Fall 2021 Conference – IT Professionals Forum

A Virtual IT Professionals Forum with select sessions was presented on November 3 & 4, 2021.

The conference theme, “Ingenuity @ Work”, is about how we’ve invented new ways of working and adapted to changes in our environment. Participants at ITPF learn the innovative ways IT professionals do their jobs and help those who rely on IT.

Explore our theme with friends and colleagues at #ITPF2021 and discuss Ingenuity @ Work through one of these tracks:

All Systems Go
– Hardware, infrastructure, and cloud topics

Imagining the Possibilities
– Software and development, including web and mobile

The Human Connection
– Usability, accessibility, interface design, and human facing roles

Spirit and Opportunity
– Leadership and professional development

Making Flexible Plans
– Innovations and improvisation in the workplace

The Spirit of Exploration
– Anything goes!

Day 1: November 3

9:00am-9:45am: Keynote Address
- Keynote: Next things – Surviving and thriving from tomorrow through ten years out
  Mike Simpson, Director, Infrastructure Systems & Software, Internet2 Network Services
  The last few years have stacked a pandemic and a global economic recession on top of the already-worrying demographic and financial trends affecting higher education. As we come out of the scramble of trying to maintain academic, operational, and personal continuity across the last eighteen months, we have a chance, maybe, to do things differently: with opportunities and incentives in alignment, and a few minutes to breathe, we could make the conscious decision to take lessons learned across this difficult stretch and fundamentally reshape the way we build our organizations, run our teams, and deliver our services. The desire for change isn’t new; talking about how much we’d like to change isn’t new either; what might be different is the moment in history where the environmental conditions are conducive to making that change actually happen.
  Location: Online
10:00am-10:45am: Sessions 1
- Walking the Talk (Cancelled, replaced by Team Dynamix)
  See other session entries
  Scott Genung’s session, Walking the Talk, has been cancelled. We encourage attendees to choose among our other options during this time instead, including the Team Dynamix session which was offered as a replacement.
  Location: Online
  Track: The Spirit of Exploration
- Overcoming Challenges in Large Enrollment LAS Courses with the Canvas API
  Jim Witte, Applied Technologies for Learning in the Arts & Sciences; Mary Jo Licht, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
  LAS 100,101,102,122,399 enroll thousands of freshman and transfer students staffed by over 100 interns, TAs, and instructors. We’ll show how we used the Canvas API to address problems of scale: putting students into groups, adjusting enrollment settings per student, finding enrollment errors, setting assignment due dates.
  Location: Online
  Track: Making Flexible Plans
- Campus Self-Serve Website Options
  Cordelia Geiken, Technology Services; Julieanne Chapman, Technology Services; Robert Slater, Technology Services
  Websites are one of the best ways to communicate with the world about your research group, student organization, grant, unit, your own professional work, or just about any topic you can name. Technology Services makes it easy for you to be up and running with a website that meets all the latest campus brand standards in minutes and even to customize that site to your heart’s content, all without the need to wait in a queue for technology specialists to help you. You can do it yourself! Come learn about publish.illinois.edu (PIE) and cPanel. The two foundational hosting options that let you build a new website, all on your own.
  Location: Online
  Track: Imagining the Possibilities
- Secure Remote Networking Access-An Open Discussion on capabilities and your needs
  Chuck Hayes, Technology Services – Networking; Uros Marjanovic, Technology Services – Networking
  Networking is working hard to stay on the forefront of technology and solutions to bring the “like” and feel of campus to areas not inside our “traditional” borders. We are rethinking how we provide networking services to areas not in our immediate geographic footprint. We would like to provide updates on solutions/relationships that we have seen, have executed, and are evaluating and have an open discussion to help understand what the various needs of our community are so we can continue to build in the correct path.
  Location: Online
  Track: All Systems Go
11:00am-11:45am: Sessions 2
- Lowering barrier to entry to AWS
  Josh Henry; Amy Hovious
  Technology Services and the Cloud Advisory Subcommittee (IT Council) are in the process of testing out a software (Ronin) to help lower barriers to entry to Amazon Web Services (AWS). We will give an overview of the tool and have a discussion around how we can all work together to make the cloud more accessible for campus.
  Location: Online
  Track: All Systems Go
- What Students Want
  James Quisenberry, Student Affairs; Daniel Steward, Sociology
