During a time of rapid technological changes in the telecommunications industry, students at Monroe Community College now have the resources to learn on more of the 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 capability to teach telecommunications students 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. “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.
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 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.
Photo Caption: 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, and electronics student Steven Okeen. The switch is filled with removable cards that hold all of the electronic circuits used to place and receive calls. “It’s helpful for new entrants into the workforce to have applied the theory they learned in classes to real world equipment – to have gotten in there and touched it,” said Silvus.
Dianne E McConkey
Public Affairs
05/12/2005 |