The Fall 2024 IT Pro Forum schedule includes November 12 in a hybrid format and November 13 in an online format.
Quick access to Zoom rooms:
Day 1 – November 12 (Hybrid, iHotel and online)
9 am
Keynote: How to Shine Bright and Avoid Burnout
Our keynote presentation this fall is by Candice Solomon-Strutz, a pillar of the campus IT community. Candice has worked in many units across campus and was foundational in supporting and maintaining the IT Pro Forum for many years. Time: 9 AM November 12 Add to Calendar (ICS) Candice Solomon-Strutz Director of …
10 am
Immersive Technology for Learning & Research in Higher Education
The IMMERSE center for immersive computing is a center on campus that is dedicated to supporting research, education, and infrastructure with immersive technologies – such as extended reality (XR) which includes virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR). Join us for this session to become familiar with how …
Name that Company! Harmonizing Data Standardization Across Campus and Beyond
At IT Partners in the Gies College of Business, we’ve been tackling the challenge of standardizing company names for some time now. As we process data from various sources, we encounter a wide range of discrepancies, inconsistencies, and duplications in company name formatting and hierarchies. Currently, our efforts to clean and …
The Website Management Center of Expertise and The Web Implementations Guidelines Group, who are we and what can we do for you?
The Website Management Center of Expertise (WCoE) and The Web Implementation Guidelines Group (WIGG) have been working collaboratively for the last few months to facilitate and promote consistent website design templates for the Illinois Campus. Hear how this collaboration came about, how it has been successful, what lessons you can learn …
11 am
What Students Want
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 the impact of emerging technologies on the current student experience. About this event: Presenters: …
Building a Test Environment to Safely Study Self-Propagating Malware
In May of 2024 the Information Trust Institute worked with an industry partner in the insurance sector to study the effectiveness of self-propagating malware in various network topologies. To facilitate this investigation ITI constructed a malware testbed that allowed the malware to propagate through windows 10 networks of various configurations without …
SQUEAK: Streamlining Quality and Efficiency with Advanced Knowledge
(Note: This session will not be recorded, for participants’ privacy.) Do you ever feel that your improvement suggestions are just the “squeaky wheel” ? You belong in this discussion. Participants will engage with other “progress focused” individuals for a community of practice discussion on process improvement. Sometimes when suggestions are made …
12 pm
Lunch and Social
Mix and mingle either in person or online! Oh yeah, food, there’s that too… iHotel (Day 1 only): Food is available in the halls between the rooms Eating spaces are available in the Illinois Ballroom and small side rooms Add to Calendar (.ics) Lunch Zoom Room …
1 pm
Candid Conversation on Leadership Podcast: Live Ask Me Anything
This session will be a live recording of the Candid Conversations on Leadership podcast hosted by Chris Tidrick and Candice Solomon-Strutz (https://candidconversations.link). The hosts will have some introductory comments and then open the discussions to the audience in an Ask Me Anything format. About this event: Presenters: Chris Tidrick, Chief Information …
Apple’s 2024 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. Presenters: Paul Roberts, Senior Endpoint Services Specialist, Technology Services Mike Kimmel, Systems Engineer, Apple Track: Updates Experience Needed: All Levels Learning Outcome: Maximum Capacity: No maximum capacity …
What’s New with Splunk!
There are a lot of new features that are available to use with the Splunk service, and in this presentation we will go over many of them. From Splunk Observability Cloud, to Splunk SOAR (previously Phantom), Ingest Processor and the Splunk AI Assistant, we will provide the highlights of each of …
2 pm
What’s going on in IT Infrastructure?
