Time | Event Title | Location |
8:00am | Registration, Breakfast & Tech Expo | Alumni Hall & Solarium |
9:00am -10:40am | Welcome remarks by Rob Lowden and Keynote by Talithia Williams Watch the livestream here! | Alumni Hall |
10:40am-1:00pm | Networking Bingo, Tech Expo and Lunch
Networking with colleagues, enjoy the Tech Expo and grab a bite to eat before heading to breakout sessions! Box lunches will be available beginning at 10:40am. | Alumni Hall & Solarium |
11:00am-11:45am | Birds of a Feather
Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education facilitated by Scott Michael, Adam Maksl Location: Maple Exploring the integration of AI tools and methodologies to enhance teaching, learning, and administrative processes within academic institutions. Rethinking Support facilitated by Patrick Phillips, Brandon Cavaness Location: Walnut Strategies for improving accessibility, support, and overall user satisfaction for students, faculty, and staff interacting with campus IT services. Project Management Best Practices in Academia facilitated by, Michael Mace, Matt Sargent Location: Frangipani Sharing effective project management strategies, tools, and collaboration techniques tailored to the unique environment of higher education institutions. Innovations in AR/VR facilitated by Scott Birch, Randy Newbrough Location: Persimmon Exploring the use of augmented and virtual reality technologies to create immersive learning experiences and enhance educational outcomes. Data Analytics and Decision-Making in Universities facilitated by Sabrina Andrews, Bridgett Milner Location: Sassafras Utilizing data analytics to inform strategic decisions, improve student success rates, and optimize institutional operations. Cybersecurity Challenges in Academic Institutions facilitated by Aaron Neal, Jason Williams Location: Oak Addressing the unique cybersecurity threats faced by universities and discussing effective measures to protect sensitive data and infrastructure. Leadership and Change Management in IT facilitated by Nick Ray, Lora Fox Location: Georgian Navigating leadership roles and managing change effectively within the rapidly evolving landscape of higher education technology. Supporting Remote and Hybrid Learning Environments facilitated by Julia Sanders and Kevin Rogers Location: State Room East Discussing technologies and strategies to support flexible learning modalities. Career Development for IT Professionals in Higher Education facilitated by Madeline Grdina, Winona Snapp-Childs Location: Dogwood Discussing pathways for professional growth, mentorship opportunities, and skill development.
| Tree Suites |
1:00pm-1:45pm | It's Not Just You: How Society Adds to Impostor Syndrome presented by May Moore
Many of us have felt imposter syndrome. But the feeling intensifies when you add sexism, racism, and other societal biases. Learn from the personal stories of your IT colleagues about the unique challenges faced by marginalized groups and how you can foster inclusive environments to mitigate these effects.
| Dogwood |
1:00pm-1:45pm | Exploring the new user interface in ServiceNow, Next Experience presented by Erica Seiffert
This breakout session explores the new Next Experience UI (user interface) in ServiceNow designed to modernize and streamline the way users interact with the platform. Learn how to activate the new UI and navigate it. Additionally, the session will cover how to activate dark mode, better organize favorites, and set up notification preferences. | Frangipani |
1:00pm-1:45pm | What is the IT Leadership Community? presented by Kris Nicolas
ITLC is a group of like-minded professionals at Indiana University with leadership training (both formal and informal) and an interest in continuing the growth of leadership in themselves and other IT professionals at IU. What does this mean? Members of the current ITLC board will present information about the various action teams and their activities. Join them to learn more about the mission and how you can become active. | Georgian |
1:00pm-1:45pm | Chasing a Ghost: Leveraging Trust to Solve a Tricky Problem for our Faculty presented by James Dickerson
Students in multiple large-lecture courses were unable to connect to a classroom engagement tool. But what was going on? Was it the network? Was it the vendor? Was it Canvas? With no clear fix, we were chasing a ghost. Tackling this type of problem requires trust and communication. Hear how Networks, Learning Technologies and our enterprise partner Top Hat worked together to help faculty get the teaching support they needed. | Maple |
1:00pm-1:45pm | Siteimprove at IU presented by Greg Polit
Siteimprove is a website governance tool available to all university units through IU’s enterprise contract. Over the last year IU units have been utilizing Accessibility and Quality Assurance modules to improve user experience on their websites. We will share some of the most effective strategies used and discuss ways to utilize new Marketing Analytics and Enterprise SEO modules that have recently been added to our enterprise contract, to help analyze and drive traffic to university websites. | Oak |
