D. Stephanie Dascola, ITS Communications

Stephanie is a marketing and communications specialist senior on the ITS Communications team. Contact her at sdascola@umich.edu.

Author Archives: D. Stephanie Dascola, ITS Communications

U-M Research Computing Package automatic renewal begins July 1 

By | June 2, 2023
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The no-cost bundle of supercomputing resources known as the U-M Research Computing Package (UMRCP) automatically renews for most on July 1.  Provided by Information and Technology Services, the UMRCP offers qualified researchers on all campuses (Ann Arbor, Dearborn, Flint, and Michigan Medicine) with allocations of high-performance computing, secure enclave, and research storage services. (Many units, including Michigan Medicine,… Read More »

Globus can now be used with Armis2 

By | May 24, 2023
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Researchers who have an Armis2 High-Performance Computing account can now move data to and from other Protected Health Information (PHI)-approved systems using Globus File Transfer. (The endpoint is umich#armis2.)  To learn more about your responsibility and approved services, visit the Sensitive Data Guide and the Protected Health Information (PHI) webpage on the Safe Computing Website. Send an email… Read More »

PFAS research in the Michigan mother-infant pairs study, supported by ITS, SPH, MM, AGC

By | May 4, 2023
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PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are a class of chemicals that have been around since the 1940s and became more broadly used in the post-war 1960s era. PFAS are in our homes, offices, water, and even our food and blood. PFAS break down slowly and are difficult to process, both in the environment and our bodies.  Scientific studies… Read More »

Data Den now supports sensitive data

By | April 27, 2023
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Archive page design with collection and storage symbols

Data Den Research Archive is a service for preserving electronic data generated from research activities. It is a low-cost, highly durable storage system and is the largest storage system operated by ARC. Storing of sensitive data (including HIPAA and FERPA) is now supported (visit the Sensitive Data Guide for full details). This service is part of the U-M… Read More »

Protein structure prediction team earns high rankings, supported by ITS, HITS, DCMB

By | February 15, 2023
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CASP15 is a bi-annual competition assessment of methods of protein structure modeling. Independent assessors then compared the models with experiments, and the results and their implications were discussed at the CASP15 Conference, held December 2022, in Turkey. A joint team with members from the labs of Dr. Peter Freddolino and Dr. Yang Zhang took first place in the Multimer and Interdomain Prediction categories,… Read More »

Winners of 2022 MichiganCIO of the Year ORBIE Awards announced

By | October 27, 2022
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Pictured from left to right: Carrie Shumaker, Ravi Pendse, and Cathy Curley pose for a photo with their ORBIE awards.

Ravi Pendse, Cathy Curley, and Carrie Shumaker received prestigious ORBIE awards for their IT leadership. Daniel Waltz and Josh Wilda were finalists in the healthcare category. MichiganCIO recognized chief information officers in six key categories – Super Global, Global, Large Enterprise, Enterprise, Corporate, & Healthcare. The awards were at The Henry on October 21.

Long-time ticketing service, MRequest, has retired

By | October 3, 2022
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16 connected honeycomb shapes with icons inside that include a lightbulb, gears, a cloud, and the retirement date of Dec. 2021.

MRequest (FootPrints) has retired. The service was launched over 18 years ago as a low-cost ticketing and customer-service solution. While it saw substantial use on campus, the service had been working with decreased functionality, obsolete code-base, lack of vendor support, and costly U-M customizations.  As of late 2020, MRequest (FootPrints) was still in use by more than 20… Read More »

UPS battery maintenance process streamlined

By | February 22, 2022
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An orange circle, with a white battery outlined in black, and an orange lightning bolt in the middle of the battery.

Information and Technology Services (ITS) has streamlined the maintenance process for UPS batteries which will increase operational efficiency and improve network reliability.  Effective January 1, ITS will no longer charge a separate fee for UPS battery replacements and units no longer need to obtain separate shortcodes to pay for UPS battery replacements.  The UPS battery fee of approximately… Read More »

Understanding the strongest electromagnetic fields in the universe

By | February 16, 2022
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A simulation of a plasma laser wake.

Alec Thomas is part of the team from the U-M College of Engineering Gérard Mourou Center for Ultrafast Optical Science that is building the most powerful laser in the U.S. Dubbed “ZEUS,” the laser will be 3-petawatts of power. That’s a ‘3’ with 15 zeros. All the power generated in the entire world is 10-terawatts, or 1000 times less than the ZEUS laser.

Yottabyte (Blue) to retire April 2022

By | December 7, 2021
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drawings of computers and cloud overlayed on a computr screen with code

The Yottabyte Research Cloud, powered by Verge.io, provides U-M researchers with high-performance, secure, and flexible computing environments enabling the analysis of data sets, and hosting of databases for research purposes. Yottabyte (Blue) will retire on April 4, 2022. Yottabyte (Maize) for sensitive data will continue to be offered as a service.  To determine if a virtual server is… Read More »

Technology helps preserve Michigan’s musical history and culture

By | December 1, 2021
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From Kentucky bluegrass “noodlin’ and doodlin’” to Louisiana Zydeco to German hurdy-gurdy to East European Klezmer to Indian Manipuri dancing to Native American pow wows, and much more, the Michigan Musical Heritage Project has been documenting Michigan’s folk history and culture since 2014.  The project is led by ethnomusicologist Lester P. Monts, Arthur F. Thurnau professor emeritus of… Read More »

Leveraging technology to improve education outcomes

By | November 10, 2021
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Nicole Wagner Lam

Researchers from U-M campuses and all across the country are using education data provided by the State of Michigan to study a wide variety of topics ranging from the effects of COVID-19 on public school enrollment to the role of neighborhood instability on student educational outcomes to exploring the ways that financial assets can change youth’s lives. An… Read More »