One IT Conference takeaways

The One IT conference offered participants many opportunities for growth through four learning tracks and 15 sessions. Covering diverse topics ranging from Artificial Intelligence (AI) to information security, these sessions offered valuable insights and knowledge. Now that the conference has concluded, the question arises: how can we integrate what we’ve learned into our professional lives? Read takeaways from select sessions and view conference slides for additional information.

Spotlighting Early Career Professionals
Introduction/Moderator: Katie Cullen, Panelists: Precious Humphrey, Ruben Kwigwasa, Tristen Lawrence, and Alex Wynn

Although early-career staff benefit from the opportunity to learn throughout their 18-month program, they also contribute enormously to the workplace. After showcasing their projects, panelists, including Humphrey, thanked Yale for “taking a chance on us” despite lacking the often required 3-5 years of work experience. Cullen and managers from the audience also reinforced the value the early-career staff have brought to the organization.

Cullen encouraged managers to contact her for more information on how to hire an early-career professional by emailing katie.cullen@yale.edu.

Research Storage Working Group
Presenters: Chuck Thompson and Ron Borzekowski

Presenters shared the Research Storage Working Group’s recommendation that Yale develop an overall research storage strategy and reviewed recommendations made in four broad areas, including solutions, cost/pricing, consulting/navigation, and governance. Some of the included recommendations are:

• Provide focused attention to ensure cloud storage services (e.g., OneDrive) are research-ready.
• Develop a proposal for a baseline amount of fully subsidized storage for all researchers at Yale.
• Create a research computing support structure for researchers.
• Establish a Research Data Governance Structure.

The Working Group, which was formed at the request of the Provost’s Computation and Data Services Advisory Committee in 2023, reviewed the landscape of research storage services available to Yale researchers and produced two reports—one enumerating current service offerings and significant gaps and the other providing 13 specific major recommendations and one overarching recommendation for improving research storage services at Yale.

Single Sign On with AWS Cognito
Presenters: Michael Appleby, John Baldo, Keith Boyd-Carter, and Ray Frohlich

When managing a project like AWS Cognito, several things must be considered. Yale Library staff shared project management strategies and ideas for overcoming challenges when selecting and implementing a new service, such as:

• Adapting to evolving organizational needs
• Engaging stakeholders throughout the project
• Conducting risk scenario planning, sprint reviews, and testing phases to ensure the project’s success and alignment with organizational goals

Infrastructure as Code: Terraform and Cloud Formation Templates
Presenters: Xinjian Guo and Seong-June Kim

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools allow automatic infrastructure provisioning and management, reduce manual intervention and human errors, and allow infrastructure creation through experiments. Panelists also shared that IaC tools:

• Can codify infrastructure configurations and replicate them consistently and quickly across different environments.
• Enable easy scaling of infrastructure resources, allowing rapid scaling up or down as needed and significantly reducing infrastructure costs.
• Promote reuse of infrastructure configuration (which can be stored under a version control system and serve as documentation) through modularization and parameterization, allowing for reusable infrastructure components and patterns.

AV on Campus
Presenters: Leonard Welch, Adam Zonis, and Chris D’Addio

When deploying new AV technologies, it’s essential to consider how you’ll support end-users and efficiently deploy them. Panelists shared information on how they’re approaching this, including expanding their AV integration partner portfolio (to support a more aggressive AV deployment timeline), investigating new technologies (e.g., self-healing systems and AI camera tracking), and more. They also shared updates on current initiatives, such as:

• A multi-year project to refresh over 500 spaces.
• An inventory of AV devices deployed on Yale’s central campus.
• Refining AV standards.
• Deploying additional Zoom Rooms for collaboration and investigating room scheduling and wayfinding options.
• Integrating project management tasks within ServiceNow.

Fostering a Culture of Innovation
Presenter: Louis King, Panelists: Pilar Abuin, Anne Pederson, John Baldo, Netal Patel and Steven Wieda

Panelists shared that IT leadership took a new approach to enable better innovation in their work on Artificial Intelligence (AI). Broadly communicating the importance of AI, prioritizing staff time to innovate in this space, and welcoming participation across One IT at Yale removed previously identified blockers to innovation–weak communication, unclear prioritization, and lack of release time. The result is an accelerated depth and breadth of innovation in our AI initiatives.

Panelists noted that the approach gave them a sense of uncertainty in defining deliverables, understanding timelines, and knowing whether the pieces would all come together when needed.

All agreed that we should continue to be thoughtful about how we approach innovation in our work to identify practices that enable innovation.

Enhancing the Endpoint Experience
Presenters: Jim Blau, Omar Allan (remote), and Ilene Omerso

Presenters shared how they addressed gaps and issues over the past several years by utilizing Microsoft Cloud technologies to combine device management and device provisioning strategies. They also demonstrated how this redesign keeps users, IT personnel, and the University in focus as Endpoint Engineering strives to improve in the future and support the university’s growing needs.

AI Prompt-a-Thon for IT Staff
Presenters: MJ Jabbour and Michelle Morgan

While the assumption may be that IT staff have a baseline understanding of technical processes, this may not always be true, especially if you are in a non-technical role. Presenters led a hands-on session to introduce all staff to ways of integrating AI into their positions and explored:

• What to consider when using AI
• Best practices
• Prompt design
• How to host their own prompt-a-thon

Poorvu Center Collaboration Panel Discussion
Introduction/Moderator: Lucas Swineford, Presenters: Pilar Abuin and Sara Epperson

Panelists provided an overview of new developments in this engaging panel, such as new systems and processes in the discovery phases or early implementation. Examples discussed include Yale Connect (campus Groups), a Syllabus repository, and a new non-degree learner information system.