Category Archives: Top Stories

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A look back at the 2018 Michigan IT Symposium

Now in its fifth year, the Michigan IT Symposium continues to be the premiere event that brings together IT staff throughout the university to share ideas, meet new people, and reconnect with former colleagues. This year, more than 425 IT professionals from across U-M came together on November 28–29, to celebrate the expertise, innovation, and talents of the… Read More »

My Learning Analytics offers new insights to learners

ITS Teaching and learning (T&L) is partnering with the School of Information (SI) and the School of Education (SOE) to develop learning analytics tools aimed at improving student performance. Equipped with evidence from past learning dashboard efforts, research faculty and graduate students in SI and SOE have been working with development staff from T&L on designing —and then… Read More »

Profiles in IT: Marissa Taylor ― DEI champion

Michigan IT News recently interviewed Marissa Taylor about her work for the Center for Education Outreach (CEO) within the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). Taylor, now a program manager of communication and technology at the CEO, began her career in IT three years ago when she was a graduate student at the U-M School of Information… Read More »

DIY web accessibility testing tools & practices

By | November 28, 2018

You need not be an expert in digital or web accessibility to perform some low-threshold testing which will likely identify many high incidence issues in your EIT (electronic information technology). Technology requiring testing will include, but isn’t limited to, web apps, web pages, blog posts, etc. And remember the golden rule: A little testing throughout the process is… Read More »

HITS partners with WCC to offer apprenticeship for aspiring IT professionals

Apprenticeships are typically associated with the skilled trades. You might first think of a plumber or electrician apprentice? Or maybe a welder or carpenter? That convention is changing and a recent apprenticeship program created by Washtenaw Community College and Michigan Medicine to help attract and train aspiring information technology professionals is advancing the cause. Michigan Medicine’s recently launched Service Desk Apprenticeship Program pays entry-level… Read More »

Profiles in IT: A special Veterans Day edition

Military training prepares veterans for a career in IT by requiring technical proficiency, while teaching about teamwork, tenacity, leadership, and more. Veterans’ diverse backgrounds and knowledge demonstrate attention to detail, perseverance, and vibrancy focused on creating brighter futures at the University of Michigan. This Veterans Day, November 11, 2018, we are especially thankful for their service, and are appreciative… Read More »

U-M Information Security policy: Revised and approved

The revised University of Michigan Information Security policy (SPG 601.27) recently was approved, along with a number of new information technology standards. The policy and accompanying standards represent the most comprehensive revision of the institution’s information security program since its inception over a decade ago. SPG 601.27 and the standards are based on a cybersecurity risk management framework that… Read More »

Volunteers needed! An Hour of Code can inspire possibilities

Part of the mission of the U-M Women in IT Community of Practice is to help build the pipeline of women IT professionals. As such, the CoP is calling for volunteers from the U-M community to support the Hour of Code at Ann Arbor Public Schools December 3-7 to help introduce all students to computer science. Anyone can… Read More »

Everyone has a role in accessibility. Here are some quick tips.

By | October 22, 2018

  Accessibility efforts are only successful at large institutions and organizations if the efforts being made are scalable; what this means in context is each individual must take ownership in their portion of responsibility to accomplish these goals. In an effort to educate about high-incidence accessibility issues and spread awareness of accessibility efforts, ITS has come up with Accessibility… Read More »

IT leaders gather for day of learning, networking at U-M

IT leaders from U-M and peer academic research universities from the Midwest spent a day of learning and networking at the Michigan League. The Office of the Vice President for IT and Chief Information Officer partnered with Gartner, Inc. to host the Great Lakes IT Leadership Forum on Thursday, September 20, 2018. Ravi Pendse, vice president for IT… Read More »

Discovering new efficiencies and savings through data center consolidation

Vaccinations, early detection, and new cures have led to incredible medical breakthroughs over the past several decades. Today, advancements in precision health, wearable technology, genetic sequencing, and big data analytics promise to reshape modern medicine even further. A critical, yet often overlooked factor in the advancement of healthcare is the underlying health IT infrastructure. As Michigan Medicine faces… Read More »

Participate in National Cybersecurity Awareness Month this October!

Every October, Information Assurance (IA) leads a celebration of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month (NCSAM) by hosting events, sharing tips, and reminding everyone of our shared responsibility to protect and secure university and personal systems and the sensitive information they contain. NCSAM is spearheaded by the National Cyber Security Alliance and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. This year,… Read More »

It’s a wrap! Campus WiFi Upgrade and WiFi on the Diag are complete

On Friday, September 7, 2018, ITS held a ribbon cutting ceremony on the steps of Hatcher Graduate Library, in the iconic central Diag, to mark the completion of two projects: the Campus WiFi Upgrade Project and WiFi on the Diag. The event began with remarks from Vice President of Information Technology and CIO, Ravi Pendse. Pendse reviewed the… Read More »

U-M hosts hackathon to lead development of next gen learning analytics platform

On August 2-3, U-M hosted eight of our peer institutions from the Unizin consortium, as well as developers from Google, to participate in a hackathon using the newly developed Unizin Data Platform (UDP). The UDP is a cloud-based, learning analytics infrastructure that commonly models behavioral, performance, and demographic dimensions of teaching and learning data. Participants used a representational… Read More »