EnglishExcursions
USJ Computer students visit the CIS
On 14 October, 3rd and 4th year students from the School of Computer Engineering with lecturers from the subjects Artificial Intelligence and Mobile Applications, paid a visit to the headquarters of the largest and most modern Information Services Centre (CIS) in the Regional Government of Aragon. This centre is located in the Walqa Technological Park and is maintained by the companies Aragonesa de Servicios Telemáticos (AST) and Informática de El Corte Inglés.
To have the best technology and best service quality available, the services in the old location in the Pignatelli building, Zaragoza were transferred and data transferred or copied to this centre. Some of the improvements obtained by this centre were explained to the students, eg the guarantees of physical and logical security. The CSI completes the computer services network, along with the other two Government of Aragon centres, comprising the Data Processing Centres (CPDs) in Zaragoza and Teruel. The main objective is to prevent incidents resulting in loss of service to the public and for workers to have all the information they need for their work at all times, thus allowing for more electronic services and processes to be available for the public. These modern facilities have resulted in a redundancy of computing and communications systems, thereby ensuring alternative ways to provide the service, while paying close attention to the entire security infrastructure that this requires.
These facilities are arguably the most modern in Spain regarding certain aspects, such as the server cooling system, which is achieved by pipes of chilled water beneath the raised floor. The cooling acts directly on each rack of servers and can be individually controlled by temperature sensors that provide information on the cooling status needs of each unit at all times. This means the entire room does not have to be cooled, thus saving energy. In addition, to meet contingencies, the CIS at Walqa has duplicate structures such as external network services with two optical fibres (with independent connections) and a double power supply, along with two generators installed on the terrace.
The aim of this centre is to provide 100% reliability for systems and a 24-7 response to problems, with better applications and a faster and guaranteed service.
Therefore, the CIS is a backup centre featuring the latest technologies and, above all, with a capacity for significant growth. In fact, this facility provides space and opportunities to grow to more than twice its current size, and to accommodate a lot more power to cover all needs for the next ten years.
A visit to Movilforum by the fourth year students at the School of Computer Engineering
On 20 May, a number of 4th year students at the School of Computer Engineering visited the Movilforum Fair in Madrid, sponsored by Telefónica de España, SAU, as a field trip for students on the Mobile Applications Course. This eighth year was once again a huge success regarding the number of visitors, content and media coverage. By keeping abreast of the latest mobile technology from ICT companies, it allowed students to acquire some of the competencies highlighted in the subject teaching guide, thereby complying with objectives.
Although the students had only one day to visit, taking the AVE train from Huesca meant they could travel there and back quickly and therefore spend enough time at the fair.
Waiting for us when we arrived, was José Luis Laiz, expressly designated by Telefónica to accompany us from USJ throughout. So much so, that he offered a simultaneous translation service in Bulgarian for the Erasmus student from Bulgaria.
In keeping with the technology fair, the itinerary was obtainable via a BIDI code on certain mobile phones.
Students listened intently to the presentations in the stalls, where each company or institution explained how they had used the mobile phone to attend to their needs in their particular fields.
There were interesting talks, such as the presentation of Windows 7 and its integration with mobile phones via Windows Mobile and the Android demonstration on recently launched HTC Dream devices.
It must be remembered that the USJ School of Computer Engineering is a member (http://movilforum.com/) and is part of the Telefónica developer community. As a result, students on the Mobile Applications course can carry out practicals, implementing applications on real devices with the latest technology provided by Telefónica. Thus, the “best practice” given at the end of the course should be a real experimental application on these devices (HTC Dream, Blackberry 8800, Nokia N96, etc). The best results will be referenced on the Movilforum platform.
Somport tunnel
On May 18, students and teachers of the San Jorge University School of Computer Engineering visited Canfranc to see the facilities at the Somport tunnel, which is 8.6 km long and connects Huesca province with France.
The visit began at the Spanish side control centre, where Carmen María Martínez, Deputy Director, gave us an overview of the tunnel from the crisis room: its construction, security systems, automatic incident detection (AID) and the SCADA control for all systems (ventilation, signage, fire detection, CCTV, etc).
After this introduction, we went to the technical rooms, holding the main tunnel computer control equipment (CPD): remotes, servers, siemens-headers, etc, where they explained the operation of the different computer systems used in the tunnel.
After that, the tunnel operator agents at the Spanish side heliport gave us a demonstration of the TITAN fire engines (especially for use in tunnels).
We then visited the ventilation room and within the “cave”, the room at the centre of the tunnel, we saw a pedestrian shelter, a “niche”, an evacuation tunnel, the connection with the railway tunnel, an old nuclear physics laboratory, the central fans, and even more control systems, processing centres, etc.
Finally, on the French side, we were able to observe in detail all the security systems we had seen in the control room overview. From the outside of the French control centre, we took in the Pyrenees natural park landscape before returning to Canfranc for a meal accompanied by other tunnel officials.
You can read more: http://www.miliarium.com/Somport/
Local trips to the country
For outdoor lovers, the School also organises trips during weekends or holiday periods. These allow students and lecturers to enjoy nature and each other’s company, and may vary from a simple walk through the mountains to the more adventurous canyoning.
These have included trips to Ordesa National Park and Monte Perdido and a descent of the River Vero
This page is currently being translated and can be viewed in Spanish at: Excursiones de la Escuela Ingeniería de Informática
- Campus Universitario del Parque Tecnológico Walqa - Edificio Félix de Azara - Cuarte - Huesca - CP. 22197
- Telephone: 902502622
- mail: info@usj.es
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