Category Archives: Top Stories

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Bring the power of the HPC clusters to your laptop

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 »

New version of Wolverine Access launched

Visitors to Wolverine Access experienced a new gateway to university systems and resources beginning September 27. The new Wolverine Access makes it easier to find and “bookmark” frequently-used tools and resources within the U-M digital universe, has a mobile-friendly design that is easy to use on all devices, and is built on a more modern and secure platform… Read More »

Ross IT supports hybrid “public health-informed” return to campus

By | September 29, 2020

After supporting the move of students, faculty, and staff to remote learning and working, Ross IT developed plans for a “public health-informed” return to campus for the fall semester. Ross IT engaged with the Ross community to prepare how to transform the classrooms to meet the hybrid academic requirements. The approach involved three principles for design: consistent, standardized,… Read More »

MyLA analytics tools support student learning experiences

Supporting student motivation and self-regulation through online tools has become more important than ever with the shift to remote learning for fall, and My Learning Analytics (MyLA) is ready to help. Designed by U-M faculty Stephanie Teasley and Matt Kay from the School of Information and Stuart Karabenick from the School of Education, in collaboration with Information and… Read More »

Dearborn ITS creates innovative building access screening system

As summer wound down, campus got ready for the fall semester at UM-Dearborn. An Emergency Operations Center directive necessitated restricting campus access to only those students with an on campus class—around 15% of our schedule. To do this efficiently and minimize health risks by reducing time standing in line, we turned to technology. Our reporting tool, WebFocus, produces… Read More »

U-M to retire BlueJeans in 2021

In spring 2020, ITS deployed Zoom videoconferencing to campus and later added large event support, captioning, and PHI-compliant Zoom for Health. Since then, adoption of Zoom has grown exponentially, while the use of BlueJeans has fallen significantly. Additionally, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams are available as part of the U-M academic collaboration suite at no additional cost and… Read More »

Laptop loaner program brings Computing Sites to students

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 »

LSA Technology Services enables hybrid teaching for fall 2020 and beyond

Since late June, when the university announced its decision to have students on campus and enable a combination of in-person, hybrid, and remote classes, LSA Technology Services quickly took action to enable an unprecedented delivery of the LSA liberal arts mission. In two short months, we’ve invested, improved, and implemented technology and services to not only meet the… Read More »

3-2-1…blast off! COE students use ARC-TS HPC clusters for rocket design

The Michigan Aeronautical Science Association (MASA) is a student-run engineering team at U-M that has been designing, building, and launching rockets since its inception in 2003. Since late 2017, MASA has focused on developing liquid-bipropellant rockets—which are rockets that react to a liquid fuel with a liquid oxidizer to produce thrust—in an effort to remain at the forefront… Read More »

Upgraded QTO System is more secure and easier to use

A more secure and user-friendly version of Procurement Services’ Quote-to-Order (QTO) System is now available for the university community. The QTO System allows university employees to, among other things, easily and conveniently obtain estimates—and place orders—from multiple strategic suppliers for a variety of products and services, including printing/mailing, web design, and IT temp staffing. The security enhancements to… Read More »

Profiles in IT: Brandon Werner—Costar for success

Brandon Werner is a screen reader specialist at the University of Michigan, where he ensures blind students have what they need in order to be successful in life and throughout college. Alongside his work as a screen reader specialist, Brandon reviews university websites like Canvas and Google to make sure they work with the screen readers and other… Read More »

MIND: Paving the way for a more data-informed campus

With COVID-19 changing the landscape of how higher-education and other areas of our society operate, gaining important insights from data is more important than ever. As U-M begins a historical public health-informed in-residence semester, the Michigan Insights on Demand (MIND) team at Information and Technology Services (ITS) continues to make strides in building and enhancing the ecosystem needed… Read More »

Save the date! 2020 Michigan IT Virtual Symposium

Mark your calendars for the Michigan IT Virtual Symposium, November 10-12, 2020. That’s right. “Virtual.” The pandemic has changed our approach in planning for the 2020 Michigan IT Symposium. Due to constraints regarding a face-to-face event, the planning committee has worked with the Michigan IT Steering committee to develop the framework for a rich and rewarding virtual experience. … Read More »

What to do if you’re in a meeting that gets Zoombombed

Most people by now are familiar with the steps necessary to make their own videoconferences secure. But what should you do if you happen to be participating in a videoconference that experiences some type of interruption, such as a Zoombomb.  Disruptions can include anything from the mundane – barking dog or crying children, unintentional screen sharing, or dissonant noises… Read More »

Amid restricted visitor policies, Zoom and FaceTime are a lifeline

It goes without saying that COVID-19 changed many things at Michigan Medicine. One major change has been the restricted hospital visitor policy, significantly limiting the number of people and time visitors can spend with a patient. For clinicians, this has upended patient-family communications, typically conducted face-to-face.  “Not being able to share information with families in-person has been a… Read More »