By: J.D. Ross
(315) 433-3094
A group of Syracuse University students, faculty and staff, including three students from the School of Information Studies (iSchool), traveled to Haiti this week to provide technical assistance to the Universite d’Etat du Haiti (UEH) as the school tries to rebuild its wireless internet infrastructure in the wake of the 2010 earthquake.
Shivesh Ganotra and Kshitij Mahant are graduate students in the iSchool’s Telecommunications and Network Management program, and Dan Littlepage is a rising senior in the Information Management and Technology program.
Ganotra, Mahant and Littlepage are part of a team organized by Syracuse University’s Information Technology and Services office, which has formed an outreach collaboration project between Syracuse University and the UEH. This trip is the first phase in the year-long collaboration – the University will also send six graduate students back to Haiti in the fall.
The group originally planned to spend the entire week installing and configuring wireless networking equipment with UEH staff members, but Tropical Storm Emily altered their plans as it battered a portion of the island with strong winds and rain late this week.
Students and staff sheltered in a hotel to ride out the storm, and will return to Syracuse on Saturday.
The trip has been documented on a blog, and Littlepage has uploaded photos from the trip to Flickr.