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BNKS Networking Project

Giving back to our alma mater has always been a major goal of SEBS-NA. In the past SEBSers have been helping individual students with support for SAT and TOEFL fees, college counseling for students wanting to study abroad, as well as books and subscriptions for the school library. This year, we have raised the bar on the level of support and collaborating with the school by launching the BNKS Networking Project (BNP).

BNP is an ongoing collaboration between SEBS-North America and BNKS to provide intranet as well as internet connectivity to all the computers within the school campus. The project would complement the Learning Resource Center (LRC) currently being built by the school which will house a computer Lab equipped with more than fifty computers for use by staff and students. By supporting the infrastructure to interconnect all these computers as well as all the computers provided by the school to the various departments and houses, BNP hopes to increase productivity, collaboration and efficiency. Students groups, for example, would be able collaborate on a project from different locations. Teachers on other hand would find it easier to work on a document in a common folder rather than on multiple versions of the same document at home and office. The infrastructure would also pave way for having records online, secured and more easily accessible. By adding internet connection to the fray, BNP hopes to greatly expand the capabilities and resources provided at the school and move it towards the globalized and interconnected world we live it today. With a large number of successful SEBSers willing to contribute to the alma mater, and a large number of members working in the field of computers and networking, there could not be a better time than now to embark on a project like this.

BNP came into being as result of a series of communication between the current SEBS-NA excomm members and BNKS. In the past nine months, three excomm members visited the school on separate occasions and consulted with the teachers on various ways SEBS-NA could be of help to them. In all these meeting, the consensus was that a computer network would be of great value to school. Based on the feedback we got, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was drafted in August. According to the MoU SEBS-NA would start off with providing technical and financial support for the intranet. Upon successful completion of this phase, we will move on with providing the internet connectivity although communications are already underway with various internet service providers in Nepal to provide internet at discounted cost to the school. The school has also been highly supportive of the project and has assigned a team of vice-principals, and chief administrative officer led by Mr. Atiram KC to facilitate the project.

SEBS-NA has collaborated with Vianet Communications, Kathmandu and conducted a technical survey to determine the feasibility and estimated costs for the project. Anup Manandhar (988A) who is the COO of Vianet Communications, conducted the survey in early September and listed the equipment needs and costs. He has also been helping us in soliciting bids from vendors. Based on initial estimate, the cost of the project stands out to be USD 5,500. In order to promote transparency and lower costs, bids from at least three vendors are being sought and evaluated.

Now that the necessary agreements have been put in place, and necessary surveys have been conducted, it is up to us members to provide our endorsement and support to the project. SEBS-NA is seeking contributions both financially as well as technically to make the project successful. If you would like to know more about the project and/or contribute to the project, please let us know. You can contact the excomm at sebsna@sebsonline.org, or excomm members: Bhupendra Pant 550B (bhupu@hotmail.com), Rahul Rauniyar(bs542@yahoo.com ), Hari Sharma 353C (hari353@hotmail.com) and Roshan Shrestha 002 B (roshansh@gmail.com).

Thank you for your Support!