By Olivia Chhlang | Reporter
David Klein is the network administrator for AirBear.
Baylor’s wireless connection system, AirBear has over 70,000 users according to Klein, and his job is dedicated to deploying and troubleshooting, designing, implementing and expanding AirBear in order to serve those users.
“The vast majority of [AirBear] is pretty much in my lap,” Klein said.
Klein has held this position since 2008. He started working at Baylor in 2003 as a student worker at the Baylor Science Building in his undergraduate years as a Management Information Systems major.
Carl Flynn, director of marketing and communications for information technology services and University Libraries, has known Klein since he was a student at Baylor University.
“David’s always been a bright spot on our IT team because of his passion and engagement,” Flynn said.
Flynn shared a story on which Klein figured out how to wire every residence hall with AirBear in only one summer, showing his “heart and dedication” to his job.
Klein said that he enjoys the challenge of carrying the responsibility for the entire wireless connection at Baylor.
“I like that wireless is very different from the wire because everything has to be immaculately customized,” he said.
Students might not notice the white blocks on the walls of their classroom buildings or the library, but Klein said those are where the Wi-Fi connection capabilities start. Klein has customized the connection pathways for each building based on its size, age and architecture. According to him, one block can change the entire trajectory of connection for a building.
“It’s all theoretical physics on some level, and it’s nuts,” Klein said. “But the challenge is fun and it’s a very interesting field to me, personally.”
Scott Day, director of networking services, said Klein has been a great asset on the growth of wireless and the growth that has yet to come.
“David is very passionate about wireless service on campus and about user experience,” Day said.
During Klein’s 15 years working with wireless connection, he said that the use of wifi went from very niche to almost campus-wide. In the same way, he has grown from being relatively clueless to now being able to manage the connection in buildings with just a few clicks.
Some students can be unaware that there is someone behind the Wi-Fi and think of the network as something that is always there. Klein referred to the wireless connection as a bunch of “smoke and mirrors.”
“A lot of the job comes with educating students too,” Klein said. “There is support out there, and a big part of it is making sure that the support is visible.”
Klein, as a past Baylor student, understands students’ frustrations. He emphasized the fact that most times, a student’s problem with the Wi-Fi connection can take less than 15 minutes to fix if they just take the time to bring their device to the Moody HelpDesk+. The problem will eventually get routed to Klein.
“At the end of the day, people are just looking for people to take ownership of some of the problems,” Klein said. “Being one of the few people who specializes in Wi-Fi puts me in the unique position of being able to take responsibility for it and make sure we get a fix implemented when something doesn’t work.”
