Heather is a Junior Systems Engineer here at CISP. We have asked her to put together a short bio so you, valued reader, can get to know her just a little bit better.

Heather says that her grandparents helped her first get interested in computers at an early age. “My grandpa was an electrical engineer and he’s always been an early adopter of consumer electronics so he had a home PC before they were very common and before I ever had one at home. My grandparents would let me come over and use their computer and I would play games, draw in MS Paint, and (with some help from Grandpa) type up some BASIC programs I found in a kid’s science magazine called 3-2-1 Contact. Also my grandparents eventually bought my siblings and me our first computer for our own house, too. “

Heather first started working in IT as a Student Consultant at the Helpline (computer help desk) at Kenyon College. She graduated from Kenyon in 2004 with a degree in Philosophy.

After college, Heather volunteered for a year with AmeriCorps. She was a member of the Montana Tech Corps and helped run the TechGYRLs program at the YWCA in Helena, MT. She taught 4th-8th grade girls (and sometimes boys) Logo programming in MicroWorlds, Lego Mindstorms Robotics, and basic webpage design using HTML.

After coming back to her hometown of Toledo, Heather started at CISP as a Tier 1 in 2005. While working in the call center, she also worked toward a Master’s degree at the University of Toledo, graduating in 2008 with an M.Ed in Educational Technology.

Continuing to work at CISP Heather was eventually promoted to Managed Services Technician and more recently promoted to Junior Systems Engineer. Her main responsibilities are Windows Managed Services such as Microsoft Exchange and MS Small Business Server. She sets up and manages user accounts, file sharing, monitoring, antivirus, backups, and updates on managed systems. Heather also does some general tech support for internal and managed customers such for desktops, smartphones, and printers and creates much of the documentation for Managed and internal procedures.

In her spare time, Heather volunteers at the Toledo Area Humane Society. She takes photos and video of adoptable animals to appear on the Internet on sites such as Petharbor.com, Petfinder.com, YouTube, and Facebook.

Heather’s certifications are CompTIA A+, MCTS, and VMWare VSP.

It was nearly 40 years ago that Motorola’s Martin Cooper made the first-ever call using a handheld mobile phone. How quickly has the cell phone industry progressed? It was only six years later in 1979 that what is now known as the first generation cellular network was launched in Japan, which later on became the first nation-wide network. It was this technology that other countries followed suit with, and the U.S. soon found its first successful cellular network in Baltimore and Washington DC in 1981 supporting just 150 subscriber connections.

The 90’s saw the emergence of a digital network, or 2G. A new network capable of SMS (text messaging) as well as a digital voice connection, 2G would introduce data transmission later in the decade. It was this high demand for mobile data connectivity that fueled carriers to begin building a 3G network, aimed at providing enhanced mobile data speeds, faster connection response times, and improved reliability.

The cellular telecommunications industry matured into more than just mobile phones, seemingly overnight. Can’t we all think back to the first time we made a call on a cell phone? Those classic “brick” phones were phased out by smaller, ergonomic flip phones. Flip phones became a thing of the past once sliders/keyboard phones gained popularity, and then came PDA’s and touchscreen devices. With each change in style came changes in network advancement. In what is now a $164 billion a year industry, data connections have become a standard today. An industry of phones has evolved into smartphones, mobile broadband connection cards, embedded broadband netbooks and tablet PCs. Just as soon as we’ve become accustomed to 3G, Sprint introduced America’s first 4G, all-IP network in 2008.

In a survey conducted by CTIA, results display just how much Americans rely on the wireless industry and its technology. This marks the first time in history that the number of wireless subscriber connections (327.6 million), has surpassed the population (315.5 million) in the U.S. and its territories. Granted, many Americans may have two phones, or a mobile broadband card, or even a tablet. Nonetheless, these results exhibit the demand we have, and the importance, to continually expand the capabilities of the wireless industry. Fortunately for consumers, in light of the consistently advancing 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) standard, progress doesn’t appear t to be slowing any time soon.

Survey results courtesy of CTIA – The Wireless Association: http://ctia.org/media/press/body.cfm/prid/2133