Description: Starting with a brief overview of the IT Infrastructure unit of the Office of the CIO, Brad will talk about accomplishments and projects in progress in networking, data centers, virtualization, storage, and data backups. About this event: Presenters: Brad Mahaffey, Director, Enterprise Infrastructure, Tech Services Track: Accessibility, Communication, Collaboration, and …
(CANCELLED) Strengthening Your Digital Defenses: A Practical Approach to Personal Cybersecurity
Unfortunately, this workshop was cancelled due to a scheduling conflict.Join the Cybersecurity Training and Awareness team to explore a straightforward approach to assessing and improving your personal cybersecurity. This interactive workshop will equip you tools to evaluate and enhance the safety of your digital life, from home networks and IoT devices …
Collaborative Branding: Leveraging StratCom’s Hosted Brand Assets for Illinois Websites
Learn to effectively use the Hosted Brand Assets to maintain brand consistency and ensure accessibility. We’ll review examples of how we are using the assets across various use cases and provide strategies for implementation in your own projects. Discover how we are working with WIGG and other campus groups to refine …
2:45 pm
Snack Break
Take a break, stretch, try not to get pulled back into the siren song of the unread email …
3:15 pm
Growing a Research Support Ecosystem
Nine years ago, the Year of Cyberinfrastructure Final Report presented a researcher-driven vision about what they needed to support their work. Various efforts since then have worked towards implementing that vision, including Research IT, the Research Support Community, the Research Data Service, college IT groups, and others. Campus recently made a …
(CANCELLED) Strengthening Your Digital Defenses: A Practical Approach to Personal Cybersecurity
Unfortunately, this workshop was cancelled due to a scheduling conflict.Join the Cybersecurity Training and Awareness team to explore a straightforward approach to assessing and improving your personal cybersecurity. This interactive workshop will equip you tools to evaluate and enhance the safety of your digital life, from home networks and IoT devices …
Everything New with Web Toolkit
On 9/13, we released Version 3 of the Illinois Toolkit. In one sense, not much has changed: there still are components called “accordion” and “back to top”, you call them using HTML, and you still reference a JavaScript and CSS file to trigger the components. However, a gaggle of back-end changes …
4:15 pm
Closing, Social & Happy Hour at Houlihan’s
I Hotel: Chancellor Ballroom Houlihan’s immediately after! Add to Calendar (.ics) Online: Zoom Room A Join Zoom A …
Day 2 – November 13 (Online)
9 am
Brand Makeover: Give your WordPress Content an Illinois Facelift
At the University of Illinois, we’re embarking on a quest to unify our websites under the Illinois Theme look and feel. But if your website is in a different theme now, how do you approach converting stylized content and structural elements within your pages from another look and feel into the …
IT Strategic Planning Update
The last campuswide IT strategic plan was developed in 2013; much has changed over 11 years. The Academic Program Review and Big Ten Academic Alliance Peer Review, completed in January 2024, identified five recommendations to help Illinois provide best-in-class IT to the university. The IT strategic plan is a comprehensive blueprint …
Introducing Zoom AI Companion
Description: Zoom has introduced generative AI features which are available within several aspects of the Zoom platform. These include: after-meeting and in-meeting summaries, AI Smart Recordings and content creation tools for Zoom Chat, Zoom Notes and Zoom Whiteboard. The presenters will demonstrate these capabilities and answer your questions about Zoom AI …
Enhancing SQL Workflows: Writing AI-Driven Queries in Microsoft SQL Server
Description: As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more integral to data-driven decision-making, integrating AI capabilities within databases like Microsoft SQL Server is crucial for seamless workflow optimization. In this talk, we will explore how AI prompts can be used to generate SQL queries and optimize existing queries. Copilot, ChatGPT, and Claude will …
10 am
Brand Makeover: Give your WordPress Content an Illinois Facelift
At the University of Illinois, we’re embarking on a quest to unify our websites under the Illinois Theme look and feel. But if your website is in a different theme now, how do you approach converting stylized content and structural elements within your pages from another look and feel into the …
Splunk: An Introduction
Splunk is a incredibly powerful tool to help make sense of all the data your infrastructure and applications produce, and in this session we will get to know the campus service. We will cover getting data in, searching and reporting, and ways to access educational resources. About this event: Presenters: Jim …
Canvas Catalog: Everything You Wanted to Know and More
Description: Have you ever heard of Canvas Catalog and wondered what it was and how it relates to Canvas@Illinois, Canvas Commons, and Canvas Free for Teacher? Do you have an idea for an awesome professional education program you’d like to offer to the public for a fee? Are you an eLearning …
CUI and the Cloud (Cancelled!)
