Servers and Sysadmins: Training the next generation
March 28, 2022
TJ’s in-house network, Ion, is a widely popular feature of the community, used to sign up for 8th periods, view upcoming events, and much more. But Ion isn’t run by a group of teachers, or external coders- it’s run by TJ students themselves, through the Sysadmin programme. These students maintain the servers, add or remove features, and fix Ion in case of any nasty bugs, but that’s not all they do. TJ Sysadmins are also responsible for training the next generation, in the Sysadmin Understudy programme. This programme enables freshmen or sophomores who are interested in joining the administrative team to learn about the duties of a Sysadmin, and see for themselves what happens in the lab, and help TJ’s intranet keep running smoothly.
![On Friday, April 12, Jefferson’s Muslim Student Association (MSA) and the Parent Teacher Student Association’s (PTSA) Diversity Committee hosted an Eid-Al-Fitr celebration after school. “I think especially at TJ I have to emphasize [the community] because I feel like at other schools there’s less of an open mind. There’s this environment of Muslim students as well, and so here it’s so calming and kind,” sophomore Palatin Shaaker said.](https://www.tjtoday.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/IMG_0420-600x392.jpg)
![Gesturing towards their project, senior Alec Riso describes the mechanisms of the group’s QKD system alongside senior Karthik Thyagarajan. “This laser generates a stream of photons. We lined it up with a collimated lens, [which] focuses the laser into an optical fiber,” senior Connor Whiting said. “The optical fibers [preserve or maintain] are how you measure the polarization state of the photon, which lets us do the encryption protocol.”](https://www.tjtoday.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/IMG_0867-e1715793225721-450x600.jpeg)