is quite a load for the old G3s to bear!

Replacements for the present old laptops will catch the next wave of computing technologies and operating systems, allow us
to obtain reliable hardware, and open more doors to new types of presentations and other applications. Much of our
software, which pushes the old G3s to their limits, will fit comfortably on the new units. The popularity of the
laptops is such that we can expect to need even more units than proposed here, so the Department will do its best to
help out as our needs become clearer." - Bruce Balick, Chair of Astronomy Department

Student Endorsement

This proposal is student initiated and student written. After polling the current graduate students,
we found that over 90% have used the original STF iBooks. This does not include those who have graduated in the
past four years. Thus, this resource ranks among the most used in the Astronomy department. We
invite the committee to read the Comments section for additional student endorsements.

Items

Below are the items making up the current proposal. The asterisk (*) beside items signify that they were approved by the committee. This however was not implemented correctly for our database before 2005, so earlier years may not show this.

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