Research Data Backup

It’s the start of research season at Swarthmore and faculty and students will be working hard writing, collecting, and calculating all kinds of data.  How can you keep your research data safe? Fortunately, ITS provides a variety of backup solutions depending on your specific needs. Product Optimal Use Case CrashPlan All your data fits on your office or lab computer. Google Drive and AODOcs All your your data doesn’t fit on your computer or you want to archive rarely used data and remove it from your computer Your data needs to be shared with collaborators iRODS Large data sets or complex storage … Continue reading Research Data Backup

Disappearing student work (how to avoid)!

As we are all now using Google Drive to store and collect content from students and each other, we’d like to bring to your attention a sometimes overlooked inconvenience… If you have asked students to submit content to you by sharing files from their own Google accounts, or by placing them into folders you provide in your personal Google Drive space, then you may be in danger of losing access to that material once the student’s account is removed from the College’s systems after they graduate! You can tell by looking at the “Owner” listing of any files you’re worried … Continue reading Disappearing student work (how to avoid)!

Arduino Inventor’s Kits Now Available for Checkout

Arduino is an open source electronics platform that you can program to interact with the real world: make lights flash, buzzers buzz, and motors spin.  You can use Arduinos to build an invention, animate a sculpture, or automate your house.   ITS has purchased several Arduino-based SparkFun Inventor’s Kits now available for checkout from the Media Center.  These are great for learning about Arduino and come with lots of fun stuff like motors, LEDs, an LCD display, temperature and light sensors, a buzzer, and supporting electronics.  The kit also includes an excellent guide with 16 sample projects starting from the basic blinking … Continue reading Arduino Inventor’s Kits Now Available for Checkout