My colleagues want me to set up a scheduling system for our NMR
spectrometers. I need to find out what products, if any, are available to
do this. I would also like to discover how much of my time, the
department's money and other resources would be required to implement either
a commercial or custom system. My colleagues think that this "should" be a
simple and inexpensive task. I, however, am skeptical.
The most heavily used instrument, and the one the scheduling is most
important for, is a Bruker DRX-400. This NMR is operated with a Silicon
Graphics Indy computer running the IRIX (Unix) operating system, and is
located in the basement. The second NMR is controlled by a PC running
Windows 3.11. It is also in the basement. Most of the remote computers,
which would be used for the scheduling, are of the PC / Win95 variety. They
are located all over the building. In addition, we have two departmental
SGI Indy computers on the third floor, which could be used for scheduling.
Most chemistry related activities are on the third and fourth floors.
The following are desirable properties of the scheduling system.
1) Users would be able to view the schedule remotely.
2) Users would be able to schedule available time remotely.
3) Users would not be allowed to change another user's time.
4) The scheduler would be able to determine if a user was using
their time.
5) The scheduler would be able to (a) free scheduled but unused
time, and
(b) charge the user for the scheduled but unused time.
6) Prevent a user from logging onto the instrument during someone
else's time.
7) Keep accounting records such that (a) users can be billed for
their time and
(b) track instrument usage.
Thanks in advance,
Doug
Dr. Doug Wheeler
Department of Chemistry
University of Wyoming
Laramie, WY 82071-3838
307-766-2093 voice
307-766-2807 fax
dwheeler@uwyo.edu