Description: Support for Controlled Unclassified Information will be in the cloud. This presentation will present the options that are available. About this event: Presenters: Ken Taylor, Cloud Architect, Office of the CIO Josh Erenberg, Regulated Research Program Manager, Office of the CIO Track: Software, Security, Data, and DevOps Experience Needed: Beginner …
11 am
Digital Accessibility Update
Description: Join Keith Hays, the University of Illinois ADA IT Coordinator, for an update on digital accessibility tools, targets, and the 2026 Title II deadline. About this event: Presenters: Keith Hays, ADA IT Coordinator, Office of Access and Equity Track: Accessibility, Communication, Collaboration, and Training Experience Needed: All Levels Learning Outcome: …
WIT: Resume Review Crew Panel
Description: Panel of Resume Reviewers from Women in Technology (WIT) at Illinois: an introduction to how to get help, what areas/specialties we each have, and a call for more volunteers to review resumes.We will explain how to reach us for resume help, why you might want help, some of the challenges/considerations …
Microsoft Teams and the E911 Service
Description: In this presentation, we will discuss the backend services that have been developed and enabled to allow the E911 service to operate across campus. There will be a high-level focus on the path an E911 call takes to be safely answered, along with a discussion of the underlying virtual hardware …
Project Management: Overcoming Obstacles
Description: Projects often come across obstacles that delay, halt, or completely shut down project work. In this presentation, we will highlight ways to work through or around blockers. We will give real examples and highlight some best practices to help identify and mitigate issues before they happen. About this event: Presenters: …
12 pm
Lunch and Social
Mix and mingle either in person or online! Oh yeah, food, there’s that too… iHotel (Day 1 only): Food is available in the halls between the rooms Eating spaces are available in the Illinois Ballroom and small side rooms Add to Calendar (.ics) Lunch Zoom Room …
1 pm
Accessible, Affordable, and Interactive Zoom Events
Description: This presentation explores the U of I Web Con’s journey transitioning from in-person conferences to hybrid and online formats, sparked by a sudden cancellation of an in-person event (2020). Learn about the decision-making process that guided our transition from Cvent to Zoom Events. We’ll delve into the steps taken to …
Attendance Analytics from A to Z: Turning (Asana) Tasks into (Zoom) Teaching Insights
Description: For the past several years, we have developed and implemented a robust data pipeline for tracking Zoom attendance in synchronous online courses through a fully operational dashboard where instructors and learning designers can monitor weekly attendance for live class sessions. A key element of our approach is the integration of …
Just who do you think you are? Data Personas and Privacy
Description: How we handle data reveals more about us than we might realize. Are you a data hoarder, an over-sharer, or something in between? This presentation explores common data personas and their impact on privacy and security. We’ll dive into the habits and mindsets that shape our approach to data management, …
Getting the Most Out of TDX Reporting
Description: Most of us are using basic reports in TeamDynamix (TDX) for tracking tickets and activity, but are we really taking advantage of the versatility and power of the available reporting capabilities? Join a group of reporting enthusiasts to learn how you can get the most out of your TDX reports, …
2 pm
How Accessibility Shapes the UX Design Process
Learn to identify the fundamental steps of a user experience project, from initial research and concept ideation to user testing, wireframes, and prototypes. We’ll break down each step, highlighting best practices that lead to intuitive, user-friendly designs. A special focus will be given to accessibility, examining how inclusive design principles can …
Automating Data Management with Azure: Streamlining SQL and Power BI Pipelines
Description: This presentation showcases how to leverage Azure to automate data pipelines, including SQL and Excel, to provide data reports and Power BI dashboards. In the presentation, we detail two projects built by the Data Strategy, Analytics, and Reporting team at Gies College of Business to improve data management and information …
Bits to Behaviors: Updates from Cybersecurity Training and Awareness
Description: Join us for an update on our Cybersecurity Training and Awareness initiatives. Discover the new topics we’re incorporating to keep our training relevant and comprehensive, and hear about upcoming changes to our training platform, designed to enhance user experience and engagement. We’ll also spotlight our collaborative efforts across the university …
2:45 pm
Snack Break
Take a break, stretch, try not to get pulled back into the siren song of the unread email …
3:15 pm
Bruce Nesmith — Stories from the Gaming world
Description: Bruce Nesmith has had a long career in game design, including the Elder Scrolls series. This a chance to hear from one of the most successful game designers in the industry. About this event: Presenters: Ken Taylor, Cloud Architect, Office of the CIO Bruce Nesmith, Game Designer, Developer, Author, Formerly …
4:15 pm
Closing & Social
Time: 4:15 PM November 13 Add to Calendar (.ics) Location: Zoom Room A Join Zoom A …
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.