Eight of Westwood College’s Cisco (News - Alert) Networking Academy students will reportedly help install and support the vast communications infrastructure for the Democratic National Convention that takes place later this month.

 

Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, Westwood College is a private for-profit provider of post-secondary educational services.

 

By working alongside Cisco engineers, Westwood students will install more than 700 VoIP telephones, a wireless service canopy and the routers and switches. The equipment is expected to transform Denver’s Pepsi Center into a global hub for collaboration and communication, company officials say.

 

These students are from Westwood College–Denver North’s Computer Network Management’s three-year bachelor degree program. The chosen eight will work before, during and after the convention to install Cisco solutions, conduct monitoring of those solutions, and staff the I.T. help desk, according to the company. Westwood College students will lend support to the Cisco engineers from July 28 to Aug. 31.

 

The installation will enable political reporters and bloggers to post the latest news from the convention floor to the Internet in real time. The students will also help provide the communications backbone for thousands of conventioneers, delegates and political operatives.

 

Clay Chandler, national program advisor for the Cisco Networking Academy, Westwood College sees this as a-once-in-a-lifetime learning opportunity for their Computer Network Management students. Even though most people take for granted that the telephone, Internet access and secure data networks are always available, the technologies behind those tools are extraordinarily complex. Chandler said the fact that Westwood students were selected by Cisco after a rigorous selection process demonstrates how capable their students are.

 

Mags Doty, DNC project manager, Cisco said that providing DNC participants with a fast, reliable and secure network is a great example of the kinds of connections that they try to facilitate in the Networking Academy program, according to the company.

 

According to Doty, by applying the lessons learned in the classroom to relevant, real world experience and collaboration, Westwood and Cisco are helping to educate the next generation of networking talent.

 

Cisco enables people to make powerful connections. Cisco was in news yesterday when Deviscape Software announced that their newly released WiFi (News - Alert) technology features support for Cisco Compatible Extensions, version 5. Deviscape Software said that this certification indicates a high level of device security and interoperability with the Cisco Unified Wireless Network for business mobility applications.