Let me give you an example. I’m in the first semester of my junior year as an EE major and so I have the IBM ThinkPad 600E. The particular software that is currently required by the class I’m taking is MatLab. The class, Signals and Systems, requires us, the students, to use to the software to solve some of the homework assignments. Another class, Fields and Waves, does not require the use of this software to solve homework assignments, but strongly recommends using it as a visual tool to help understand the material. I have e-mailed, e-mailed, and e-mailed the professors of Signals and Systems (Professors Wozny and Johansen) and Patrick Valiquette, the manager of Help Desk Services, but got nowhere with it. The homework that requires MatLab still exists, MatLab is still not available to be used on our laptops, and the response received from Patrick Valiquette is, I quote, "We get better licensing agreements from Microsoft than Mathworks."

I am not the only one either. Messages on the WebCT course page for Signals and Systems have been posted, posted, and posted about the lack of this program by many, and nothing, absolutely nothing, has been done. In fact, pirating software was encouraged on WebCT by hints such as, "Why don’t you search the RPI network." While that is a reasonable short-term solution, it is not the appropriate way to do things—I am sure Mathworks doesn’t appreciate it either.

This may seem like a problem with only a particular class, but it isn’t. This, in fact, only brings to light the major underlying problem with the current laptop program. Since I am in the EE department, I can only speak on their behalf, though I’m sure similar problems exists in other departments.

Let me review the use of the laptop, specifically the software packages that came with the laptop in the past couple of years. The laptop comes with the full-blown MS Visual Studio suite, a tool necessary for Comp Sci majors; classes that an EE student is required to take from the Comp Sci department—one—Computer Science 1. Classes that an EE student is required to take from the ECSE department: many. Software tools that enhance the performance of a EE student taking many classes from an ECSE department: zero. I hope my point is clear. An EE student can care less if he uses a $500 program or a cheesy shareware program to compile simple assignments in the first semester of his freshman year, but he does care about using a $100 program in his junior and senior years to not only complete homework assignments, but to be able to keep up with the material being taught and the current industry standard.

It is becoming abundantly clear that the laptops become less and less useful because they lack everything that an EE student needs, with the exception of e-mail. E-mail, in fact, is probably the sole reason most EE students still use laptops because when time comes to doing useful stuff, one must go to the campus labs that are equipped with the tools necessary to complete the actual useful stuff.

Now there are three solutions to this whole issue. One I already mentioned—going to the labs; second is me buying MatLab for $100, and third is pirating it from someone else. By having students resort to any of these solutions would, in fact, nullify the whole laptop program—which is to help students with their coursework by providing the necessary tools in the form of software.

So, as you can see, there are pretty big problems with the laptop program though they are not apparent on the surface. The sad part is that so far, no has cared because caring would require effort to make a difference. Effort takes time and energy that most people dispense on better things than this.

I hope that something positive will come out of my feedback.

Avetis Zh. Ioannisyan