End Users '20 under 40' 2015—Jeppie Sumpter

Jeppie Sumpter, 37

Director of communication technologies, Western Kentucky University

Bowling Green, Ky.

Exceptions to certain rules, like who's supposed to be where at certain times, present a big security challenge for the traditional “open learning environment,” said Jeppie Sumpter.

“Getting rid of the exceptions or at least limiting them—or understanding them better—will go a long way in us being able to better leverage some of the technology that we have today.”

Without exceptions, there could be more automation, Sumpter said; more automation means finding, and reporting, anomalies faster, he said.

Sumpter said he has a “traditional IT background.” Speaking on his team's responsibilities, he said, “We use ourselves as a microcosm to design what the university needs for the future.”

Incorporating video surveillance and tailoring it to the needs for different departments was one of Sumpter's first priorities. Sumpter said there are about 30 different video surveillance clients on the campus.

After video surveillance came electronic access control, which spread across the campus in a similar way, he said. “We plan to unify the university's electronic access control in a similar manner to what we did with video surveillance.”

Sumpter described his ideal solution as a “perfect electronic access control software. I have not seen a product on the market that hits exactly what I would like it to be.”

“I wish the electronic access control world borrowed a few pages from video surveillance world. By that I mean more agnostic hardware/software solutions built with current software design practices in mind,” he said.

Western Kentucky University has about 90 buildings and 21,000 students, he said.