  Our continuing panel returns with four undergraduate students sharing from their experience on the Urbana Campus. Come hear how technology on campus works for them and the challenges they face. This year’s forum will include discussions about how the pandemic has affected the students’ dependence on technology and whether that has been a positive experience or a barrier.
  Location: Online
  Track: The Human Connection
- Campus Drupal Website Framework
  Nate Baxley, College of LAS; Melissa Waller, College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences; Bill Gutierrez, College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences; Tyler Rubach, College of LAS
  The Web Implementation Guidelines Group has been working on several efforts to make building websites on campus easier for everyone. Drupal is a popular CMS on campus and now it’s easier to use than ever. Come learn how to use this easy to deploy, campus branded Drupal solution and what features it brings. Also learn how you can become a part of this cross-collage collaboration and what we are doing to create and maintaining this tool.
  Location: Online
  Track: Imagining the Possibilities
- I Know What You Logged Into Last Summer! IAM Discoveries Using Splunk
  Erik Coleman, Technology Services; Keith Wessel, Technology Services
  Take a tour behind the scenes on some of the data analytics the IAM team does with identity, authentication and authorization logs collected in our Splunk SIEM.
  Location: Online
  Track: The Spirit of Exploration
- Finding the Why.
  Mary Stevens, Technology Services
  Value streams and Wardley maps can be a powerful tool to help understand “The Why”. As we develop technology solutions we should understand “The Why”, and keep that in mind as we develop, deploy, and support our solutions. In this presentation we will explore what a Wardley map is, and why it is a powerful tool. We will also walk through the process of creating a simple value stream, talk about tools to leverage in making value streams and maps, and how to use that value stream to develop a map.
  Location: Online
  Track: The Spirit of Exploration
12:00pm-1:30pm: Lunch, Poster Sessions, Vendor Showcase, and Networking
1:30pm-2:15pm: Sessions 3
- Operational Excellence, Ecosystems…What does it all mean and what is coming next?
  Scott Genung, Technology Services; Chris Tidrick, Gies College of Business; Michael Chan, Engineering IT; James Quisenberry, Student Affairs Technology
  We will use this session on Operational Excellence to discuss the outcomes from the Spring ITPF and how we are seeking to leverage these ideas in support of this initiative. Scott will also provide a very high-level overview of the concepts included within the Huron recommendations as part of this session in an effort to connect all of the dots.
  Location: Online
  Track: The Spirit of Exploration
- Moving Your Training Spaces to Canvas
  Rick Hazlewood, Technology Services at Illinois; Dan Hahn, Technology Services at Illinois
  We have not forgotten all of the training and other spaces people are using on Compass 2g. After focusing on the academic courses this semester, we want to take this time to walk your way through migrating your new employee training spaces, BEAP training, the committee organizations, and other Compass spaces used for committees and departments. We will also show the participants where they can find online help and additional training that they can share with the staff and faculty in their departments and colleges.
  Location: Online
  Track: Imagining the Possibilities
- Unlocking the future: Identifying, paying, and avoiding technical debt
  Glen Shere, Technology Services; Edward Delaporte, Technology Services; Carl Stephens, Technology Services
  Technical debt awareness is an essential aspect of all information technology work. We cover the sources of technical debt, how to pay the debt, how to avoid the debt, and strategies to minimize these costs to the University.
  Location: Online
  Track: All Systems Go
- Campus website theme updates
  Nate Baxley, College of LAS; Laura Hayden, Grainger College of Engineering; Matt Sharkey, Office of Strategic Marketing and Branding; Melissa Waller, College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences
  At the last IT Pro Forum, you heard about the new campus website brand standards. Now hear about the new developments that have happened in the last 6 months. Many new features, improved designs, and more WordPress theme options and a new Drupal theme and framework. Also learn about the webtheme.illinois.edu website where you can stay up to date on the latest developments and get involved with the process.
  Location: Online
  Track: The Human Connection
2:30pm-3:15pm: Sessions 4
- Migrating to Teams: Updates and Information
  Eric Frahm, Technology Services; Dan Vander Pleog, Technology Services; Amy Sass, Technology Services
  We will present current status of the campus migration from Skype for Business to Teams Online and answer any questions or concerns attendees may present.
  Location: Online
  Track: All Systems Go
- How to Do the Work of an Ally
  Candice Solomon-Strutz, Chemistry; Ross Wantland, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion; Cordelia Geiken, Technology Services ; Kelly Delahanty, AITS
