Author Archives: D. Stephanie Dascola, ITS Communications
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 »
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 »
On-the-go access to the Virtual Sites software catalog has been improved with faster loading times, more storage, better graphics capability, and more virtual machines. Virtual Sites, powered by Information and Technology Services (ITS), offers remote access to a broad range of software that is also available at Campus Computing Sites like the “Fishbowl.” Virtual Sites has been enhanced… Read More »
In October we reported that, along with other security tools like Virtru at U-M, CrowdStrike Falcon was being rolled out across the university on UM-owned machines. Falcon provides antivirus, anti-malware, and threat detection and mitigation capabilities, all of which offer stronger protection against ransomware and other malicious attacks than previous tools. Deployment update CrowdStrike Falcon has been deployed… Read More »
To support academic discovery, ARC-TS will offer Great Lakes High-Performance Computing Cluster for classroom use for the 2020-2021 academic year. Each course can have $100 per student for HPC, GPU, Jupyter, and RStudio resources. Great Lakes is the university’s flagship, open-science, high-performance computing cluster. Just one second of computing on the Great Lakes network is the same as… Read More »
Support for Sophos Antivirus installed on U-M machines will end on December 31, 2020. Enhanced Endpoint Protection powered by CrowdStrike replaces Sophos. The Sophos product will continue to work, but will not be updated, and quickly will become deprecated. If you are responsible for managing university Macs, please ensure that you transition them to CrowdStrike Falcon for endpoint… Read More »
A researcher in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (LSA) is pioneering two separate, ongoing efforts for measuring and forecasting COVID-19: pandemic modeling and a risk tracking site. The projects are led by Sabrina Corsetti, a senior undergraduate student pursuing dual degrees in honors physics and mathematical sciences, and supervised by Thomas Schwarz, associate professor of… Read More »
MRequest (FootPrints) is a web-based service that allows central tracking and management of customer support and other issues. It is slated to retire on December 17, 2021. More than 20 U-M schools, colleges, and major administrative units use the service. While primarily used by campus IT departments, campus units have discovered other uses for MRequest (FootPrints) as well. For… Read More »
The Michigan Institute for Data Science (MIDAS) and Information and Technology Services (ITS) recently partnered with Microsoft Azure to offer cloud computing credits to U-M faculty members for both research and teaching projects. Congratulations to the following faculty members who received awards for their projects. Emily Mower Provost, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science, College of… Read More »
Open OnDemand (OOD) is a tool that brings to researchers and students the power of Great Lakes, the university’s flagship open-science, high-performance, computing cluster. Open OnDemand is a way for researchers and students to use a web interface to access the Advanced Research Computing – Technology Services (ARC-TS) Great Lakes and Lighthouse High-Performance Computing (HPC) resources. Because users… Read More »
The pandemic has created new and unique challenges for students. To support a culture of caring and to create safe computing options, ITS developed a new laptop loaner program called “Sites @ Home.” The program provides the best that ITS has to offer: Campus Computing Sites with access to specialized software, a Windows PC, and computers with higher… Read More »
Since August 2019, Advanced Research Computing – Technology Services (ARC-TS), a division of ITS, has been developing a tool that would give researchers and their delegates the ability to directly manage the IT research services they consume from ARC-TS, such as user access and usage stats. The ARC-TS Resource Management Portal (RMP) beta tool is now available for… Read More »
LinkedIn Learning is a leading online learning platform that helps anyone learn business, software, technology, and creative skills to achieve personal and professional goals. Information and Technology Services (ITS) and Organizational Learning (OL) have partnered to provide increased access to LinkedIn Learning for students, staff (including temporary workers), and faculty. “This is an incredibly valuable and strategic tool… Read More »
As more and more events go to a virtual platform, “virtual event fatigue” is also on the rise. Many groups have been either canceling or finding creative ways to deal with the burnout. One alternative conference getting a lot of attention right now Deserted Island DevOps. It’s using the popular video game called Animal Crossing to engage participants.… Read More »
MiWorkspace desktop support specialist associate, Kara Thomas, provides IT support at the Fleming Building to some of the highest-ranking officials at the university. She does it with aplomb and an eye toward mental health well-being. She is active with the ITS and Fleming Building DEI teams, and interested in overall health and general well being. Tell us about… Read More »
Caitlin Dickinson, mapping expert LSA Technology Services, finds joy in learning and discovery, and in using tools to create maps that solve problems. In this MITN interview, she offers tips, tools, and best practices for researchers and fellow map enthusiasts. Tell us about your role as a Geographic Information System (GIS) consultant at LSA. I assist LSA faculty,… Read More »
Michigan IT News recently talked with Nathan Magyar who works as a user experience designer at the Center for Academic Innovation (AI). Magyar takes the AI mission to heart: to design the future of learning through research, innovation, experimentation, and iteration. Tell us about your role. As a user experience (UX) designer for the Center for Academic Innovation,… Read More »
The Enriching Scholarship conference brings together U-M faculty, staff, and students to share best practices and explore new opportunities that enhance teaching, learning, and research. This year’s Enriching Scholarship conference is May 4–7, 2020, on the Ann Arbor campus. There will be more than 100 workshops and seminars presented by faculty, grad students, postdocs, instructional designers, and academic… Read More »
One hundred gigabits per second (Gbps) is the new standard for network speeds when transferring files from the Great Lakes high-performance computing cluster to the Turbo Research Storage service. Why is this significant? Usually network speeds for file transfers are 1Gbps. That’s perfectly fine for most people’s needs. But reaching speeds of 100Gbps represents a new, higher level… Read More »
Advanced Research Computing — Technology Services (ARC-TS) provides advanced, high-performance computing resources to U-M researchers. They recently announced the extension of the free pilot periods for two of its most recently added services: the Great Lakes cluster and the HIPAA-aligned Armis2 cluster. The free pilot for both services has been extended to January 5, 2020. Billing begins on… Read More »