1:00pm-1:45pm | Strategic AI Leadership in Higher Education: Mastering Operational AI Transformation (MOAT)
CDW-G and CDW's MOAT leader invite University of Indiana leadership, faculty, and technologists to a thought leadership session focused on the strategic adoption of artificial intelligence in higher education. As AI reshapes teaching, research, and administration, this session offers a clear roadmap for safely implementing AI while maximizing institutional value. Topics include AI capabilities, risks, ethical governance, and tools to craft a mission-aligned AI strategy. Led by CDW’s Chief AI Strategists, Joe Markwith, this forum is designed to empower academic leaders to navigate AI disruption and velocity of change with confidence and purpose. | Persimmon |
1:00pm-1:45pm | Transform Teaching and Boost Student Engagement with IU eTexts presented by Kat Carlton
IU eTexts has the potential to transform the teaching experience and boost student engagement with inclusive access to course materials and collaborative tools. Join our session to learn to maximize IU eTexts in your class and learn best practices for enhancing student collaboration and creativity. We will discuss the value of inclusive access course materials, demonstrate how to utilize IU eTexts tools in a course to promote active reading and connection, and discuss promoting student success. | Redbud |
1:00pm-1:45pm | Preparing IT at IU for the next generation of students: A bracket-style competition to find the best strategic initiativespresented by Clinton Roeth-McKay
Participants will join small groups to share their best idea for an IT initiative that IU should pursue as we plan for the next generation of students and the challenges facing us in the decades to come. Each idea will enter a bracket and teams will pitch their ideas, then votes will be collected in 2-3 rounds--in the end, one idea will win. This challenge will be a great way to get to know colleagues around the university and will uncover some great ideas for strategic initiatives!
| Sassafras |
1:00pm-1:45pm | Using dashboards to tame operational chaos presented by James Bennett
The Enterprise Platform team supports a wide array of services and infrastructure for teams which leads to a large volume of operational support. We had struggled to keep up with those demands for a long time, but through the use of some dashboards and regular review we have been able to get ahead of those demands and be more responsive to our customers needs. Come learn some techniques we have found to help us be successful in managing our operational support. | State Room East |
1:00pm-1:45pm | From Baby Talk to Data: My Leadership Journey presented by Carrie Hansel
Hear about my unexpected career path from aspiring to work with babies to becoming a leader in higher education. I will share how my career evolved and provide personal anecdotes and practical strategies for navigating transitions and embracing opportunities. Participants will participate in polls and Q&A discussions. Attendees will be able to describe at least 3 strategies for navigating career transitions and translating their skills into unexpected opportunities for promotion. | State Room West |
1:00pm-1:45pm | "Synchronizing The Asynchronous: Leveraging GenAI To Create Interactive Simulations" presented by Dalton Gilo
Our presentation showcases how generative AI (GenAI) bridges synchronous and asynchronous learning. Our team demonstrates dynamic simulations that boost engagement and outcomes in online courses. Examples include a healthcare admin mock interview, a legal concepts mock trial, and Qualtrics integration in Canvas. IUK faculty Melinda Stanley and Christine Rassel, with Dalton Gilo, highlight how faculty and instructional designer collaboration transforms online learning. | Walnut |
2:00pm – 2:45pm | The Demand Dilemma: Navigating Leadership Priorities vs. Resource Constraints presented by Brandon Cavaness
In this session, we’ll explore the challenges and strategies involved in balancing high-level demands from senior leadership with the real-world constraints of team capacity and resources. Using real examples like the rapid deployment of 1,500 new devices, the rollout of IU Print, and the recent CrowdStrike outage, we’ll discuss how to prioritize effectively, communicate transparently, and manage competing expectations. | Dogwood |
2:00pm – 2:45pm | Departmental Application Developers Meet-up | Distinguished Alumni |
2:00pm – 2:45pm | Introduction to UITS Departmental Solutions presented by
