Click here to jump to Day 2
All times listed as CST.
Day 1 – November 4th (online)
All sessions are presented fully online via Zoom. Please follow the Zoom links from the schedule as there may have been room changes since you originally registered.
9 am
Keynote: The Adaptation Gap: Purpose as a Reverse-Entropic Force
Technology is being adopted faster than people can adapt to it — and that gap is where entropy accumulates: drifting systems, fragmented attention, and depleted reserves. Drawing on two decades of research on purpose in life, Dr. Vic Strecher argues that purpose is one of the few forces that runs …
10 am
Tree Testing: From User Research to Real World Decisions
In this session, we’ll introduce tree testing as a simple, practical way to evaluate website navigation and information architecture. We’ll use the College of Education website project as a real example and walk through how we planned the test, looked at the results, and identified navigation issues. We’ll also share a developer/client perspective on …
Recognition, Power, and Equity in IT Work
How do we decide who gets recognized for a team’s success? What happens when contributions go unnoticed? In this session, we’ll explore how credit and recognition function as power in IT workplaces and discuss the impact that uneven recognition can have on team members. Drawing on research and real-world experiences, we’ll create space for …
The Intrusion Chronicles: Unraveling the Mysteries of Incident Response
Roll for Initiative and join the Incident Response Party! Through real-world incidents from the University network, we’ll follow threat actors as they attempt to infiltrate our digital realm and watch defenders respond in real time. See the attacks unfold, learn how our tools detect and counter enemy actions, and discover how the CSOC and …
11 am
What’s new AInspector for WCAG Evaluation Version 5.0
AInspector for WCAG Evaluation open-source tool for web accessibility evaluation. Ainspector has been updated to fix issues in current rules, add new rules to improve identification of accessibility issues and support rules defined in aXe and WAVE/Popetech rulesets, and improve page highlighting. One new rule evaluates the use of the …
Modernizing the Budget Request Process: Leveraging Data Virtualization and AI for Real-Time Decision Support
This session will showcase how collaboration among the Budget Office, Administrative Information Technology Services (AITS), and Technology Solutions transformed a cumbersome approval process into a streamlined, real-time decision support platform. The journey began with implementing an electronic workflow using Form Builder to standardize budget request submissions. While this improvement improved …
12 pm
Lunch & Social
Come take a break and chat or play cooperative games with …
1 pm
Conquer the Deadline: Using FACT to Crawl Course Content and Level Up Accessibility
With the impending ADA Title II compliance deadline, we are all facing stark but manageable challenges remediating years of high-quality course materials into digitally accessible online content. In response, ATLAS created a tool for Moodle instructors called FACT (Functional Accessibility Checking Tool) by analyzing existing accessibility tools and gathering user feedback. FACT makes it …
Tracking a moving target: What is the Website Implementation Guidelines Group (WIGG) up to?
WIGG has played a pivotal role in transforming the campus web landscape and continues to advance equitable digital solutions for units of all sizes. Through cross-campus collaboration, our volunteers have developed resources and best practices that help teams meet requirements ranging from branding and accessibility to application development. By working across traditional organizational boundaries, …
New Skill Acquired! How to on Lens and Iris
If you are seasoned adventurer or just starting out, this session is a dedicated guild tutorial on what two established networking tools can do for you. In this session, we will go over what Iris and Lens are, and how you can leverage their capabilities to go dungeon diving more effectively. We will walk …
2 pm
How to Have Your Websites and Software Reviewed for Accessibility
The Department of Justice now requires all University of Illinois digital content to comply with ADA Title II and WCAG 2.1 standards by April 2027. To help campus units meet this deadline, Technology Services is introducing a new accessibility evaluation process for websites and software. Join our upcoming presentation to learn …
Rare but Significant Disruptions – Overview of the Major Incident ModelMajor Incident Model Overview
Incidents come in all shapes and sizes, from IT outages that temporarily inconvenience users to global events that severely impede the university’s ability to fulfill its mission. Responding to incidents effectively isn’t a one-size-fits-all affair, but there are optimal approaches for incidents that share certain characteristics. ITIL’s major incidents are one …
Beyond AI Training: Building an AI Learning Ecosystem for Staff
Many organizations have launched AI training to build awareness and introduce employees to emerging technologies. While these efforts increase familiarity, they often raise a new question: how do organizations move from awareness to meaningful workplace adoption when both the technology and workplace continue to evolve? This session explores how the Office …
2:45 pm
Snack Break
We’ll pause for a snack break. Please refuel responsibly! …
3:15 pm
Dungeon Survival Guide: Partnering with Project Managers
In a world full of shifting priorities, surprise encounters, and the occasional scope-creep monster, project managers help the IT party stay focused on the quest and moving toward the objective. While developers, engineers, and analysts are busy battling technical challenges, project managers handle coordination, communication, and obstacle removal so the …
Roll for Security: An Update from Illinois’ Cybersecurity Improvement Initiative
The Cybersecurity Improvement Initiative (CII) continues its quest to strengthen endpoint security across campus. We’ll share progress from the journey, challenges encountered along the way, lessons learned, and what lies ahead. About this event: Presenters: Ashley Valentijn, Richard Donovan, Track: Party Up — Share strategies, partnerships, and success stories that …
Don’t Just Find It, Design It! : Teaching with Generative AI
What if teachers no longer have to search for the “right” learning content, but can design it for their own students? In this session, I will share what I learned from using generative AI in my classroom for over a year. The main example is Singing Grammar, an approach in …
4:15 pm
Closing & Social
Close out the conference with us and chat! …
Day 2 – November 5th (online)
All sessions are presented fully online via Zoom. Please follow the Zoom links from the schedule as there may have been room changes since you originally registered.
