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A message from VPIT-CIO Ravi Pendse
My vision is that U-M will be a leader in the appropriate use of technology among our peers and in the world. From your perspective, what can we do to be #1 on this list?
Everyone has a role in accessibility. Here are some quick tips.
Accessibility efforts are only successful at large institutions and organizations if the efforts being made are scalable; what this means in context is each individual must take ownership in their portion of responsibility to accomplish these goals. In an effort to educate about high-incidence accessibility issues and spread awareness of accessibility efforts, ITS has come up with Accessibility… Read More »
New BlueJeans desktop app includes modern interface, more features
BlueJeans’ updated desktop app is designed for speed and simplicity. A visual refresh brings an interface that is modern and intuitive.
Own a Google Site? Now is the time to think about converting to new Sites
As first announced on July 18, Google has provided an automatic migration tool to transfer from Google “classic” Sites to new Sites. “Although Google has not yet announced a date to end classic Sites, we strongly encourage you to start preparing now to convert your classic Sites,” says Brian Cors, ITS service manager for U-M Google. “This will help avoid… Read More »
Device rationalization for Michigan Medicine
Michigan Medicine has flagged around 4,000 general computing devices (laptops and desktop workstations) that are in use for under 60 minutes a day. They represents roughly ten percent of the entire hardware fleet. If even half of these low use, non-critical devices can be removed from the environment, Michigan Medicine will be able to save more than $1.4… Read More »
Nov. 16: Tech tools for teaching demos and strolling breakfast
Friday, November 16, 8:30–10:30 a.m. Join us for 25 interactive demonstrations of educational technologies that support teaching and learning, all presented by U-M faculty and staff. This is an exciting opportunity to learn how these technologies are being used in a variety of U-M classes. The event will be held in a team based classroom where each session… Read More »
Tech Tip: Unsplash provides free, beautiful photos
Unsplash is a huge online library of completely free-to-use, high-resolution images. Until recently, I found it rather difficult to locate images that did not require some sort of license. Even using Google’s “usage rights” advanced search feature did not give me the best results and sometimes the license information was incorrect. Now, Unsplash has become my primary image… Read More »
IT leaders gather for day of learning, networking at U-M
IT leaders from U-M and peer academic research universities from the Midwest spent a day of learning and networking at the Michigan League. The Office of the Vice President for IT and Chief Information Officer partnered with Gartner, Inc. to host the Great Lakes IT Leadership Forum on Thursday, September 20, 2018. Ravi Pendse, vice president for IT… Read More »
Discovering new efficiencies and savings through data center consolidation
Vaccinations, early detection, and new cures have led to incredible medical breakthroughs over the past several decades. Today, advancements in precision health, wearable technology, genetic sequencing, and big data analytics promise to reshape modern medicine even further. A critical, yet often overlooked factor in the advancement of healthcare is the underlying health IT infrastructure. As Michigan Medicine faces… Read More »
Academic Innovation offers Communities of Practice
Each academic term and year, the Office of Academic Innovation hosts communities of practice any faculty or staff may join. Current offerings are listed below. Gameful Learning Community of Practice: Gameful teaching is a pedagogical approach that takes inspiration from how good games function and applies that to the design of learning environments. Gameful seeks to support students’ intrinsic… Read More »
CoE’s Todd Austin recognized for outstanding achievements
Computer Science and Engineering professor Todd Austin, a recognized leader in the area of computer architecture research, was recently recognized with the University of Michigan’s Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award, which honors senior faculty who have consistently demonstrated outstanding achievements in the areas of scholarly research or creative endeavors, teaching and mentoring of students and junior faculty, service, and a… Read More »
Keep your personal software up-to-date
We all should be in the habit of keeping our software up-to-date. This is necessary because vendors and others regularly identify security vulnerabilities in software and apps, and then release updates and patches to fix them. Additionally, keeping your software current enables you to take advantage of other improvements, such as better performance or new functionality. Personal computers… Read More »
U-M tool measures ‘iffy’ news on social media
As the mid-term election approaches, the U-M Center for Social Media Responsibility offers media and the public a tool to help monitor the prevalence of fake news on social media through a Platform Health Metric called the Iffy Quotient. Housed in the U-M School of Information, the center’s first report confirms from a deep analysis what was suspected… Read More »
A champion for women in computer science
Rada Mihalcea, professor of computer science and engineering, was selected as the Center for the Education of Women’s 2018 Carol Hollenshead Award recipient for her work to increase the pipeline and retention of women in engineering and computer science. Mihalcea has dedicated substantial effort to developing programs that introduce more women to the world of computing and encourage them to pursue… Read More »
Michigan Online: “Here to Learn” — Together
Some of Michigan’s most innovative strategies for online learning are based on values held throughout its 200-plus year history. In an interview with “Campus Technology” magazine, James DeVaney, U-M’s associate vice provost for academic innovation, explains why Michigan Online — a relatively recent initiative — brings communities of motivated learners together, both to learn together and to apply their knowledge to solving significant problems.… Read More »
Turn on two-factor for your personal accounts
Many popular services and websites offer two-factor authentication. Information Assurance (IA) encourages you to turn it on whenever it’s available to protect your personal accounts. Duo may be an option If you already use the Duo Mobile app for two-factor at U-M, you might be able to use it with your personal, non-university accounts. If a service’s instructions… Read More »
WebNow and Perceptive Content system compatibility update
WebNow, also known as Perceptive Content, will not work with some newer operating system versions and with certain browsers. WebNow is the university’s document imaging system, which can be used to upload and store documents as electronic files in a secure online environment. These system limitations will be eliminated after the system is upgraded this summer. More information… Read More »
Cavium ThunderX delivers 10x Big Data performance increase
Recently, ARC-TS and the School of Information used the new Big Data platform Cavium ThunderX to reduce run times of the school’s analytics pipeline by a factor of 10, taking overall run time from almost a week to only a few hours. Cavium ThunderX is a free-to-use Big Data platform for researchers at U-M. Currently ThunderX supports mapreduce, Spark,… Read More »
U-M makes waves at Tapia 2018
Eight U-M students from Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) got the chance to network and celebrate diversity in computing at the 2018 Richard Tapia Conference, which took place in Orlando, Florida September 19–22. This year’s conference theme was “Diversity: Roots of Innovation,” acknowledging the historical role of diversity in STEM innovation and its essential role in innovating the… Read More »
Michigan Medicine announces launch of Michigan Healthcare Security Operations Center
With the launch of the Michigan Healthcare Security Operations Center, Michigan Medicine is among the first in the nation working with four other healthcare organizations to continuously monitor and improve cybersecurity. The MI-HSOC is a group of highly-skilled teams that leverage shared technologies, process, and skills to prevent, detect, analyze, and respond to cybersecurity events. The new shared environment,… Read More »
Bots, Part One: Of bots, and bleeps, and other things
Last December, I was turned on to the importance of bots while attending the Mayo Clinic Social Media Network (MCSMN) Annual Meeting in Arizona. Since then, I’ve been digging into the topic, trying to learn more, and hoping to get a bot implemented on our departmental website, but there is just so much to talk about! We decided… Read More »