The training sessions on June 5-6 were co-sponsored by the Lab and the IT Industry-Education Partnership and Regional Community College Curriculum Collaborative. Participating colleges were Laney, Diablo Valley (DVC), Ohlone, Mission, City College of San Francisco and College of Alameda.

“The benefit of these sessions is that it helps us maintain our connection with the real world and keeps our classrooms alive – and that’s important to us and to the students,” said Cheryl Martucci, who has taught computing classes at DVC in Pleasant Hill for 10 years. “You can’t just teach by the book. Here we get to hear ‘war stories’ of what it’s really like out there. This keeps us on the leading edge, instead of three steps behind our students.”

The goals of the program are to:

On the first day, presentations by ITSD staff included a look at intrusion detection systems by Gene Schultz, a review of cyber security incident response case studies by Jim Mellander, a discussion by Bryce Ryan of strategies for protecting against spam and viruses, a Linux high performance computing curriculum update by Charlie Verboom, and a tutorial on XML and its impact on the Windows environment by Craig Nelson. John Staples of the Accelerator and Fusion Research Division spoke about Linux desktops in support of science.

For the second day, instructors could choose from either a Microsoft Track, consisting of a daylong session on Windows Troubleshooting Tools and Techniques led by Craig Nelson, or a UNIX/Linux Track. The Linux/UNIX session included a discussion of Linux kernel security by James Buszard-Welcher, a look at Linux vulnerabilities by Jay Krous, a Linux cluster update by Greg Kurtzer, and presentations on Web programming by Buszard-Welcher and Greg Haverkamp. Intern Wale Soyinka and Buszard-Welcher also led an open panel discussion.

Sam Bowne, a part-time instructor at City College of San Francisco, chose the Microsoft Track. Participants were seated at computers, each of which was “broken” in 14 different ways. Their assignment was to each fix a section, then pass the information on to others in the class – and see if they could make the fix by following the instructions.

“It’s frustrating – nothing works and you have to fix a few things before you can make any progress,” said Bowne, who said the problems included the file system and Internet connection. “It’s frustrating because we can’t use the Internet to find help.”

While the immediate situation was frustrating, Bowne also found the class very helpful and plans to return for the next session.

Bill Hammond, who teaches at DVC’s San Ramon center, was invited to attend by Verboom, who took classes from Hammond about four years ago. “The material to be covered was of definite interest and to find something comparable to this would typically involve a great deal of expense and an inconvenient location,” Hammond said. “The Lab sharing this with us is wonderful.”

For DVC’s Martucci, the relationship with the Lab has been very beneficial. She has placed a handful of her students in ITSD’s intern program, and several Lab staff are on her advisory committee. “We’re just in awe of this place and our students thrive on their experience here,” she said. “It’s incredible how much the Lab supports us and our students.”