9 am
AI First Development Lessons Learned
AI-assisted development is changing how software is designed, built, tested, and reviewed. In this hands-on workshop, participants will explore reusable AI development skills created and refined through the AI-First Development Radio Frequency Database proof of concept. Attendees will test prompts and skills for requirements analysis, architecture, coding standards, automated testing, accessibility review, …
Cut to the Chase – Simplifying Your FormBuilder Forms
For campus users of FormBuilder, it doesn’t take long for a seemingly simple process to turn into an waste land of routing triggers and phase permissions. How do we fit a process into FormBuilder such that it’s supportable long term without making it needlessly confusing in the short term? Join us in …
When Alt Text Is Not Enough: Making Complex Digital Visuals Accessible
Complex visuals appear throughout digital content, from annotated screenshots and process diagrams to data visualizations, tables, and interactive tools. But when is alt text sufficient, and when does accessibility require a longer description, a redesigned visual, or a decision to mark an image as decorative? Drawing on lessons learned while developing accessibility …
Being Intentional About Your Career: Special Leadership Edition
We plan for many things at work, both tactically and strategically, but do we give the same kind of attention to our careers? We’ll discuss different aspects of intentional career planning and walk through doing a Strengths/Weaknesses/Opportunities/Threats (SWOT) analysis to aid in that process. This presentation will focus on preparing to move …
10 am
AI First Development Lessons Learned
AI-assisted development is changing how software is designed, built, tested, and reviewed. In this hands-on workshop, participants will explore reusable AI development skills created and refined through the AI-First Development Radio Frequency Database proof of concept. Attendees will test prompts and skills for requirements analysis, architecture, coding standards, automated testing, accessibility review, …
Take Yourself Off the Easy-Target List
Have you ever gotten a phone call from someone who knew your full name, address, and even the name of your bank? If you have, and you wondered how they knew all that, the answer is probably, “the internet.” In this interactive session, you’ll discover how to use Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) …
Considering AI for Data Analysis, using RStudio and Lumen
Have you considered using AI to help you make sense of data, or looked for an alternative to copy-pasting tables and code into ChatGPT? Are you excited about the possibilities? Or apprehensive about data privacy, ethics, and other concerns? Either way, this workshop is for you. We’ll discuss general benefits and concerns …
Speed Networking: Find Your Party
The dungeon is dangerous. Your network shouldn’t be. Join us for a fast-paced speed networking session designed to help you meet fellow IT professionals, swap stories, and expand your party beyond your usual circle. You’ll rotate through a series of short conversations with other IT Pro Forum attendees, with fun prompts to …
11 am
What’s New with AI Chatbots
AI chatbots keep evolving at a fast pace, and the tools in our AI Apps portfolio — Illinois ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and Google Gemini — are no exception. This session is a friendly, practical catch-up on what’s new with AI apps, features, licensing, and more. About this event: Presenters: Michael Cervone, …
Random Encounter: The Privacy Team (Ask Us Anything)
A wild privacy question appears… and it brought friends. An AI note-taker joins a meeting. Someone wants to use a free cloud tool. A vendor contract contains a data clause nobody noticed until the last minute. You could roll for initiative, or you could bring the encounter to the Privacy Team …
Beyond Recorded Lectures: Redesigning Online Engineering Courses for Active Learning
Moving a rigorous engineering course online requires more than recording lectures and uploading materials to an LMS. This session shares lessons from a recent initiative to redesign graduate Electrical and Computer Engineering courses for instructor-supported asynchronous online learning. Using examples from our practical course-development and delivery processes, the session will demonstrate …
All Together Better: Building a Connected Data Ecosystem Across the University of Illinois
Higher education institutions generate vast amounts of data, but turning that data into institutional value requires more than technology—it requires collaboration. The University of Illinois System has spent the past several years building a federated approach to data governance, analytics, and data strategy that respects campus autonomy while creating systemwide alignment …
12 pm
Lunch & Social
Come take a break and chat or play cooperative games with fellow IT Pros …
1 pm
