Join Wellness Fridays with Meditation, sponsored by ITS
While physical fitness keeps our bodies in shape, meditation is an exercise for the mind and during a pandemic, mental wellness is essential to living a happy, productive life. Perhaps Buddha put it best when he was asked, “What have you gained from meditation?” Buddha replied, “Nothing! But let me tell you what I lost: Anger, Anxiety, Depression,… Read More »
DNA sequencing productivity increases with ARC-TS services
On the cutting-edge of research at U-M is the Advanced Genomics Core’s Illumina NovaSeq 6000 sequencing platform. The AGC is one of the first academic core facilities to optimize this exciting and powerful instrument, that is about the size of a large laser printer. The Advanced Genomics Core (AGC), part of the Biomedical Research Core Facilities within the Medical… Read More »
History of privacy timeline on Safe Computing
Microsoft Teams available for videoconferencing and collaboration
Information and Technology Services (ITS) strives to provide a diverse collaboration portfolio to an increasingly remote campus. With the upcoming retirement of BlueJeans, ITS has launched Microsoft Teams as an additional videoconferencing option to Zoom at U-M and Google Meet. In addition to videoconferencing, Microsoft Teams is another collaboration tool option offered by ITS that helps people stay… Read More »
Michigan Medicine completes transition to VoIP phone service
Tax fraud prevention tips
Beware! It’s that time of the year again! As you read this, criminals, fraudsters, and identity thieves could be working to file fraudulent tax returns in your name and steal your tax refund. ITS Information Assurance (IA) offers the following tips to help you protect yourself from identity theft and tax fraud: File your taxes as soon as… Read More »
Protect your U-M VPN connection with Duo
Tech Tip: Visualping
This month’s tip is an online tool to help you monitor changes on websites. Maybe you are waiting for an article to be updated, a paper to be published, a news item to refresh, or simply for an out-of-stock product to be available again. Visualping will send you an email or other notification when it detects changes in… Read More »
Securely dispose of your old tech
If you are adding or upgrading to new tech devices, you might have old ones that you, or U-M unit, are ready to dispose of. Old disks, flash drives, smartphones, and computers can all contain personal data, and in some cases, U-M data if you used those devices for work. Keep that data from falling into the wrong… Read More »
U-M rolls out updated ResponsiBLUE app
The ResponsiBLUE application has been updated and expanded for the winter 2021 semester. U-M first launched ResponsiBLUE during the fall 2020 semester to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, aid in circulating public health knowledge, and ensure student safety. University Information and Technology Services developed ResponsiBLUE in partnership with the university leadership and the Office of Research. The app, which… Read More »
Both Tech Shop locations open for pickup
For the 2021 winter term, Tech Shop offers at-the-door pickup service at both campus locations—Michigan Union and Pierpont Commons. Pickup service is available by appointment only; both stores continue to be temporarily closed to in-person shopping at this time. Service at the Pierpont Commons location launched on January 19 and is available on Tuesday and Friday each week.… Read More »
Data for Public Good Symposium, Feb. 25
As a community who supports data intensive research, you know that how we interact with data is ever evolving. Now, more than ever, data for good represents a diverse and interdisciplinary effort to engage, educate, and empower the world around us. Statistics in the Community (STATCOM), the Center for Education Design, Evaluation, and Research (CEDER), and the Community… Read More »
Social exclusion, career limitations hinder LGBTQ STEM professionals
According to new research from U-M, LGBTQ professionals’ pride in their science, technology, engineering, and math work is not reciprocated. These STEM professionals are more likely to experience career limitations, social exclusion and harassment, and devaluation of their scientific and technical knowledge than their non-LGBTQ peers.
Inspired to create: U-M alumnae and the world of international tech start ups
When you think of tech startup companies, what comes to mind? Is it Silicon Valley, black turtlenecks, and billion-dollar IPOs? Or perhaps something about college drop-outs and the proverbial idiosyncrasies of “tech-bro culture”? While stereotypes can be helpful for getting the big picture of things, when you look more closely they’re often misleading caricatures, and this has proven especially true in the case of the tech industry.
Watch: SI’s Cliff Lampe on social media shutdowns
The move by Twitter, Facebook, and Snapchat to remove or suspend President Donald Trump’s accounts and decisions by Google, Apple and Amazon that led to a shutdown of Parler continues to bring questions about the unchecked power of social media and the future of the platforms. Watch the video or read excerpts from the interview with Professor of… Read More »
ITS making improvements with DNS Security Extensions
ITS has begun testing DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC) for use at U-M. If this testing does not present any significant issues, ITS will begin validating signatures at the end of January. Due to the higher level of risk in signing our DNS records, ITS does not plan to start signing our DNS records until later in the year.… Read More »
Dell to be U-M’s new strategic supplier for computer hardware
Dell Technologies has been selected as U-M’s new strategic supplier for computer hardware, which includes laptops, PCs, monitors, keyboards and other equipment. The new contract goes into effect Jan. 18 and replaces the current HP contract. Dell was selected by a cross-functional team composed of representatives from the Ann Arbor, Dearborn and Flint campuses as well as Michigan… Read More »
Does Canvas allow faculty to track students online?
Learning management systems like Canvas allow faculty to see some student activity. But UM-Dearborn’s Coordinator of Digital Education Chris Casey says it’s far from being a surveillance system. The rumor he hears most often is that faculty can see if students open other browser tabs or websites outside of Canvas. “This one is definitely false,” Casey says, noting… Read More »
ITS makes data management easier with launch of Denodo at U-M
The University of Michigan, as a public research institution, houses an incredible amount of data. One of the struggles that leaders and analysts face is how to easily pull together data from the vast number of sources currently available to help gain insights on many topics and improve decision making. That work just got a bit easier. In… Read More »
How computer science is changing education
U-M researchers are taking on the big challenges to integrating computing into everyone’s education: Under a grant from the National Science Foundation, Mark Guzdial, professor of electrical engineering and computer science, and his colleagues have launched a program that integrate the use of task-specific computer science tools that will allow high school students to build data visualizations into… Read More »