Departmental Solutions was created in UITS Enterprise Systems in August, 2024 to support departmental partners across the university with the design, production, and maintenance of websites and custom web applications. The DSOL team consists of a Web Team and an Applications team and serves more than 100 departmental clients across primarily the Bloomington and Indianapolis campuses. Join me for an overview of DSOL's first 8 months, and learn how your team and campus partners can work with us. | Frangipani |
2:00pm – 2:45pm | Empowering Connections: The Future of IT Support at IU presented by Patrick Phillips
An overview of the significant changes we will have made in IT Support at IU following a re-organization of all IT Support divisions into one, Enterprise IT Support. I will unveil the changes we have made, talk about why we made them and what our strategy and focus will be going forward, and share some of our early goals and priorities as a result. | Georgian |
2:00pm – 2:45pm | Integration Platform as a Service presented by Mark Fyffe
Members of IU's Data Integration Center of Excellence will give a technical overview of Integration Platform as a Service and a status update on the forthcoming implementation. | Maple |
2:00pm – 2:45pm | AI in Software Development presented by Jay Sissom
AI is transforming software development, from learning new technologies and code generation to optimizing testing. Discover how AI-powered tools like code assistants, NLP models, and machine learning enhance efficiency, reduce errors, and let developers focus on creative problem-solving. This session offers practical strategies and use cases to seamlessly integrate AI into your workflow and stay ahead in the ever-evolving tech landscape. | Oak |
2:00pm – 2:45pm | The Times They are A-Changin’ – building an adaptive faculty development framework for educational technology presented by Kevin Rogers
Inspired by The Chronicle’s Teaching Gen Z special issue, we will share data on Gen Z’s conceptions and expectations for higher education. We will also discuss how we modeled a delicate approach to assist faculty in aligning instructional objectives with the evolving needs of students. Lastly, we will present the faculty development framework we used for our Teaching Gen Z initiative and how that structure can remain when tools change or new impactful societal trends emerge. | Persimmon |
2:00pm – 2:45pm | Wifi that thinks: How AI is changing the game presented by Jay Killion
This session explores Indiana University's strategic approach to implementing Symplectic Elements for faculty activity reporting. We’ll highlight how engaging faculty representatives and councils ensured a smooth selection and rollout. Attendees will gain insights into stakeholder engagement strategies, communication techniques, and lessons learned, with practical tips for fostering collaboration and addressing challenges in large-scale academic implementations. | Redbud |
2:00pm – 2:45pm | Explainable and Unbiased Predictive Analytics for Institutional Researchers presented by Rishika Samaka
With the growth of analytical methodologies, the ethical and transparent use of algorithmic outputs in university operations is of paramount importance. This session covers participatory and analytical approaches to ensure actionable analytics, support explainable AI and ML, and address bias in advanced analytics. It concludes with a discussion on effective, accessible, and unbiased application of advanced analytics in institutional research. | Sassafras |
2:00pm – 2:45pm | Empowering 24/7 Student Support with Agentic AI: Personal Digital Concierge for Students and Staff presented by Sarah Turlington
Discover how Agentic AI provides round-the-clock, AI-driven support tailored to the unique needs of college students, faculty, and staff. More than a simple assistant, Agentic AI orchestrates multiple steps, delegates tasks, and completes objectives. This session explores use cases like admissions queries, mental health support, academic guidance, and event preparation, demonstrating how AI enhances student success, improves efficiency, and fosters personalized engagement in higher education. | State Room East |
2:00pm – 2:45pm | Shop Smarter, Buy Faster: Navigating IU's IT Product Purchasing Workflow presented by Greg Hanek
Learn about some important changes to IU's IT product and services purchasing process, and what vendor information and documentation you should gather and review to drive your decisions when shopping (before you open the SSSP form). Following this advice will also help streamline the path for your purchasing requests and can compress the timeline involved.
| State Room West |
2:00pm – 2:45pm | A Practical Approach to Organizational Change Management for IT Organizations presented by Elena Mikulsky
This session will cover the basics of what organizational change management (OCM) is and its application in IT operations outside of major IT systems implementations. During the session, we will discuss the value of OCM, as well as applications to equip attendees with practical knowledge to use OCM concepts in their day-to-day life.