  Women in Technology (WIT) and the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion present an overview and best practices for allyship in the workplace. Allyship in the workplace means recognizing the privilege that members of majority groups have in a professional context – and using that privilege to aid in the dismantling of systems and processes that prevent colleagues from having equal opportunities. The panelists will share scenarios and engaging group discussion to aid attendees in being allies to help their departments create and maintain a more inclusive work environment. Remember by helping marginalized employees feel included, recognized and valued, allyship can improve employee engagement and productivity.
  Location: Online
  Track: Spirit and Opportunity
- The future of data and analytics technologies for the University of Illinois
  Dimuthu Tilakaratne, AITS; Rick Getty, AITS; Mike Wonderlich, AITS
  You want data! You need data! And the way you work with data is evolving. The tools you use, need to evolve with you. AITS and your peers are building the roadmap for the next generation of data analytics and business intelligence tools that will become available to you. During this session we will describe the technologies that are being included in the roadmap, what’s been accomplished in this project so far, and future tasks. We invite you to learn more and participate in the analysis.
  Location: Online
  Track: Imagining the Possibilities
- Open-source Campus
  Bradly Alicea, Rokwire Initiative
  As the University campus becomes ever more digitally connected, it enables new forms of collaboration and communication. The Rokwire and Smart, Healthy Communities Initiatives are currently realizing this potential on the University of Illinois campus, a place where open-source has a rich history. Yet to fully realize the promise of this trend, there needs to be a change in IT governance and how the traditional campus is conceived. In this talk, I will discuss a model for the open-source campus and what social changes will enable. The open-source campus is enabled not only by the adoption of a campus app with content relevant to diverse interests, but also by open-source content development that enables open collaboration. An open source campus is then realized by the expression of open collaboration and making the campus into a virtual experience.
  Location: Online
  Track: Imagining the Possibilities
3:30pm-4:15pm: Sessions 5
- Privacy Everywhere at Illinois – the Privacy Office and Building Privacy Culture
  Joe Barnes, CIO; Phil Reiter, CIO / Technology Services; Sheena Bishop, CIO / Tech Services; Kurt Finley, CIO / Tech Services
  The Privacy office facilitates unleashing data in support of student success, innovative research, operational excellence, and use of data to benefit our community and society. Learn about the roadmap for building a culture of Privacy capabilities at Illinois and share some of the challenges and opportunities you face in your daily work. Learn about the proposed Privacy Center, where individuals can see what data is collected about them and plans to enable more controls for managing data. Discuss and provide direction and input to our Privacy office in areas you see as opportunities to support a culture of data privacy and individual autonomy. Learn about the vision and goals to form partnerships and liaisonship across campus in areas of data security and privacy.
  Location: Online
  Track: The Human Connection
- Building Communities of Practice
  Brad Trankina, Facilities and Services; Nate Baxley, LAS
  Are you new to campus? This session can help you connect to 1000 IT Pro’s working across campus who have similar challenges as you and who you can collaborate with to resolve them. Join us for an engaging discussion about Communities of Practice, including how they’re leveraged today, how we could leverage them more in the future, and how they connect us to the bigger campus picture.
  Location: Online
  Track: The Spirit of Exploration
- Core Network Upgrade Plans and Features
  Debbie Fligor, Technology Services; Ben Barkin-Wilkins, Technology Services
  An overview of the design and planning of the 8th Core (backbone) network for the UIUC campus. A look at features, vendors, and other details of the network design, as well as plans for purchase and deployment – what we know so far.
  Location: Online
  Track: All Systems Go
- Managing Permissions as a Tableau Project Leader
  Michael Wonderlich, AITS; Jayesh Patel, AITS
  Tableau Server offers a Project Leader role which will allow units to manage the security permissions within their projects. This provides the option of managing sub-projects and individual workbooks. If a unit needs to manage permissions in greater detail than the standard permissions, then it is important to understand the effect of each permission. Mistakes with permissions can lead to accidentally blocking access to workbooks or exposure of data to an unintended audience. This presentation will be a review of the permissions and recommended practices.
  Location: Online
  Track: Imagining the Possibilities
4:30 PM – 5:00 PM: Closing and Social

