Students, staff and faculty can now connect to free wireless Internet at campuses across the globe, a new feature officials said has taken the university one step further in boosting its international presence.
Eduroam — a wireless Internet system other academic institutions use worldwide — made its debut at this university after last month’s arrival of Brian Voss as vice president of information technology and chief information officer. By simply entering their university login and password — just like they would when connecting to this university’s wireless network — members of the university community can now access the Internet free of charge on other campuses that use eduroam.
Students and faculty will still use the university Wi-Fi connection while on the campus, though eduroam is now an additional network for connecting to the Internet. More than 30 countries in Europe and Asia and 21 other universities in the United States use eduroam, furthering university President Wallace Loh’s objective of making the university a more globally networked entity, officials said.
“The availability of eduroam services is yet another building block in making Maryland a part of a borderless, scholarly world,” Loh stated in a university press release.
The ability to access the Internet globally through eduroam will be especially helpful for students studying abroad, faculty doing research overseas and students visiting from other countries, officials said.
“If you’ve traveled abroad, you’ll know that one of the most sought after quantities is a free Wi-Fi connection,” Voss said.
Tripti Sinha, the Office of Information Technology’s networking and telecommunications services director, compared the availability of eduroam to having a passport.
“You live in this country, you don’t use your passport here, so you don’t need eduroam on this campus,” Sinha said. “But if you leave this campus, you’ll need eduroam.”
Once university officials decided to join eduroam, the idea mobilized in a matter of weeks — a feat Voss said was made possible by the university’s sophisticated, first-rate networking infrastructure. Though eduroam has been available in the United States for more than two years, other campuses may not be able to implement the system as easily due to outdated networking environments, he noted.
One of the most beneficial aspects of eduroam, Voss said, is its no-cost maintenance.
“We just have to make sure all our software are up-to-date with the latest versions and so forth, but there’s no cost for the service itself,” Sinha said.
Officials said the system has worked seamlessly so far. Since the launch, OIT has even received inquiries from other schools that are now interested in launching the system.
“Success tends to breed success,” Voss said. “There’s always a sense that when major institutions start to do things, others want to do it as well.”
And eduroam’s wireless accessibility is reflective of the constant need for mobile Internet everywhere, some students said.
“Just like international cell phone services, it makes the world connected more and makes everything faster,” said freshman journalism major Teddy Amenabar.
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