By Dianne E. McConkey
MCC Public Affairs Dept.
585.292.3063, FAX: 585.292.3060 dmcconkey@monroecc.edu
(Rochester,
NY) -- During
a time of rapid technological changes
in the tele-communications industry, students
at Monroe Community College now have the
resources to learn on leading edge voice
and data equipment – thanks
to a recent gift from a leading communications
technology provider. A
$75,000 donation in equipment from Nortel gives
professors in MCC’s technology laboratory
the capability to teach telecommunications students
the next generation internet protocol (IP) based
telephony, alongside the existing analog and digital
systems.
“Our students now can receive the full scope of
training on these convergent technologies,” said
Kate Schiefen,associate dean for Technical Education.
Telephony
Equipment .
Shannon Silvus, Nortel sales engineer (left), and
MCC Engineering Technologies Technician Terry Trudeau
discuss the workings of the recently donated IP Telephony
equipment in the college's Telecommunications Lab.
“We
can better prepare our students for their future employment
when they encounter any one or all three of these
operating systems.”
The
donated equipment comprises telephones, switches,
cabinets, hardware and software. “We are extremely
pleased to contribute to the education groundwork
of the students in the telecommunications program.
They are the next generation workforce that needs
to understand the different communication platforms
offered in the marketplace today,” said Daniel
M. Coughlin, account executive with Nortel Networks
in Rochester.
Telephony
Equipment .
Shannon Silvus, Nortel sales engineer, points to a card
in their company’s
IP telephone switch during a quick training session
for Mark Oliver, associate professor , Electrical
Engineering Technology (center),
and electronics student Steven Okeen (left).
Students
will learn such aspects as installing Ethernet cables
and attaching connectors, programming of the switch
and phones, and trouble-shooting hardware and software
problems, said Terry Trudeau, technical assistant
and adjunct instructor in the college's Electrical
Engineering Technology: Electronics program. He
explained that the IP and the analog/digital systems
have an important difference for technicians to
understand. “The
transmission lines that carry the voice signal for
the IP phone are the same wires that transmit the
data for our computers,” he said. “They
are not the overhead telephone wires we all see
that stretch across the telephone poles in our neighborhoods.”
MCC
will teach the inner-workings of how voice signals travel
from a telephone through the Ethernet, co-axial or optical
fiber cables into switches and out to the listener’s
phone. The Nortel equipment, in model size, provides hands-on
learning for students before entering the profession.
