Sean Mason
Introduction
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The
Information Technology Unit at the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation
consists of Co-Op students and three supervisors. The department is responsible for 230 computers in the District
Office of Bridgeville and its 7 different servers, as well as 607 other
computers in Beaver, Lawrence, and Allegheny counties. Other things that the IT Unit is responsible
for are the Power Point presentations given to us by all of the different
divisions within the building. Also,
the Telephony system for the building, which includes running new lines and
troubleshooting existing lines, are managed by the Information Technology unit.
I entered
the Co-op program at PennDOT to help obtain some experience before I
graduated. I learned a great deal and suggest anybody that has the opportunity
to take a Co-op, to take it. My Co-op gave me a professional understanding of
the Information Technology/Computer Science based field. It allowed be a true
business sense of how today’s business works. The Co-op opportunity also help
me with a apprehensive understanding of my classwork. PennDOT taught me how to
interact with other professions in the field, without getting the nervous
feeling that I always did prior to finishing my rotations. Again, if a person
has a chance to participate in the Co-op, I strongly suggest that person take
it.
Semester 1(January – April 2002)
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We
accomplished many things from the second that I started my first co-op rotation
in main office in Bridgeville, PA. Within the first two weeks that I started,
we began switching out older personal computers and computer aided drafting
(CAD) stations for newer IBM stations. In all there were around two hundred and
thirty new machines installed from a period of January to early March. All the
machines had to be configured. The operating systems (OSs) were upgraded from
Windows N.T. 4.0 to Windows 2000 Professional and the user's personal settings
loaded from the backed up data stored on the servers.
Troubleshooting
became a time consuming process at that time because most of the two hundred
plus users were not used to the new operating system and the new
configurations. Prior to the switch out, the older machines were in place since
1997. The semester also consisted of
setting up video conferencing sessions for the District Engineer to be able to
communicate with others in Harrisburg. Before this technology, he would travel
there to conduct meetings.
Later in
the semester, we had a surplus sale of the older computers, in which users
would be able to buy one through a raffle system. We created a PowerPoint Presentation
for the Business Plan. The Business Plan is a 100 + page guidebook of what
every division in the Department of Transportation has accomplished over the
year and is planning on doing the following year. We as the information technology unit set up all graphical work
for this document. We also created professional PowerPoint presentations to be
show for such events as DUI prevention, the Business Plan, traffic safety
functions, and other presentations to aid the teaching process of both
technical and non-technical personnel. Many of the PowerPoint Presentations
were used by the District Engineer, Ray Hack for state wide business
conferences and meetings.
Semester 2(September – December 2002)
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In this
semester, I became the sole network administrator of two of the branch sections
in Beaver and Lawrence Counties. They were located in Rochester, PA and New
Castle, PA respectively. The branches were not nearly as large as the main
office.
Between
the two branches, I oversaw about fifty computers and about seventy-five users.
I held teaching sessions on basic Microsoft Office products for both classroom
style and one-on-one sessions. I performed many troubleshooting tasks from
basic printer malfunctions to more advanced server problems. I also was in
charge of the stockpile users and machines. The users would have to dial into
the main office in Harrisburg to be able to access the LAN because most of the
stockpiles were in remote areas. I set up all the presentation equipment and
some of the presentations themselves for the annual Construction Convention
were is held at the latter part of the year.
This was
probably my favorite of all the rotations. It gave me a more confidence and a
better feel for the work because I was essentially my own boss. I felt better
knowing that I could handle the job without having to be watched over.
Semester 3(May – August 2003)
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I returned
back to the main office in Bridgeville. We sent up a new FOB system that kept track
of personnel’s entrance into the building for obvious security reasons. We also
set up a web page to allow people with access to the Internet to check traffic
volumes throughout the day. We set up extensive databases for tracking all computer
equipment throughout the district by filing serial number with users.
Out unit
integrated a new project called CDS. NextGen is a new program that replaced
CDS. Information Technology had to
create a presentation that taught employees how to use the new technology. NextGen is used to keep track of daily
events as well as budgets for each construction project. The switchover from CDS to NextGen was
extremely important because it moved from the workers having to write
everything down in forms, to being automated online. This change greatly saved time and money.
We also
filed all of the access that each users had for again obvious security reasons.
We sent up several new LAN lines to allow many more users access to the
Internet and PennDOT’s LAN. We continued to troubleshoot any problems that
occurred and also continued teaching sessions for both technical and
non-technical personnel.