Tag Archives: COVID-19

We have temporarily added a new section so readers can more easily find IT news related to the COVID-19 pandemic. We are also maintaining a list of unit-level updates re: IT operations and resources. Have a story or kudo about how IT staff has helped transition the university to working remotely? Contact us or use our submission form to tell us about it.

Watch: How predictive modeling could help us reopen more safely

By | May 14, 2020

Increasingly specific social distancing questions are weighing on states and municipalities as they inch toward relaxing COVID-19 restrictions. Now, a team of computer science and medical researchers based at U-M is working on a tool that could provide more precise answers. The team is mashing up census data, virus transmission rates, and decades of social science research to… Read More »

U-M celebrates Class of 2020 with day of online tributes, social media

By | May 5, 2020

U-M leaders, alumni, notables join in pandemic-altered virtual party Congratulatory video messages and other virtual activities replaced traditional commencement ceremonies as the University of Michigan community celebrated the Class of 2020 online amid the coronavirus pandemic.  President Mark Schlissel, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, university deans, notable alumni and many others were part of a daylong online… Read More »

ITS moves quickly to take campus into new normal

By | May 1, 2020

When President Mark Schlissel announced last month that the balance of the winter semester would be conducted in alternate, virtual forms as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, all university units were quick to respond. Information and Technology Services had been actively preparing for such a situation for almost a month, in partnership with university leadership and IT leaders… Read More »

ITS offers online Canvas workshops

ITS Teaching & Learning is hosting a series of live Canvas workshops called “Teaching Online with Canvas Workshops: From Good to Great.” Sessions are held daily at noon. Topics will change based on need and interest. Please share this information with faculty and staff in your units who might be interested. Visit the Canvas training page to register. All sessions are… Read More »

Virtual care at Michigan Medicine explodes amid COVID-19 pandemic

By | April 30, 2020

On March 9, Michigan Medicine treated its first COVID-19 patient, one of two in the state, prompting Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to mandate that non-essential workers “Stay Home and Stay Safe.” To Michigan Medicine ambulatory care clinics, this meant deferring all in-person, non-critical appointments and elective surgeries, creating a backlog of appointments that pushed virtual care to the forefront.… Read More »

K-12 online learning platform from U-M sees dramatic rise in use

By | April 29, 2020

The Collabrify Roadmap Platform, a set of free, customizable digital learning tools developed by the Center for Digital Curricula at the College of Engineering, provides K-12 teachers with scheduling templates that can be customized to include all the activities that would normally take place in their classrooms. Created last summer as a supplemental tool to make educational resources… Read More »

LSA Technology Services shines in the midst of pandemic prep

Technology professionals do their best every day to deliver reliable and innovative services to faculty, students, and staff. Sometimes they work on their own, sometimes as a team, and often in collaboration with other campus IT units. The LSA Technology Services team rose to new heights in response to changes in the last half of March, from the… Read More »

Retooled computer science course goes all-COVID, all-online

By | April 22, 2020

A COVID-era redesign of a long-running computer science undergraduate course will put up to 120 U-M computer science and engineering students to work designing software to tackle problems related to the crisis during the 2020 spring/summer semester. Computer science and engineering lecturer David Chesney has run the class for years as an in-person offering called “Software for Accessibility.”… Read More »

Summer orientation programs for incoming students to transition online

By | April 21, 2020

In light of the coronavirus outbreak, U-M summer student orientation, which is mandatory for all first-year and transfer students, is moving online. The switch to online orientation will affect the ability of students to visit campus and meet other students. Ann Hower, director of the Office of New Student Programs, said the office is preparing intensively to provide an excellent experience… Read More »

Working remotely at Ross: A school mobilizes in response to a pandemic

By | April 21, 2020

Like so many across campus, including the Ross School of Business, the priority was the safety and well-being of their faculty, students, and staff, followed by their academic mission. Using those principles as a guide, the Ross IT team sprang into action to ensure that their community had the tools they needed to successfully continue teaching and learning. … Read More »

Building better coronavirus databases with automatic quality checks

By | April 20, 2020

Amid a growing coronavirus crisis, experts in all fields have begun compiling massive datasets to track the impact of the contagion. To make constructing these datasets as accurate and timely as possible, Michael Cafarella, professor of computer science and engineering, is leading an NSF-funded project that will build high-quality auxiliary datasets to enable automatic quality checking and fraud… Read More »

Computer scientists employ AI to help address COVID-19 challenges

By | April 16, 2020

The coronavirus pandemic has changed the world around us and is affecting our health, our economy, our social interactions, and so much more. Faculty and students affiliated with the AI Lab in Computer Science and Engineering have partnered with clinicians and experts from other disciplines to bring their expertise to assist with the outbreak and to help find… Read More »

Live public street cams are tracking social distancing

By | April 10, 2020

With advanced computer vision models and live public street cam video, a U-M startup is tracking social distancing behaviors in real time at some of the most visited places in the world. Voxel51’s new tool uses the company’s existing platform and underlying custom AI to continuously track vehicle, cyclist, and pedestrian traffic at seven locations around the world, and… Read More »

Virtual solutions: Four stories of challenge and opportunity

By | April 9, 2020

As universities around the country transitioned to online instruction, faculty and staff members had to quickly change how they teach and work. The shift has been filled with challenges, but also new opportunities. The University Record recently featured stories about how four faculty made the quick transition to remote teaching: Ginger Shultz’s chemistry students would no longer have… Read More »

Dearborn ITS steps up to help campus transition to remote work

Dearborn Information Technology Services began an all-hands exercise in response to the changing landscape of COVID-19 the week of March 9. We had two main concerns when the possibility of the campus going completely remote was looking like it was going to become a reality.  The first challenge was keeping the Service Desk running so we could accept… Read More »

U-M Library in-copyright books now available online through HathiTrust

In-copyright books in the U-M library collection are now fully searchable and readable online via the HathiTrust Emergency Temporary Access Service. This service, which was turned on early this week for all authenticated U-M affiliates, makes fully 60% of the library’s physical book collection searchable and readable online on a temporary basis during the COVID-19 crisis. The HathiTrust website offers information about… Read More »

All in a day’s work: HITS’ COVID-19 response

COVID-19 turned all of our personal and professional lives upside down. For Michigan Medicine, the HITS team has proved they are up to the challenge, coming together to solve problems, support customers, launch ingenious solutions, and take care of one another.  Innovative service In the first two weeks of remote work, the Service Desk fielded over 4,000 telework… Read More »

Technology for the win: How MARI met the needs of clients and staff in a time of coronavirus

If organizations are learning one thing in this time of coronavirus, it’s that necessity remains the mother of not just invention but also innovation. U-M’s Mary A. Rackham Institute (MARI) has been quick to adopt technological tools amidst coronavirus chaos. MARI, an organization that provides mental health, testing, and language and literacy services to the U-M community as… Read More »