Information Technology Services activities
This past quarter, Information Technology Services (ITS) worked to implement new services for campus, provide vital upgrades to our campus technical infrastructure and collaborate across campus to develop applications and services to support research technology needs.
New services
• Commencement Name Display Project
ITS staff partnered with the Commencement Office and Educational Communications to develop an application to provide a more personal experience at this year’s Commencement ceremonies. The application incorporated the scanning of a QR code, carried by the graduating student, so that when the students’ names were announced before they crossed the stage to accept their diploma, the live video of the students on the large screen also displayed their names on the bottom. This new addition to the ceremonies was appreciated by everyone present.
• Testing Center Project
A new application was developed for faculty to request services from the University Testing Center. This application can be found within my.binghamton.edu and has helped faculty efficiently request services for students at the University Testing Center.
• Automatic Activation/De-activation in Lenel
The Enterprise Systems and Applications staff for our physical security team within ITS made a once-manual task, the activation and de-activation of cards for events such as conferences, now have the ability to be scheduled automatically. This process provides a significant time savings for the physical security staff.
• Previous Academic Credit Form
An update was completed to the Previous Academic Credit Form and an application was built within mybinghamton.edu so students can easily access the form prior to orientation. This project was an upgrade to an existing form specifically designed for Binghamton Advantage (BAP) students. BAP gave kudos to the ITS team for completing the project, saying that “…changes made will allow advising to spend time advising incoming freshman, rather than providing generic information to students. Rather than focusing on this generic information, they can go to the next level with their conversations.”
• NIST 800-171 “Bubble” implementation
ITS staff from Technology Support Services, Operations and Infrastructure, and Enterprise Systems and Applications areas collaborated to complete a project that will directly support research technology needs. The “bubble” is a secure compute environment that can be used to host protected data such as HIPPA and PHI. This new infrastructure and service offering for our researchers allows the University to support grants that require this level of NIST 800-171 security.
• Laser Cutter in STEAM Room
Students now have access to a laser cutter in the STEAM room located in Mountainview. The Glowforge Laser Cutter provides students with another type of technology that they can learn to use in the makerspace area.
Upgrades to technical infrastructure
• Work in Science 4, Seneca and the pharmacy school
Telecommunications has supporting numerous renovation projects across campus, including at Science 4 and Seneca Hall, installing IT cable, jacks, wall plates and wireless access points for the various projects. The staff has also supported and worked on the new pharmacy building at the Health Sciences Campus in Johnson City, providing the same type of installations to get the building ready for occupancy later this summer.
• 10Gbps NYSERNet Connection
Networking staff completed the installation and configuration of the research and education portion of the NYSERNet connection, primarily used by researchers at universities, colleges, museums, healthcare facilities, primary and secondary schools, and research institutions. The campus has been connected to the service for several years but completed the upgrade in April. There is also a tool within my.binghamton.edu where users can check and see if their data is being transferred across the NYSERNet connection.
• Technology Maintenance Day March and April
ITS staff performed upgrades to the virtual infrastructure, updating the network subnet masks to allow for the expanded iSCSi network scope. Other upgrades, patching and maintenance were performed in the Oracle database and Linux operating environments to protect servers from vulnerabilities and to optimize the software to take advantage of the hardware capabilities.
• Listserv upgrade
The campus listserv application was upgraded to the latest version, which keeps the product current and has new features including better reporting, increased data security and faster web response.
• myCourses Annual Upgrade
Our Managed Hosting Service by Blackboard completed its annual upgrade to our Learning Management System (LMS) at the end of May. The upgrade resolved several known issues and ensures our LMS will continue to be reliable for the upcoming academic year.