Monthly Archives: August 2018

LSA IT honored for special achievement in GIS

Esri, the global leader in spatial analytics, presented LSA IT with Esri’s Special Achievement in GIS (SAG) Award on July 11 at the annual Esri User Conference. Selected from over 300,000 eligible candidates, LSA IT received the award for its innovative application of mapping, data analytics, and thought leadership in higher-education research and teaching. The SAG Awards are meant… Read More »

U-M GDPR journey discussed at forum

If you’re worried about the impact of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in your unit, take a deep breath and relax. The university has got your back. Sol Bermann, university privacy officer and interim chief information security officer, and David Grimm, associate general counsel, reassured attendees at a July 26 GDPR open forum that—with the help of… Read More »

Introducing LSA Technology Services

On August 23, 2018, the College of LSA announced the creation of LSA Technology Services, a new organization that unites the LSA Information Technology, Instructional Support Services, Management and Information Systems, and Web Service teams into a single, cohesive unit. Andrew D. Martin, dean of LSA, and Cathy Curley, chief information officer of LSA, made the announcement. “This… Read More »

You’re invited: Celebrate Campus WiFi projects Sept. 7

Please join us to celebrate the completion of the Campus WiFi Upgrade and WiFi on the Diag projects. Because of these projects, WiFi was upgraded in over 250 buildings on the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor campus and made WiFi available on the Diag for the first time. All are welcome to attend! Steps of Hatcher Graduate Library 913… Read More »

Duo can remember you for seven days

Now you can get the security benefits of two-factor for Weblogin with fewer login prompts. The Duo Remember Me time was extended from 12 hours to seven days on August 25. Remember to select the checkbox if you want Duo to remember you. You’ll see the Remember Me checkbox when you log in to a U-M site or… Read More »

ITS v. HITS Backpack Challenge has its winner: the kids!

A friendly challenge ITS issued to HITS this summer became a huge win for local school children! The goal was donate 100 backpacks filled with school supplies. The challenge results far exceeded the goal, resulting in 160 fully loaded backpacks for local grade and middle school students. HITS had an amazing first year with the Backpack Challenge, surpassing… Read More »

Bringing online harassers to justice

By | August 24, 2018

Online harassment usually originates from deviants operating in dark corners of  the internet. But research shows that, more and more, anyone online is capable of becoming a troll. Efforts to curb this behavior have not been effective because they approach the problem with the wrong tools, says Sarita Schoenebeck, assistant professor of information at the School of Information (UMSI).… Read More »

ELI Annual Meeting: Call for proposals closes Sept. 6

By | August 23, 2018

The EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) Annual Meeting provides an opportunity for those interested in learning, learning principles and practices, and learning technologies to explore, network, and share. For those interested, the meeting’s Call for Proposals closes on September 6. All submitted proposals are reviewed and evaluated by ELI and at least three peer reviewers. Presenters will be notified by… Read More »

Fake news detector developed at U-M works better than a human

By | August 22, 2018

An algorithm-based system that identifies telltale linguistic cues in fake news stories could provide news aggregator and social media sites like Google News with a new weapon in the fight against misinformation. Led by computer science and engineering professor Rada Mihalcea, the U-M researchers who developed the system have demonstrated that it’s comparable to and sometimes better than humans… Read More »

2018 NMC Horizon Report now available from EDUCAUSE

By | August 22, 2018

For more than a decade, EDUCAUSE has partnered with the New Media Consortium (NMC) to publish the annual Horizon Report – Higher Education Edition. Earlier this year, EDUCAUSE acquired the rights to the NMC Horizon project, which identifies and describes the higher education trends, challenges, and developments in educational technology likely to have an impact on learning, teaching, and creative… Read More »

Beyond the classroom: ISS has deep roots in the Ann Arbor community

LSA Instructional Support Services has a professional staff of 53 full-time employees that strives to provide exceptional and professional support for the integration of new technologies, methods, and content into courses across LSA. ISS is also responsible for the audio/visual, computing, and technology needs of all of LSA’s classrooms, auditoriums, and event spaces, as well as most of… Read More »

Researchpalooza 2018

Games, prizes, and a T-Rex. Researchpalooza was the largest-ever! More than 4,000 faculty and staff perused 91 different offices and labs that serve biomedical research across campus. HITS was on hand to showcase their at-the-elbow support with “Help Me Now.” They were alongside the Research Engagement team who shared IT solutions and MiChart Research staff who helped guests… Read More »

China’s ‘Big Brother’: New surveillance system rates citizens’ behavior

By | August 17, 2018

If your quality of life depended on a surveillance-focused rating system that tracked your behavior, how would you fare? In a newly published study, U-M researcher Muzammil Hussain and his doctoral students analyzed the processes and stakeholders involved in China’s Social Credit System (SCS)—a new punishment/reward program that uses scores to determine whether citizens and organizations are able… Read More »

Intel processor vulnerability could put millions of PCs at risk

By | August 17, 2018

 Researchers at U-M were part of a group that discovered a new processor vulnerability that could potentially put secure information at risk in any Intel-based PC manufactured since 2008. It could affect users who rely on a digital lockbox feature known as Intel Software Guard Extensions, or SGX, as well as those who utilize common cloud-based services,… Read More »

Beware of ransomware. And don’t pay the ransom!

Ransomware is malicious software that can infect and encrypt files on your computers and other devices, preventing you from accessing them. Criminals use it to threaten victims with loss of their data unless they pay ransom in return for a “key” to unlock their folders, files, and devices. Ransomware typically gets on devices when people open infected email… Read More »

Equifax data breach: Consumers knew but took little action

By | August 15, 2018

When the Equifax data breach impacting nearly 147 million people occurred just over a year ago most consumers took little to no action to protect themselves despite the risk of identity theft, U-M researchers found. In comprehensive interviews with 24 consumers, a team of researchers at the School of Information led by Yixin Zou and Florian Schaub found… Read More »

First U-M Tableau Symposium August 27

By | August 14, 2018

The Information Quest team would like to invite you to the first ever U-M Tableau Symposium. Spend the afternoon building your Tableau skills and networking with other members of the university Tableau community, including the Michigan Medicine Analytics and Business Intelligence Team (ABI). Tableau (http://myumi.ch/6kZ8R) is a powerful tool used for business intelligence, data visualization, and analytics. U-M… Read More »