| Walnut |
3:00pm-3:45pm | Coffee and Change Management presented by Renee Petrina
We retired three system-wide tools during the Fall semester. Strategies included: a diverse working group, a gantt chart, a solid relationship with IU Purchasing, and a positive attitude - we called it Operation Cold Brew, because we wanted it to go down smoothly. We hit unexpected twists, like the decision to leave a longtime partner when their new corporate owner proved unable to meet IU’s needs, and going signature to deployment in less than 2 weeks. Send more coffee, please! | Dogwood |
3:00pm-3:45pm | Bridging Minds, Building Relationships: Working with Different Brains presented by Eric Postel
This session explores strategies for building relationships by recognizing the value of unique ways of thinking. Understanding and appreciating different perspectives can help teams unlock their full potential. Join us to discover how to create a supportive and dynamic work environment for everyone. | Frangipani |
3:00pm-3:45pm | Accelerating Speech-to-Text Transcription with CarbonCopy: IU Research Cloud’s Role in Scalable, User-Friendly AI Solutions presented by Zachary Graber
CarbonCopy is an AI-powered transcription service based on freely available, pretrained ASR models and hosted on the IU Research Cloud. Researchers and educators can leverage a self-service gateway to eliminate the need for command line experience. This presentation and ensuing discussion will highlight CarbonCopy as an example of how IU Research Cloud’s on-demand infrastructure can complement the university’s existing catalog of HPC systems in connecting users with the hardware they need. | Georgian |
3:00pm-3:45pm | Standardizing ETL Pipelines and Automatic Data Lineage presented by Scott Sirk
Our team has standardized ETL for our data environment. As a result we can build new tools like automatic data lineage. It can build a graph of all dependencies for an object in our environment. I will give an overview of our data environment. Then a brief summary of ETL solutions pre-standardization. I'll then give a detailed description of our new framework(ETL jobs as containers on Kubernetes scheduled with Argo Workflows). Finally a demo of the data lineage tool describing it's use cases | Maple |
3:00pm-3:45pm | Securing your Email: Mastering SPF, DKIM, and DMARC with Proofpoint presented by Steve Tippie Dive into the essential email authentication protocols—SPF, DKIM, and DMARC—to understand how they protect your domain from spoofing and phishing. This session also explores Proofpoint’s Email Fraud Defense solution and how it simplifies enforcement, enhances visibility, and ensures brand protection against email-based threats. | Oak |
3:00pm-3:45pm | Narrating Success: Integrating Digital Badges in Professional Development Pathways presented by Julia Sander
Discover how UITS’s Learning Technologies is transforming professional development with digital badging. Digital credentials help faculty, staff, and students effectively 'tell their story' by providing recognition and evidence of learners’ professional achievement. The Learning Technologies digital badge portfolio encompasses accessibility, innovative technology such as Gen AI and XRI. Join us to explore the impact and future opportunities of this innovative initiative. | Persimmon |
3:00pm-3:45pm | Investigating Academic Burnout and Stress Management Among Graduate Students: Insights from GradSERU Survey presented by Ozgur Kayaalp
Graduate students often experience high levels of academic stress and burnout, leading to declining mental health, increased dropout rates, and lower academic performance. This study analyzes data from the gradSERU 2024 survey using structural equation modeling to assess the effects of academic, financial, and emotional stressors. The findings highlight the need for improved institutional support and targeted interventions to enhance student well-being,reduce burnout,and foster academic success. | Redbud |
3:00pm-3:45pm | Behind the Screens: Building Dashboards that Drive Student Success presented by Bridgett Milner
Indiana University’s OVPSS, in collaboration with Institutional Analytics, created dashboards to provide deeper insights into the student experience and improve outcomes. Guided by principles like alignment with the IU2030 Strategic Plan, simplicity, and accessibility, these dashboards empower leaders to make data-informed decisions. This session will explore their design, strategic importance, and applications, highlighting their role in enabling targeted interventions. | Sassafras |
3:00pm-3:45pm | Controlling Risk and Preparing for AI Governance presented by Travis Jeanneret
Trustworthy AI: Manage, monitor and govern the deployment and lifecycle of AI pipelines and models. Manage AI for a holistic view of AI projects, risk, and regulatory policies. Govern policy regulation, ethical guidelines for fairness, bias, and drift. Ensure processes, standards, and guardrails that help ensure AI systems and tools are safe and ethical. | State Room East |
3:00pm-3:45pm | Meet the new math & language accessibility tools! presented by Meagan Eller
If you need to create alt-text for math or work with multi-lingual content in a Canvas course or Pressbook, this talk is for you. Come learn about two tools available to help you. Tool 1 translates math expressions from LaTeX into speech text, braille, or MathML. Tool 2 makes setting and checking the language markup in your Canvas course or Pressbooks publication click-n-drag easy. | State Room West |
