New Cal Poly computer lab brings out the brass

Matt Lazier
The Tribune

Cal Poly - The dedication of a new computer laboratory drew some computer industry bigwigs to Cal Poly Monday, including networking giant Cisco Systems’ chairman of the board.

Cal Poly President Warren Baker and several other college representatives welcomed John Morgridge, chairman of the board of Cisco Systems, and representatives from Intel and NetCom.

The group gathered to officially open the Advanced Network Computer Laboratory, which will teach Cal Poly computer engineering and business students hands-on experience in developing the computer networks that form large, worldwide systems such as the Internet.

University officials said Cisco Systems put more than $1 million into the creation of the laboratory, both in costs of cutting edge equipment and in labor to get the laboratory running.

With $13.4 billion in sales in 1999 and equipment that makes up more than 80 percent of the Internet infrastructure, Cisco is considered the leading network technology company in the world.

Morgridge, who served as Cisco’s president and chief executive officer from 1988 to 1995, paid tribute to Cisco employees and Cal Poly staff who got the lab running and spoke of the need for continued partnerships between his company and the university.

”In the computer industry, it’s very easy to make that (university) contact simply a check,” Morgridge said. “But for partnerships, you need human involvement. We in the Silicon Valley are very blessed, and we try to create a culture in our company of giving.”

University President Warren Baker agreed, saying a solid partnership between Cisco and Cal Poly is more important than this one laboratory.

“These are people who are on the cutting edge of this industry, and they will be available to our students,” Baker said. “Cal Poly thrives on this kind of partnership with industry.”

Much of the installation and problem solving during set-up of the lab was performed by Cal Poly alumni now working for Cisco, Morgridge said. Cal Poly officials dubbed the new center the “Cisco Systems Advanced Network Lab.”

Cisco employs some 300 Cal Poly graduates (out of a workforce of about 23,500 worldwide, about 10,500 in the Bay Area). So Morgridge said the lab is something of a self-serving investment for the company.

“We do get employees from this university,” Morgridge said. “So, it is important to us that students here are exposed to the technology they will be working with later.”

Thus, Cisco stocked the lab with state-of-the-art networking equipment. But Morgridge said the lab will also benefit business students and others not looking to enter the computer networking industry, giving them a background in some of the technology they may use in the future.

Cal Poly officials agreed, saying students must learn to work in a multidisciplinary way, since businesses operate that way in the real world.

“This gives us an opportunity to strengthen the college of business in that way,” said William Boyton, dean of the College of Business. “I think this lab is going to provide a great learning environment and it will emphasize that multidisciplinary effort.”

Cisco representatives and Cal Poly technology staff about six months planning the lab, and another six months assembling it in the Engineering Building.

The room contains 16 workstations that accommodate two students each and contain network routers and switches.

According to Cal Poly networking analysts, the laboratory is a quarter-long exercise in which students must build networks from the ground up, moving a little further in the process every day.

Each station acts as a city in the world, and by the end of the quarter, the various cities should all be able to interact over the computer lines.