Computer Science | Grinnell College

On Thursday, September 10, Reilly Noonan Grant 2018, Alex French 2017, Bazil Mupisiri 2018, and Logan Goldberg 2018 will present their summer 2015 work on projects for the maintenance and improvement of MathLAN:

We shall describe the various projects completed to improve the computer science department’s MathLAN systems over the summer and give an overview of the field of system administration. MathLAN’s operating system is GNU/Linux, a free software, which gives the user more control over the computer. This made the course very open-ended. As such, the projects completed are varied and relate to many different aspects of system administration. The more noticeable effects of these projects are an improvement in the MathLAN login screen, and a revision of the CS website, yet to be implemented.

At 4:00 p.m., refreshments will be served in the Computer Science Commons. The talk, “GNU/Linux System Administration Projects,” will begin at 4:15 p.m. in Noyce 3821. Everyone is welcome to attend!

On Thursday, September 11, Ajuna Kyaruzi 2017 will describe her experiences as an assistant system administrator for MathLAN last summer.

Refreshments will be served at 4:15 p.m. in the Computer Science Commons (Noyce 3817). The talk, “Sudo Open Sesame: My Summer as an Assistant GNU/Linux System Administrator,” will follow at 4:30 p.m. in Noyce 3821. Everyone is welcome to attend!

On Thursday, October 3, Adam Arsenault 2016, Jordan Yuan 2015, and Shaun Mataire 2016 will describe their summer work in MathLAN system administration:

Over the summer, we pursued a series of projects relevant to the general maintenance of a GNU/Linux network:

• configuring Puppet, an open source configuration management tool, which provided a way of centralizing package management and system configuration on all the machines in the network;
• creating and maintaining a way of installing Debian over the network to the machines in MathLAN, which dramatically sped up installation times; and
• researching new programs which would be beneficial to our end users, both the novices and the power users, and refreshing the list of system applications.

Refreshments will be served at 4:15 p.m. in the Computer Science Commons (Noyce 3817). The talk, “MathLAN system administration,” will follow at 4:30 p.m. in Noyce 3821. Everyone is welcome to attend!

On Thursday, November 4, in Noyce 3821, Jeff Leep 2011 will describe the deployment of a configuration management system, cfengine, that automatically checks for problems in MathLAN computers and then either fixes the problem or alerts the system administrator.

Refreshments will be served at 4:15 p.m. in the Computer Science Commons (Noyce 3817). The talk, Managing the MathLAN, will follow at 4:30 p.m. in Noyce 3821. Everyone is welcome to attend!

On Thursday, October 28, in Noyce 3821, Martin Dluhos 2012 will describe one of the major system-administration projects he carried out this summer: configuring and using software that automate the installation of a new version of Debian GNU/Linux on the workstations in the MathLAN, in order to make the entire process less tedious and less repetitive.

Refreshments will be served at 4:15 p.m. in the Computer Science Commons (Noyce 3817). The talk, Squeezing the MathLAN, will follow at 4:30 p.m. in Noyce 3821. Everyone is welcome to attend!