Day 1: Establishing Wi-Fi-based Communications to Puerto Rico

BEI Travel Journal Day 1

7 weeks after the hurricane, most of Puerto Rico still doesn’t have access to clean drinking water and power. In response to this need, on November 12th, we headed down from New Hampshire to help establish communications and provide assistance. Supported by a generous donation of Wi-Fi equipment from Extreme Networks, our team is excited to be able to support Puerto Rico’s efforts to get back on their feet.

We are working closely with the University of Puerto Rico system to utilize each of the campuses and research facilities that have working internet connections to provide access to the surrounding communities. The Puerto Rico Science, Technology & Research Trust has facilitated the relationship as they are a nonprofit that helps fund the research conducted by the University.

Please follow us here as we document our journey, and keep an eye on our Twitter feed for more updates.

Day 1

Our first stop was Puerto Rico Science, Technology and Research Trust Headquarters to meet with Carlos Baez-Pagan (Technology Transfer Office Manager), David Gulley (Technology Transfer Office Director) and Javier Malave (Technology Specialist). The Extreme Networks equipment was inspected and unpacked. All is good!

The second stop was with the University of Puerto Rico Central Administration Office. We met with Victor Diaz (CIO of UPR System) and his staff for demonstrations and training on how to deploy the Extreme Access Points and an overview of Extreme Cloud. We conducted a site visit to discuss deployment strategy for this location, as well as the strategy for the rest of the University locations on the island.

Our third stop was a visit to UPR Medical Science Campus. We met with the IT Director for the campus and his staff to train on deploying the Extreme Networks AP’s and an overview of Extreme Cloud. This location has many public areas that are utilized by the community as a gathering place as it is one of the few Facilities on the island that is accessible 24 hours a day. The community, staff, patients and students of the UPR system use this facility on a daily basis.

At the end of the day, we returned to the Trust HQ to configure Access Points for quick deployment moving forward. We met with Lucy Crespo (CEO of the Trust) and discussed the scope of the Wi-FI project and the impact it will have on the people in the surrounding communities of the UPR Campuses.

View more photos below and learn more from the field solutions team tomorrow.