Tufts' new Director of Computing Systems James Roberts announced his hopes to create a comprehensive, stable computing network at the Sept. 22 School of Arts and Sciences faculty meeting. The network will serve the research needs of the entire University.
"I'm very excited he's here," said Dean of Arts and Sciences Susan Ernst, who introduced Roberts at the School of Arts and Sciences meeting.
Roberts officially joined the School of Engineering on Sept. 1, where he will focus on enhancing and strengthening the computing infrastructure primarily in the Department of Computer Science, but in other departments as well.
Roberts will also act as a consultant for the School of Arts and Sciences and to the graduate schools so that they can eventually share a common information technology (IT) network.
"Everywhere, technology is moving very quickly, and we have much more student and faculty demand for effective and efficient information technology," Ernst said. "It's not to say that what we have now isn't efficient, but we have to move fast to keep up, so we need someone to focus their attention on that."
The infrastructure Roberts will create at the School of Engineering is essential for in-depth research there, according to Associate Provost Mary Lee. "When you talk about research computing, you're dealing with huge data sets. You could be talking about computational biology, mapping proteins, or the human genome. All that data has to sit on something," Lee said.
A strong infrastructure must have the capability to support a vast quantity of information and carry out a large number of computations during its analysis.
But the system Roberts creates will not be exclusive to the School of Engineering. "It's really in concert with what's happening on campus," Lee said. "This is school-level, campus-level, and University-level. I think that's what attracted Jim to this position. Here, he has a chance to engage in computing on many different scales."
Before coming to Tufts, Roberts spent 14 years as manager of computing facilities for Princeton University's Department of Computer Science.
For three of those years, Roberts also acted as director of computing for Princeton's Institute of Advanced Studies, where he coordinated technology between the university's different schools for sciences, humanities, and mathematics. This position gave him the multidisciplinary experience necessary for his new job.
"All the schools reported to him at that time," said Diane Souvaine, chair of Tufts' Computer Science Department, who worked alongside Roberts at the directorate of the National Science Foundation (NSF). "He proved an ability to listen to all the different constituents and re-architect the computer structure at the Institute to meet the demands of everyone that worked there."
"When the new position of Director of Computing Systems was created, we were lucky enough to entice him to apply," Souvaine said.
According to Lee, Roberts is an ideal fit for the University. "We already knew his work and his work style. He's very low key, easy to get along with, but very savvy and experienced, both in computer science as well as the management of people. We really wanted someone who had the skills to set up the research infrastructure we need, but also the people skills to get everyone working on the same page. Jim has that mix."
Roberts arrived at Tufts as a short-term consultant in 2000, when he was hired to assess the computing infrastructure of the Computer Science and Electrical Engineering departments. He returned to campus again in 2004 to conduct a follow-up evaluation.
Roberts received his undergraduate education at the University of Chicago and his masters in business administration at the University of Texas at Austin. He is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the Advanced Computing Systems Association (USENIX). He has previously worked for the University of California at San Diego and the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business.
Edits:kwb, sld, denise
Tufts' new Director of Computing Systems James Roberts was introduced at the Sept. 22 School of Arts and Sciences faculty meeting, where he said he hopes to create a comprehensive, stable computing network that will serve the research needs of the entire University.
"It's not that Engineering is developing just their own [infrastructure], it's really in concert with what's happening on campus," Lee said.
"You need security, because you don't want your data to be corrupted by outside sources. You also want it to be stable. Otherwise, the computers will be constantly crashing on you," Lee said.
created a computing infrastructure that was flexible and versatile enough to allow extensive research, while remaining durable and stable enough to support large classes and computations.
To accomplish this, Roberts plans to speak with Arts and Sciences faculty members with computation dependencies or those that use computation in their research to assess their personal needs and concerns.
Linking the technologies of Engineering and Arts and Sciences has the potential to better the communication between the professors of those schools. Additionally, more efficient technology on campus should help students who are conducting independent research for themselves.
"We have seen an increased reliance on information technology," says Dean Ernst. "This will not only help faculty and teaching, but also the work of undergraduate and graduate students."
Overall, the administration can agree on one thing: they are very excited to see with the new Director of Computing Systems can accomplish.
