This past summer saw the conclusion of a 2 ½ year project to modernize the audio-visual equipment in all FES classrooms. Summer updates included Burke Auditorium, Kroon Hall G01, 319, 321 and Bowers Auditorium. These classrooms along with the rest of the FES classrooms (Sage Hall rooms 24 and 32, 380 Edwards, and Marsh Hall) now include identical power-saving touchscreen interfaces; podium computers as well as HDMI, VGA, and Mini DisplayPort connections for laptops; wall-mounted cameras, and both a handheld and lapel microphone for video-conferences.  The camera and microphones are integrated with the podium computer for use with applications such as Zoom, Skype, etc., to allow users to bring in remote presenters for classes and meetings. Each podium has an updated instruction sheet to make it simple for people who are unfamiliar with the new technology to use it.  For more information, please see the FES-IT Classroom and A/V Support Page.

FES-IT maintains 3 licenses for Zoom Professional which can be reserved by anyone in the FES Community to hold online meetings or bring in a remote presenter. To reserve a license or for assistance with this or any other classroom technology, please contact the FES Helpdesk.

The proceedings of the ESRI ArcGIS (Geographic Informations Systems) 2016 User Conference that took place in July in San Diego are now available online --- view all of the recorded conference sessions.  This is a great resource for all things GIS!

You can access the User Conference proceedings here.  Included in the proceedings are technical workshops, developer and analysis presentations, real-time and big data solutions.  So make sure to check it out!

One of the main goals of the FES-IT department is to continually improve our service to the FES community. Thinking along these lines, we have installed a suggestion box in the computer lab in Sage Hall Room 39 next to the door on the interior wall.

While we may not be able to implement every suggestion, we hope you can share with us your ideas for new services and how we might improve existing offerings to benefit the FES community as a whole.

Your thoughts and ideas can be anonymous if you choose, however we would be more than happy to follow up with you on your suggestions if you would like. Just be sure to include your name and contact information.

Eduroam allows Yale students, faculty and staff visiting participating institutions to use their Yale credentials to access another institution’s wireless network for free.  You can also access Eduroam any time you’re in range of the institution’s wireless network; e.g. at a nearby coffeeshop. To use, simply select the wireless network “eduroam” and use “netid@yale.edu” for your username, replacing netid with your actual netid.  To see a list of participating institutions, please visit the Eduroam site.  Eduroam access can even be set up before you depart, so once you arrive, your wireless devices will join the Eduroam network automatically.  For assistance, please email the FES Helpdesk.

Travel Tips
Please take a look at our travel tips page to get ready for your next trip.

You can now send secure, encrypted email to users that are not on YaleConnect/Office365.

• Simply start the subject with [encrypt]
• This will also encrypt any attatchments in the email
• For more information, please take a look at the encryption email page.

Please remember, when sending confidential data between users on YaleConnect/Office365 (grades, social security numbers, medical records, etc.) please use Yale's Secure File Transfer Facility.

FES-IT has revised the lab and podium software policy.  To see the revised changes, please see jump over to the lab and podium software page.

Did you know that Yale has several policies regarding the use of drones?  To find out more, please see the Unmanned Aerial System Use polices maintained by the Yale Office of Environmental Health & Safety (EHS).

As part of our efforts to meet the needs of the FES community and foster a collaborative environment, FES-IT is working to form an IT advisory committee. This committee, representative of the entire FES Community, will be comprised of First year, Second year, PHd and joint-degree students, Faculty and Staff and will convene quarterly to discuss the IT wants and needs of our stakeholders. It is our hope that this committee will serve to help us address the concerns of the community as well as to solicit ideas to better serve the school.  If you are interested or want to know more, please send us an email.

FES-IT presented seven new student orientation sessions during August for our incoming students.  During these sessions, FES staff provided new students with all the information they will need to orient them to IT at FES.  We also assisted students with installing software such as

• CrashPlan ProE, our student backup solution;
• VPN for access to Yale resources while off campus;
• PaperCut and printer installation for access to campus printers.

FES-IT staff also trained new students in the use of the Yale Software Library and Yale Box and answered a multitude of IT-related questions as they came up.  We trained approximately 165 students in all and were very busy getting all the new students up to speed!

FES-IT can remotely access your computer to assist you when you are experiencing trouble, using Bomgar remote access software.  This may save time and trouble for both you and the FES-IT staff as compared to an in-person visit in some situations.  Bomgar can never be used without your knowledge or active participation in a live phone call with an IT tech.  Please don’t be surprised if your next tech support visit is not a visit at all, but a phone call with Scott, Ray, Rob, or Will using Bomgar remote access to temporarily view your computer remotely and take control of your mouse.

FES-IT has extended our partnership with Central ITS and the Student Technology Collaborative to provide trained student media techs for classroom audiovisual support four evenings a week - Monday through Thursday from 5pm till 8pm. This support is provided at no charge and available for regularly scheduled FES classes only.  (Event support will still need to be scheduled with FES-IT in advance and may have a cost associated with it.) Each classroom podium displays emergency contact info for the student media techs, who will have office space in the FES-IT offices on the third floor of Sage Hall in Room 37 and be available at a moment's notice.

The media techs can assist with any and all problems encountered by faculty and TA's such as "How do I get the projector to work with my laptop?" "Why will the projector not turn on?" "Why do I not have sound?" etc. Media techs are also available to assist faculty and students with the use of audio/video programs in the FES computer lab in Sage Hall Room 39, for example, iMovie, Final Cut Pro, and Adobe Premiere.

The media techs in Sage 37 will also be available for equipment returns only.  Please note equipment can only be checked out during normal business hours from 9am to 4:30 pm Monday – Friday.