Day 2: November 4

10:00am-10:45am: Sessions 1
- AInspector WCAG and Functional Accessibility Evaluator (FAE) updates to support ARIA 1.2
  Jon Gunderson, DRES
  This session will highlight the changes in the OpenAjax evaluation library used in the Functional Accessibility Evaluator (FAE) and AInspector WCAG Firefox extension to implement the new features of the W3C Accessible Rich Internet Application (ARIA) 1.2 and the W3C ARIA in HTML specifications for evaluating web accessibility. Major changes include new rules for identifying elements using an unsupported of states and properties, restrictions on roles that can have an accessible name and restrictions on roles used on some HTML elements. Other changes include updating several existing rules and references to support materials.
  Location: Online
  Track: The Human Connection
- Orphans, Rogues and Sprawl – Managing Cloud Information and Data
  Richard Gegg, AITS – Systems Office/RIMS; Julie Wagner, RIMS
  Tips & Hints for Sanitizing your Virtual office Data Footprint. Practical advice for: – What is Information Sprawl and what should I do with it? – I stored University Data on my Personal PC, now what? – Cleaning up your local drive and downloads folder. – Destroying any physical data (prints) left at home. – Repositories : Xtender, Box, SharePoint, OneDrive & Department shares ( oh my) – File/Folder re-naming, Adoption a good practice. – Where to find RIMS guidance on retention – RIMS training opportunities
  Location: Online
  Track: All Systems Go
- TeamDynamix Q&A and Panel Discussion
  Rob Watson, Technology Services; Jen Anderson, iSchool; Shawn Lee, AITS; Marques Webster, Technology Services; Al Payne, Gies College of Business; Nathan Carpenter, Technology Services
  Q&A/panel
  Location: Online
  Track: The Human Connection
11:00am-11:45am: Sessions 2
- Advanced PDF Remediation: A DIY Case Study
  Lauren Phegley, Research Data Service; Christy Blew, Accessible Media Services (AMS)
  A basic pillar of making accessible PDF’s is to convert from an existing accessible document. But what do you do when that isn’t an option? This presentation will discuss an ongoing Research Data Service project that became convoluted when we realized that there was no simple way to remediate our PDFs. The choice was between submitting educational materials that are not fully accessible or learning how to remediate advanced PDF’s. This presentation will show some of the pitfalls with remediating PDF’s that have no tags or terrible tag structure, and how they were overcome. While this session won’t teach all the tricks to PDF remediation, it is intended to fill in some of the knowledge gaps that most materials on PDF remediation don’t address and show that the complex remediation is not impossible.
  Location: Online
  Track: The Human Connection
- Creating Communities to drive forward Data as an Asset
  Dimuthu Tilakaratne, Administrative Information Technology Services; Tracy Smith, Technology Services; Phil Reiter, Technology Services ; Mary Stevens, Technology Services
  We presented a vision for a future with data as an asset at the Spring ITPF and now we’d like to form a few communities of practice to help make that vision a reality. Please brainstorm with us and your peers for an engaging discussion about how and why data is an asset for our community and how we can explore the various elements that are necessary to create a thriving community of practice focused on data. Encourage data professionals within and beyond IT to join and add their perspectives – bring a friend!
  Location: Online
  Track: Imagining the Possibilities
12:00pm-1:30pm: Lunch, Poster Sessions, Vendor Showcase, and Networking
1:30pm-2:15pm: Sessions 3
- Tools and techniques for developing shared web components libraries
  Matt Sharkey, Office of Strategic Marketing and Branding
  In 2020, a group of designers and developers from UIUC began work on a library of web components, a set of reusable pre-made building blocks for creating websites. We wanted to make it easier for everyone on campus to build sites that were accessible, usable, and on brand. Since then, we’ve launched several versions of this library across multiple platforms, and discovered tools and developed techniques that can help you build a component library of your own.
