As part of the College's ongoing relationship with the American University of Kuwait, two members of Dartmouth's information technology team, Technical Services Director David Bucciero and Voice Network Engineer Peter Ejmont, traveled to Kuwait this December to share their technological expertise.
Dartmouth and AUK, which began accepting students in 2004, negotiated a memorandum of understanding in 2003. Dartmouth pledged to provide the new university with a wide range of training, including advice on the recruitment of faculty. The ultimate goal is to establish a quality institution that provides a high level of education on the Arabian Peninsula, according to Dale Eickelman, professor of anthropology and relationship coordinator between Dartmouth and AUK.
Bucciero and Ejmont's visit to Kuwait was an extension of the this agreement, which is entirely funded by AUK. When AUK approached Eickelman with technological problems, such as internet security issues and poor telephone voice quality, Eickelman turned straight to Dartmouth's technological support team.
"Our IT people are some of the busiest in the world because they are so competent," Eickelman said. "They got interested in the project and did everything they could in terms of preparation."
The information technology team began communicating with AUK's technological staff through conference calls in April 2007.
"There comes a point when things need to be done face to face," Eickelman said.
Bucciero and Ejmont arrived in Kuwait on Dec. 12 with both task-specific goals and a broader, long-term mission.
"We went over there to see how we can help with their network," said Bucciero. "We helped with the immediate problems but we also helped with vision."
During the on-site assessment, Bucciero and Ejmont made approximately 40 different recommendations. Among the recommendations, they suggested that the University use a second internet provider to better route traffic. According to Bucciero, redundancy ensures that there is no single point of failure in the network and lessens the chance that the whole system will crash.
"It was important for us to see some of the pieces first-hand," Bucciero said adding that it was especially important to see AUK's telephone system in person. AUK's phone system, like Dartmouth's, runs through the Internet.
"By examining the voice network, we were able to determine that voice was not made a priority all through the network," Bucciero said. "If voice was made a priority, its traffic would get through before anything else."
It was very easy to communicate with AUK's technology staff, led by Maha Hurayki Khlat, since everyone spoke English, Bucciero said.
"They were 110% receptive," he said.
The President of AUK, Marina Tolmacheva, took particular interest in Bucciero and Ejmont's visit.
"[President Tolmacheva] came to check on us periodically," said Bucciero. "She was committed all the way around."
At the end of their trip, Bucciero and Ejmont made a presentation on the status of AUK's current network environment and future IT planning to President Tolmacheva and her cabinet. According to Eickelman, the pair also gave "a credible and compact report to the faculty on what they had been doing."
"I feel that when we gave the president and her cabinet our presentation, it was well received," said Bucciero. "During the presentation, we helped to give them a vision. We gave them a set of metrics (growth-monitoring statistics) to start keeping on their network and applications. As they grow, their system needs to grow too."
Bucciero will continue communicating with the AUK team as it implements his recommendations.
According to Eickelman, collaborating with AUK has been demanding, yet rewarding for the Dartmouth team.
"When you have a new institution with everything being built up from the beginning, it's a real challenge," said Eickelman. "What we got out of it is a really exciting sense of helping to create a new university. This doesn't happen every day, especially in the United States."
