Outgoing Michigan IT Chair Kerry Flynn, CIO of Ross School of Business passed the baton to incoming Chair Aubrey Morse, Senior Project Manager, University HR. Photo by Dima Tawakkol, Michigan Medicine, HITS.
Around 200 technology professionals from across the university came together at the in-person Winter Innovation Expo 2024 networking event hosted on the UM-Ann Arbor campus at the Central Campus Classroom Building. Event co-chairs Elizabeth Fomin and Dan Burgess opened with welcoming remarks before turning it over to the Michigan IT chairs.
Outgoing Michigan IT Chair Kerry Flynn, CIO of Ross School of Business, said how the university is fortunate to have this community organization and the critical role it plays in collaboration, innovation, and supporting technology professionals. Over the past year, Michigan IT offered 23 opportunities to explore technology, which had over 500 event participants. We also support 34 Communities of Practice. The opportunities offered by Michigan IT would not be possible without our volunteers. Kerry said, “If you volunteer with Michigan IT, you will make a difference.”
Kerry passed the baton (literally) to incoming Chair Aubrey Morse, Senior Project Manager with University Human Resources, who officially announced the rebranding of Michigan IT as the Michigan Technology Community (MTC – pronounced “M-Tec”). She explained the goal behind the rebranding is to have a more inclusive group that brings in people who work with technology but aren’t in an IT department. Aubrey also welcomed Kenny Moore as her Vice Chair for 2025.
Next, the top four Hacks With Friends (HWF) teams presented their projects, and attendees had the opportunity to vote for the People’s Choice Award, with lunch and open networking following.
During and after lunch, Keynote speaker Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education Angela D. Dillard spoke about what Michigan is doing to bring the National Student Success Movement and the important role that data plays in helping form our strategies for closing equity and opportunity gaps. Our data shows that Michigan’s overall access success is quite high, but not all students are equally well-served. Dr. Dillard highlighted how the Early Momentum strategic initiative is putting into place the academic and social support needed to ensure successful academic outcomes. To stay up to date on U-M’s Student Success initiatives, join the OVPUE Student Success Network MCommunity group.
In the afternoon, attendees had the chance to visit the unique “classroom in the round,” a 360-degree classroom. The instructor teaches from the center of the room. Class slides and videos are displayed on monitors that ring the classroom, making it easy for both instructor and students to see the content from any direction. Screen-sharing technology allows both instructors and students to display content on the screens.
In addition to the “classroom in the round,” attendees browsed the two poster session rooms to network and learn about innovative projects across the university. The 25 posters were entirely digital this year and will be available on the Winter Expo event webpage.
After the classroom tour and poster sessions, attendees reassembled to learn which HWF pitch won the People’s Choice voting award and the judges’ overall award. The four finalist pitches were:
- Pitch #6: Agent Smith: A Community Platform to Build, Clone, and Share AI Agents
- Pitch #7: Empowering Tomorrow’s Leaders Today – Shaping the Perfect Internship Experience Together
- Pitch #11: Extend Maizey to API Directory
- Pitch #14: Documentation Makeover Bot
The winner of both the judges’ choice and the People’s Choice went to the same team: Pitch #11: Extend Maizey to API Directory. Congratulations to Pitch 11 team members! And a big thank you to all HWF teams for sharing your ideas and hard work with the community.
In her closing remarks, Cassandra Callaghan, CIO of the School of Dentistry, noted that data underpins everything we do here. “Innovation is not a single moment. It is a journey.”
A journey is made of many moments, and the Michigan Technology Community committee and Winter Expo planning committee members are grateful to all our in-person and virtual attendees who joined us for this moment on our innovation journey.
Videos from the event, including Angela D. Dillard’s keynote address and Hacks With Friends presentations, will be available on the Winter Expo event website.
