RIT Hosts First Computer Networking Contest

Greece, Rush-Henrietta teens square off in battle of telecom wits

MEDIA ADVISORY

Routers. Switches. Wires. It’s a contest only computer geeks could love—and they’re proud of it.

Rochester Institute of Technology’s first ever Cisco Battleship Live, this Friday, May 16, pits teams of high school students from Greece Olympia and Rush-Henrietta high schools in competition involving telecommunications network configuration and troubleshooting.

Hosted by RIT’s electrical, computer and telecommunications engineering technology department in the College of Applied Science and Technology, the contest runs from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in telecom labs, rooms 1130 and 1145, in Building 70.

Four teams of about 10 students each will compete. The students have completed at least one year of training in computer networking through local Cisco Networking Academies at their schools. The students’ instructors were trained at RIT’s National Technology Training Center, which is a regional Cisco Networking Academy. Cisco Systems Inc. awarded $9,000 in laboratory equipment to RIT to establish the regional academy in 2001. Teacher training began the following year.

Faculty from RIT’s telecommunications engineering technology program ‘train the trainers’ in principles, design, construction and maintenance of computer networks. Other local Cisco Networking Academies in the Rochester area are located at East Rochester High School, Edison Technical and Occupational Education Center, Fairport High School, Hilton High School, John Marshall and Wilson Magnet high schools, Monroe Community College, the National Technical Institute for the Deaf at RIT, and RIT’s telecommunications engineering technology program.

The Cisco Networking Academy program was established in 1997 by Cisco in partnership with Sun Microsystems Inc. and Adobe Systems Inc.