1. © 2008 Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center Tour Your Future The Girls, Math & Science Partnership Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center Computer Network Engineering Kathy Benninger 11 October 2008

2. © 2008 Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center What do engineers do?

3. © 2008 Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center What do engineers do? Problem solving! Engineers create devices, systems, structures, or processes to solve real-world problems efficiently and economically Use scientific, physical, and mathematical principles

4. © 2008 Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center Types of Engineers Electrical Mechanical Chemical Biomedical Civil Aerospace Nuclear Industrial

5. © 2008 Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center What do you think electrical engineers do?

6. © 2008 Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center Electrical Engineers do… Consumer electronics Power systems Communications systems Computer –Processors –Mass Storage –Networks Hardware: Switches, routers, interface cards Software: Network protocol design

7. © 2008 Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center With further study, Electrical Engineers also do… Medicine Law Business Management Public policy An engineering education can open many career paths

8. © 2008 Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center Education for Engineering – High School Math –Algebra, geometry, trigonometry, calculus Science –Chemistry –Physics –Biology Computing Language and communication skills

9. © 2008 Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center Education for Engineering – University First two years –Math and science courses –Liberal arts and electives Last two years –Engineering specialty courses –Labs and hands-on experimentation –Group projects Other useful courses Technical writing, economics, statistics

10. © 2008 Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center My Path to Engineering Enjoyed math and science classes Wanted to understand “How does it work?” Took all the available math and science courses in high school Electrical Engineering major at Carnegie Mellon University Four-year degree, BSEE

11. © 2008 Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center With that BSEE degree, I’ve done: Circuit design and prototyping Programming Video systems Computer cabling design for new building Computer mass storage systems Computer networks

12. © 2008 Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center Network Engineering at the PSC Group of 12 people 3ROX GigaPoP: design, build, and support networks for Pittsburgh Public Schools, PSC, CMU, Pitt, Penn State, WVU, and other regional research and educational organizations Research: design and test new protocols and tools for maximizing network performance Consulting: working with users to help them optimize their usage of the network

13. © 2008 Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center Day to day Two or three primary projects at a time –University research group wants to install some experimental equipment –Performance testing of a proposed network configuration Answer questions –E.g. “What’s the best network adapter?” Communication –Email, IM, meetings, conference calls

14. © 2008 Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center What I Like About My Career in Engineering Always something new to learn Work environment –Intellectually challenging –Flexible –People –Collaborative Professional recognition Financially rewarding

15. © 2008 Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center Intro to computer networking How is a network built? How does information move through a network? What are the components in a network?

16. © 2008 Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center How is the Internet built? Your PC: “wired” or “wireless” connection Home: Local Area Network (LAN) City: Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) Regional/National: Wide Area Network (WAN) International

17. © 2008 Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center Network Example 60 Milliseconds in the life of a packet… (1 Millisecond = 1/1000 th of a second)

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21. © 2008 Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center Tour 3ROX GigaPoP Network components Servers Cabling Test equipment

22. © 2008 Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center Questions?