| Originally, "ECR6" stood for
"Engineering Computing Region 6". A few years ago, the OSU College of
Engineering (COE) had separate "computing regions" which served the various
departments of the College. Since then, the computing regions' resources have
been rolled into the departments. The only College-level entity left from this
restructuring is an office that manages College-wide site licenses and makes
purchases on behalf of the departments for computer hardware and software that
is to be purchased against the COE Computing Fee funds. (All undergraduate and
graduate students in the COE pay a quarterly computing fee.) So, now that there is not a formal concept of "computing regions" in the COE anymore, just what does "ECR6" stand for? Well, officially, "ECR6" is the name for the academic computing facility (or facilities) that serve the departments of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (CBE), and Materials Science and Engineering (MSE), as well as a few affiliated research centers. That is, there is not a formal expansion of the acronym (abbreviation) -- the acronym is the name. "CBE/MSE Joint Computing Facility" is also proper, but can be a bit of a mouthful. We have come up with an alternate expansion for the "ECR6" acronym, though, for those who aren't comfortable with this concept. Both CBE and MSE, at the most basic level, deal with elements. As such, we could substitute "Elemental" for "Engineering" in the original acronym expansion to get "Elemental Computing Region 6". The site can still be considered a region, since it serves more than one department in this area of the OSU campus. So that just leaves figuring out a new significance to the "6" in "ECR6". Besides CBE and MSE, ECR6 also serves its own computing facilities, as well as supporting (at least) three research centers: the Center for Accelerated Maturation of Materials (CAMM), the Center for Advanced Polymer and Composite Engineering (CAPCE), and the Center for Industrial Sensors and Measurements (CISM). That makes a total of six (6) entities served by ECR6. The number of entities served may vary over time, but we'll just leave the "6" intact, for historical purposes (similar to how the "10" has remained in "The Big 10", even though there are more than 10 schools in the conference, now). NOTE: In certain circumstances, "ECR6" is shortened to "ER6" (e.g. in computer system names). When referring to the computing facility, "ECR6" is the official designation. |