  Location: Online
  Track: Imagining the Possibilities
- The Secret Sauce to a People-First Culture
  Christina Worthington, AITS
  Your grandma’s famous blackberry pie recipe has nothing on this. Learn how to create an awesome people-first culture using tactics and strategies AITS has put to the test. We’ll discuss relatable challenges broadly faced across higher education and the ingredients we’ve added to the AITS workplace culture to get the bitter tastes out of our mouths. You’ll walk away with tools you can use to creating meaningful work experiences for your units, teams or taskforces starting tomorrow.
  Location: Online
  Track: The Human Connection
2:30pm-3:15pm: Sessions 4
- Using logs to troubleshoot web apps
  Klaud Magdziak, SATech; Ashley Hetrick, Technology Services
  How to use logs to diagnose and troubleshoot problems in your website
  Location: Online
  Track: The Spirit of Exploration
- Big Data: A Tale of Researcher Experiences
  Chris Wiley, Grainger Engineering Library; Jen Yu-chien, University Library; Carissa Phillips, University Library
  Recently, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was one of twenty institutions participating in a Supporting Big Data Research Study. The study was organized by Ithaka S+R , a not for profit research and consulting services for libraries and academia. From fall 2020 to spring of 2021, the authors conducted fifteen semi-structured interviews with researchers and faculty at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). This study specifically focused on exploring the role of big data and data science within the context of research, collection, analysis, research communication, training and support. This work presents faculty and researchers practices acquiring data, working with data, issues and challenges. The responses created an opportunity to learn how researchers define big data, use technological resources and share big data. It also provided an opportunity for information professionals to learn of opportunities to expand or create services.
  Location: Online
  Track: The Spirit of Exploration
3:30pm-4:15pm: Sessions 5
- Making the Best of It: How the Pandemic Improved our Training Program
  Lindsey Sharp, School of Information Sciences
  The School of Information Sciences Help Desk employs a staff of 10 to 16 students in a given semester. Because our students are all in a 2-year program, half of our staff leave and must be replaced each year so training new staff is something we must do effectively and efficiently. Due to the circumstances surrounding the pandemic, my staff had the opportunity to take the reins and overhaul our training strategy to a flipped classroom model. This has been beneficial both last year when we were working remotely and this year as we transitioned to in-person work. There is content here for anyone who trains and onboards new employees so please join us!
  Location: Online
  Track: Making Flexible Plans
- Linking High-Risk-Data-Researchers to Appropriate Technology Services: Potential Role of a Faculty Liaison
  Christopher Larrison, Social Work; Heidi Imker, Library; Tracy Smith, Office of the CIO; Phil Reiter, Office of the CIO
  There are numerous data technology options available to researchers utilizing high risk data. Identifying the appropriate level of storage security and leveraging campus technology to ensure the best balance between access and security are evolving tasks for campus technology professionals and researchers. Changing technologies create the need for an active interface between both groups. One possible model of engagement is to: 1) Embed a faculty researcher within technology services as a point of contact for both groups; 2) develop a self-assessment tool for researchers to identify data risks and the campus technology available to minimize those risks; and 3) create mechanisms to engage in regular assessments of the changing high risk data needs and the technologies to address those needs. The presentation will explore the value added aspects of creating a position for faculty within technology services to increase the access and use of high risk data services by researchers.
  Location: Online
  Track: The Human Connection
4:30 PM – 5:00 PM: Closing and Social