Profile: Roberta Ambur

Computerworld - It was the spring of 2001, and Roberta Ambur, CIO at the University of South Dakota, was about to undertake a technological advancement that no other institution of higher learning had attempted: a rollout of more than 1,500 personal digital assistants (PDA) to full-time freshmen, first-year law and medical students, and faculty -- without adding IT staff.
"Anytime you try something new, it's not going to go smoothly," says Ambur. One initial worry was getting each of the participants in the program to pay $250 for their Palm devices. But they did.
"In the beginning, faculty and our IT staff expressed some trepidation about managing and disseminating course materials and other academic information in a mobile environment," she says, but that concern was resolved within the first year.
One reason for the change of heart is that Ambur has moved quickly to address problems as they have arisen, says Don Dahlin, vice president for academic affairs and Ambur's boss.

Roberta Ambur, CIO of the University of South Dakota

"For example, one major issue was moving content so faculty members could easily get class content from the classroom onto the PDA," says Dahlin. "Roberta took the lead to find a server solution and was successful on that endeavor."
Another snag in the PDA pilot program was that students who didn't have laptops weren't able to back up their PDAs. To get around that problem, the university installed Extended Systems Inc.'s XTNDConnect Server software over the summer. The biggest challenge, says Ambur, was adding the software on top of the existing IT architecture in order to improve integration with infrared ports, PDAs and file-sharing applications. "It was and remains a very complex project, and without her leadership, we would not have moved as far and as fast as we have," Dahlin says.
Ambur was hired for the new position of CIO about a year and a half ago and directs a staff of 127, including part-timers from the student lab, Dahlin says.
Ambur and her staff support the Palm m500 and m515 devices and software that connect to the university network via cradles and infrared ports that students use to receive e-mail, turn in assignments, schedule appointments with faculty and access the Web.
Ambur considers this rollout -- only one project among many -- to be a big step forward for the university. "I foresee a time when you have the PDA and telephone all in one, and you're on a street corner looking up your e-mail, talking on the phone," she says."Anytime, anywhere activity -- that's what the future holds."