Medical Student Computing Guide

 

The Computer Lab, located in the Edelstone Lounge, opened on May 7th 1993. Support personnel are available to help people and answer questions. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. That’s one of the main reasons the support personnel are there. Generally, someone is in the office from approximately 9 am – 4:30 pm M-F. If we aren’t in during those hours stop back, we will be there soon.

 

Support Policy

The College will provide the following service to all currently enrolled University of Illinois College of Medicine (UI COM) students whose laptop meets the minimum hardware and software requirements listed on the Chicago Campus Computer Requirement page:

  • Assistance with software installation, configuration and troubleshooting of UIC supported applications and tools:
    • Wireless and wired connection, network drives and printers, and Email.
    • Microsoft Windows 7 or later, Mac OS 10.7 or later, Office 2010 or  later, and UIC provided educational software.
  • Assistance finding the appropriate entity to assist with UIC account issues (e.g. official name changes, year or program changes, password reset, access problems, etc.).
  • Assistance in diagnosing and troubleshooting hardware and software problems with your laptop on a best effort basis.
  • Assistance with mobile devices to the best of our abilities.
  • Virus/ spyware/ malware removal and prevention.

 

We will NOT provide the following service:

  • Data backup and retrieval (we can recommend data retrieval companies).
  • Hardware loan – equipment – mice, keyboards, cables, etc.
  • Hardware repair and depot (shipping and receiving) service.
  • Connectivity with home or other non-UIC networks.
  • Support for third party peripherals (e.g. smart phones, digital cameras, MP3 players, etc.) beyond accessing UIC Wireless, educational materials and UIC Email.
  • Support for UI COM alumni.

 

E-Mail

Accounts are maintained by the UIC Computer Center Offices in the Goldberg Building at 1940 West Taylor, on the north-east corner of Taylor and Damen (phone: 312-413-0003). You have been assigned a NETID and password. To read more about your NETID, your account, changing your password, rules and regulations for using UIC servers and more, go to ACCC’s netid information page.

UIC has provided all students with GoogleApps@UIC – more information on how to use this is at http://accc.uic.edu/service/googleapps

The College of Medicine will use only your UIC NETID to correspond by e-mail. It is your responsibility to read your UIC e-mail even if you would prefer to use a personal e-mail account (e.g., gmail, hotmail, yahoo, etc.).

NOTE!You may forget your password. Go to http://passwords.accc.uic.edu/for the ACCC password changing assistant. This will help you set up a mechanism to set up a new password if you forget your password. Otherwise, if you forget your password you will have to go to the consultants in the Goldberg building to have it reset.

 

Computers

The Edelstone computer center is equipped with Apple iMacs and Windows PC’s. If you want to hear sound, bring headphones to plug into the green jack on the front of the PCs or the headphone jack on the back of the iMacs.

 

Problems

First check to see if the computer is just asleep. Moving the mouse or pressing the space bar should wake it up. If necessary, restart the computer by pressing the power button on the PC front or on the back of the iMac.

When you log out, remember to take your CDs, thumb drives, papers etc. with you.

If the mouse or keyboard stop working, check their connectors.

If you are having trouble with a piece of equipment or software that you can not solve yourself, please notify lab staff – send an e-mail if they are not in the office. Include the machine number and a brief description.

Please Log Out of the computer before you leave by clicking on STOP sign icon or using Log out from the Blue Apple icon.

 

Wireless

We have wireless networking set up in Edelstone and in the M1 and M2 classrooms as well as other locations around the buildings. Follow instructions for connecting or ask us for assistance to connect. You also can set your laptop (Coming Soon to Phones and Tablets) to print to campus printers

 

Other Equipment

    1. Printers – there are two of them – one in the basement (Edelstone) that is not in use due to COVID and another one that is on the 3rd floor of CMWT by the elevators which is in use. They are Wepa printers managed by LTS (formerly ACCC). The printers print in black and white and color. There is a scanner attached to the printer in the basement of Edelstone.
    2. ChairsChairs should not be taken out of Edelstone to other locations, there are plenty of chairs throughout the building. Please do not take the chairs home.

 

 

Software

Productivity software on lab computers includes: Word Perfect & MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Photoshop, Internet software includes: Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer, WS- FTP, Fetch and more.