3:00pm-3:45pm | Ask Us Anything: Live Student Feedback for IU Technology Services Featuring the Student Technology Advisory Committee (STAC) presented by Katie Thompson
This session spotlights the Student Technology Advisory Committee (STAC), a group of undergraduate and graduate students dedicated to enhancing IT services at Indiana University (IU). During the session, STAC members will provide live, candid feedback on technology plans and initiatives to members of the audience. | Walnut |
4:00pm-4:45pm | Collaborating Across Multiple Organizations to Solve Large Project Process Issues presented by James McGookey
In this presentation, we will explore how three distinct teams from UITS, CPF and the School of Medicine collaborated to address and resolve process-related issues in large-scale projects by leveraging Six Sigma principles. The integration of Six Sigma methodologies facilitated a structured and data-driven approach to problem-solving, resulting in significant improvements in efficiency and effectiveness. | Dogwood |
4:00pm-4:45pm | Ngrams, LLMs, and Centos: Generative Text in the Ancient World presented by Jefferson Davis
With recent interest generative AI text, we see new uses and new concerns. But how new? Are there parallels from the past? Here we look at centos, poems made by rearranging lines from other works. In antiquity, centos from Homer or Virgil were the most common. While poetry and AI text differ, both centos and AI text mimic tone and can confuse readers, both can miss larger context, and yet both can rework material in interesting ways. We illustrate with poems from antiquity and from chatGPT. | Frangipani |
4:00pm-4:45pm | Cross Departmental Communication and Collaboration presented by Aaron Miller
Everyone communicates differently, even within the boundaries of their local standards. Finding out who needs what information to achieve shared goals can be complicated and time consuming. However, using some clever old science-fiction techniques and a little social engineering we can streamline and expedite our communications to help everyone involved. | Georgian |
4:00pm-4:45pm | Website Consolidation Strategies and Insights presented by Holly Fross
Join us to explore how the IU Indianapolis Division of Undergraduate Education's Communications team is consolidating 38 websites to enhance user experience and better serve division units. We'll cover our project progress, stakeholder engagement strategies, and data-driven decision-making. | Maple |
4:00pm-4:45pm | Mastering Asset Management in ServiceNow: Optimizing IT Device Tracking and Workflows presented by Sam Greathouse
This breakout session explores the Asset Management module in ServiceNow, focusing on its capabilities for managing departmental IT devices. Attendees will gain insights into key features, including the asset record form, loanable assets, and stockrooms, with practical examples of how to report on them. The session will also highlight best practices for streamlining asset workflows and ensuring accurate tracking to optimize IT resource utilization. | Oak |
4:00pm-4:45pm | Tackling your technical debt with the help of Generative AI
Join this session hosted by Presidio, AWS, and Dynatrace, to see a demonstration of how Presidio’s Human AI (HAI) platform can take legacy code that may need to be modernized, refactored, or secured, and - leveraging generative AI technologies - automate and simplify large portions of your developer workflow. (A real-world code sample from IU will be used in the demonstration.) | Persimmon |
4:00pm-4:45pm | The Research, Collaboration, and Strategy that Drove Our iPaaS Journey presented by Kirk Ebelhar
Leadership isn’t about job titles—it’s about stepping up, building connections, and turning ideas into results. In this session, we’ll share the journey of taking an idea for a better data integration ecosystem and turning it into a data integration strategy report that has led to an RFP being issued. From forming a task force and gathering input from diverse voices to tackling research and organizing findings. We’ll walk through the steps, challenges, and lessons learned along the way. | Redbud |
4:00pm-4:45pm | Admission Technology Transformation- Transcripts, Vendors and Process, Oh My! presented by Todd Neal
Review of the latest overhaul of the transcript and application processing to isolate efficiencies within the Admissions Application process. | Sassafras |
4:00pm-4:45pm | How Machform is Customized for Accessible and Secure Use at IU presented by Adam Patrick
An exploration of the process of customizing Machform for use at IU, from a new version by Machform to deployment within IU | State Room East |
4:00pm-4:45pm | Sharing Research Data with Globus presented by Jason Daughtrey
Learn how to use Globus sharing to enable collaboration with IU researchers and external users. This breakout session offers training on creating shares and setting permissions in Globus, ensuring secure and efficient research data sharing within and beyond the university. | State Room West |
4:00pm-4:45pm | GIS Software and Use Cases at IU presented by Katie Chapman
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is an essential part of the work done daily at IU, with use cases ranging from classroom instruction and faculty research to maintaining our campuses and community engagement across the state. This presentation will provide an overview of the GIS resources available at IU through our Esri Education License and examples of how several of our partners across IU leverage GIS, including the Indiana Geological and Water Survey, Polis, Capital Planning, and IU3D. | Walnut |
5:30-8:00pm | Staff Appreciation | Henke Hall |