I, for One, Welcome Our New AI Overlords: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let the Robot Do It
Ladies and gentlemen, we are witnessing a transformation, and I, for one, welcome our new AI overlords—mostly because they are now handling my tedious data entry. In this session, I’m pulling back the curtain on how I went from drowning in daily routine tasks to summoning digital assistants to do the …
MFA Roadmap
Description: MFA Roadmap updates. About this event: Presenters: Erica Ohman, Sr. IAM Specialist, University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign Track: Core Stats — Your infrastructure isn’t flashy, but neither is dying because you dumped Vitality. Sessions on foundational IT services, security, reliability, and core competencies. Experience Needed: All Levels Learning Outcome: How MFA is …
Beyond the Character Sheet: Hidden Powers in Canvas
Ready to level up your Canvas skills? Join this quest through the LMS’s powerful yet often underutilized features. Discover hidden gems like new peer review features, differentiation tools, helpful gradebook settings, and more features that can save time and improve the student experience. Whether you’re a novice adventurer or a veteran …
Innovating How We Work Together: Balancing Initiatives and Core Services
In today’s dynamic work environment, innovation isn’t just about new technologies. It’s about reimagining how we collaborate. Presented in partnership with the Women in Technology (WIT) community, this session explores how teams can innovate in their approach to cross-functional collaboration while balancing the demands of strategic initiatives and core service delivery …
2 pm
Summoning the Right Tools: From Agent Builder to Copilot Studio and Beyond
Not sure where to start with AI agents? In this session, we’ll introduce the Agent Building Ladder through a practical Build, Learn, See approach. Participants will build a working agent using Agent Builder in Microsoft 365 Copilot and leave with something they can immediately use. Then, participants will learn when a …
Your Next Student May Be a Bot: AI, Identity Warfare, and the New Threat Landscape in Higher Education
The cybersecurity threat landscape for higher education has fundamentally changed. Attackers no longer rely solely on malware and phishing emails; they use AI-generated content, stolen identities, automated reconnaissance, and cloud-native attack paths to exploit the open and collaborative nature of universities. Using insights from the 2026 CrowdStrike Global Threat Hunting Report, …
Ambilateral Automation: Tools to Benefit All
Description: Automation is a powerful, ever-growing tool. It’s quickly becoming more prominent with the rise of AI and the sheer amount of tasks staff juggle day-to-day. How do we leverage automation to not only make end user’s work easier, but also the work of fellow IT professionals? Join us to explore …
Our Azure Data Engineering Journey: Pipelines, Databases, and Lessons Learned
Modern data platforms depend on reliable pipelines, thoughtfully designed databases, and effective collaboration between data engineers. In this session, we will share our practical experience building and supporting an Azure data platform using Azure Data Factory and Azure SQL Managed Instance. We will explain how Azure Data Factory orchestrates data extraction, …
2:45 pm
Snack Break
We’ll pause for a snack break. Please refuel responsibly! …
3:15 pm
Summoning the Right Tools: From Agent Builder to Copilot Studio and Beyond
Not sure where to start with AI agents? In this session, we’ll introduce the Agent Building Ladder through a practical Build, Learn, See approach. Participants will build a working agent using Agent Builder in Microsoft 365 Copilot and leave with something they can immediately use. Then, participants will learn when a …
Apple’s 2026 Fall Update
Description: Fall update on macOS, iOS and AppleTV at Illinois. Mike Kimmel, our campus Apple System Engineer, will be on hand to answer questions. Note: This event will not be recorded About this event: Presenters: Paul Roberts, Lead Endpoint Services Specialist, Technology Services Mike Kimmel, Systems Engineer, Apple Track: Core Stats …
Quest for Better Course Design in Canvas: Community Conversations about DesignPLUS
This Birds of a Feather session combines a brief showcase of new DesignPLUS features—including the QuickStart Wizard—with an interactive discussion with other DesignPLUS users at Illinois. Come to the session ready to share ideas, discover new approaches, and help identify future templates, content blocks, and DesignPLUS resources that can empower faculty …
4:15 pm
Closing & Social
Close out the conference with us and chat! …
Accessibility
All content will have automatic captioning enabled; professionally corrected captions will be provided approximately two weeks after the Forum.
To request other accommodations or to inquire about accessibility, please contact the IT Pro Forum Committee.