Category Archives: Top Stories

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2017 Michigan IT Symposium wrap-up

Over 560 IT staff from U-M’s four campuses filled the Michigan League this past November to develop skills, form and strengthen working relationships, and showcase how their work contributes to moving U-M forward as part of the 2017 Michigan IT Symposium.   After the event, 216 attendees provided their feedback on what worked well and what they’d like to… Read More »

New social login service supports guest access

A new Identity and Access Management (IAM) service is a gamechanger in helping the Alumni Association fulfill its mission to connect alumni with services that nurture an ongoing relationship with the university. “Using social login allows the Alumni Association to overcome the single biggest barrier for providing alumni access to our online services and alumni benefits,” says Andre… Read More »

ITS offers new cloud vendor choices

For several years, Information and Technology Services (ITS) offered Amazon Web Services (AWS) at U-M as its sole cloud computing IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) offering. That is changing. U-M recently signed enterprise agreements to offer Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform (GCP). The addition of these industry leading vendors provides a strong foundation of cloud computing solutions, and will enable… Read More »

EHR prompts improve chronic disease management and preventive care

Something exciting is happening at Michigan Medicine. And U-M patients are benefiting. In recent months, the screening rate for depression symptoms in patients who had diagnosis of depression in last 12 months rose from 10 percent to nearly 70 percent. The rate of lung cancer screenings in smokers doubled. And the hepatitis C screening rate improved fivefold among… Read More »

Digital Wolverines: The LSA Summer Reads experience

During the summer of 2017, in lieu of a more traditional “summer reads” program, the College of Literature, Science and the Arts launched an experiment in online, interactive, and collaborative explorations of citizenship and diversity in a digital age. Because issues of free speech, safe spaces, inclusion, intellectual diversity, and identity-based marginalization continue to create divisions and challenges… Read More »

Collaboration creates new digital signage that engages, informs Michigan Medicine community

As one of the largest health care systems in the world, communication to the more than 26,000 Michigan Medicine employees is not always easy. “As an organization, we are continuously looking for new channels to communicate important news and updates to employees,” said Kathleen McCool, employee communications manager with the Michigan Medicine Department of Communication. “Email is not… Read More »

Coding and tech comics & coloring books

We are coming up quickly on the winter break, with families gathered and children out of school. With that in mind, it might be fun to have some some (slightly eccentric?) options for family activities and young folk distractions. Even better if these are options that promote learning, or just understanding more about what the old folks do… Read More »

Girls Are IT! STEAM JAM 2017 hosted at UM-Dearborn

By | December 12, 2017

The UM-Dearborn Career Center hosted Girls Are IT! STEAM JAM 2017 on October 18. This half-day workshop targeted 50 middle school (grade 6-8) girls from Detroit Public Schools Community District. UM-Dearborn, Detroit Public Schools Community District, and Ford Motor partnered to deliver educational opportunities in STEAM for these students. These highly committed and cohesive teams worked together to… Read More »

They did it! Women of Michigan IT contribute to world record

On October 14, 2017, more than 3,700 women and girls dressed as the iconic Rosie the Riveter—dark blue work clothes, red socks, and the effervescent, red-and-white polka-dot bandana. Together, they set a new world record of the most people dressed as Rosie the Riveter gathered in one place. Kudos to all Michigan IT staff who participated! Here’s what some… Read More »

As Michigan Medicine grows, so does the need for technology

The first thing you notice when entering West Ann Arbor-Parkland Plaza health center might be the welcome desk, floor-to-ceiling windows, or charming artwork. It probably isn’t the WiFi access points, label printers, or network cables. Randy Smith, a network architect with Health Information Technology & Services (HITS), knows how integral that technology is to the health center’s day-to-day… Read More »

UM-Flint completes successful phishing awareness campaign

By | November 21, 2017

From July to September of this year, University of Michigan-Flint ITS, supported by the U-M Information Assurance Office (IA), conducted an awareness campaign on campus that resulted in a significant decrease in the number of users who fell for simulated phish emails. In addition to IA support, UM-Flint ITS groups that were also instrumental in this process included… Read More »

LSA Gateway: Faculty and staff portal to the college

Historically the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (LSA) used its public web site for some content that ideally would have gone to department- or college-level intranet sites, if those sites had existed. This past summer, using the same web content management software as our public web site — Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) — LSA Web Services… Read More »

10 things to do at the Michigan IT Symposium

Registration is open for the 2017 Michigan IT Symposium, November 20–21, 2017. The event, which offers a great opportunity for networking with peers and making new connections, will take place at the Michigan League on the Ann Arbor campus The 2017 symposium will focus on how IT work at Michigan is transforming with the proliferation of cloud technologies… Read More »

An Hour of Code can change a life

Computers are everywhere, changing every industry on the planet, but fewer than half of all schools teach computer science. Girls and minorities are severely underrepresented in computer science classes, and in the tech industry. The good news is there are ways to change this situation, and you can help.  U-M groups such as the Women in IT Community… Read More »

Electronic Research Notebook: A tech tool for simplifying research data management

Health Information Technology & Services (HITS) and the Michigan Medicine Office of Research are pleased to announce a new tool that will soon make its mark on Michigan Medicine research: the Electronic Research Notebook (ERN). The ERN will be available at no cost to all Michigan Medicine faculty, students, and staff beginning November 1, 2017. The ERN offers… Read More »

October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month

With massive data breaches like the one at Equifax (what to do if you are affected) constantly in the news, it sometimes feels as if we are under siege and helpless to defend ourselves. Yet we now have more power than ever before to control digital identity and important financial and other sensitive accounts. Take some time this… Read More »