Please do not add personal bookmarks, download plug-ins or visit inappropriate sites.

 

Hours

Normally the lab is open 24-hours a day, except as posted. There are also computers for you to use in other labs on campus. See the listing of locations and hours. The closest lab to College of Medicine is in the Goldberg Building at 1940 West Taylor, on the north-east corner of Taylor and Damen. See the consultant on duty there to request 24-hour card access into the Goldberg Lab.

 

Networking Details

The lab computers are connected by Ethernet to the University fiber optic backbone. This backbone provides access to the Internet. The lab has a full-duplex, 100 Mb per second connection (100-base T) to the backbone. Campus wireless is slower than a direct connection, but still relatively quick compared to other alternatives.

 

Viruses, Worms, and Trojan Horses

All of the computers in the Lab are equipped with anti-virus software. This software provides protection against viruses, as long as you do not ignore infection warnings or turn off the anti-viral software. As a student, you can download free Symantec anti-virus software for your own computer. It is very important to regularly update your anti-virus software for current virus definitions. See the documentation that comes with the software for information on how to update it.

 

Staff

The Edelstone Lab is staffed from approximately 9 am – 4:30 pm M-F.  In the event that you cannot reach Edelstone Lab staff, and if you are having an emergency, please feel free to contact other Informational Resources staff, via phone at 312-996-3636. If this is a Fire/Flood/etc sort of emergency please call UIC Police at 312-355-5555 (5 fives from any campus phone) or dial 911 (UIC police can often respond faster than Chicago city 911)

About Computing Staff

In addition to running the computer lab, the staff provide computer support for College of Medicine staff and maintain the AV equipment in the lecture halls. If a lecturer is having problems with equipment, please let us know. If you plan to use a lecture hall for group meetings, you may schedule the room through Undergraduate Medical Education(6-9030 or stop by their offices on the first floor), and can get AV equipment training through our office if necessary. If you need computer or AV assistance during office hours, stop by the office which is by the blue lockers, or call us from a campus phone on 6-3636 (312-996-3636) . If this is a computing emergency the people who answer that phone can find you assistance.

 

Lab Rules

The Edelstone Computer Lab is a resource shared by UI COM students. All lab rules and policies are designed to keep the lab running as smoothly as possible. Violations of these rules create inconveniences for the students and lab staff and may result in computers not being available. In using the Lab services you are agreeing to abide by our rules and policies as posted on the Lab bulletin board and listed here, as well as the University’s rules. These rules were drafted and passed by the CMSC computer subcommittee some time ago. I did not write them 🙂

No Trespassing – University of Illinois College of Medicine (UI COM) Students, Faculty and Staff only. Approved UI COM community members enter the Edelstone area using their Icards at the controlled access doors. Do not let anyone else in, or prop the door open in any way, as thieves have been known to steal from book bags left in study carrels. Visitors must be approved by College of Medicine staff. If the I-card access system fails, please contact a staff member.

Food and drink are strictly prohibited. It is unhealthy to feed or water the mice, keyboards or disk drives. We also have bugs(I’m not talking software errors). There should be no threatening substances above the desktop (this includes your dirty shoes). Snacks, food, and sealed drinks must remain concealed in bags below the tables. Mugs must be empty and remain below the tables. Cough drops will be tolerated, but please take your wrappers and “used” tissues with you. You will be held responsible for illicit substances found near your workstation. Please do NOT bring your floppy disks back from the beach. No bicycles on the carpets. A clean lab is a productive lab.

Do not delete the login/logout program or otherwise modify system settings. All of the computers are configured to behave in the same way. Attempting to bypass computer security may require that the hard drive be reformatted and reinstallation of all the software. Please submit requests for new software, upgrades, and configuration changes to lab staff.

Please limit yourself to appropriate activities. Do not engage in behavior that creates a hostile environment. Do not steal equipment or supplies from the lab (this includes blank paper). Frivolous activities, such as computer games, are acceptable only if the lab is not busy, if it does not involve installing software, and if paper supplies are not depleted. It is not appropriate to use more than one computer at a time while the lab is busy.

Yield to priority activities:

  • System maintenance / software installation (by staff only)
  • Reserved use such as HistoTime
  • Medical education software
  • Homework and E-mail
  • Personal stuff