ITSC Session Recordings Now Available! Click Here!
The 12th annual Spring IT Staff Convention will be held on Thursday, May 25, 2017, in Penn Law's Golkin and Silverman Halls! The annual IT Staff Convention provides a phenomenal opportunity for networking, learning from peers in IT at Penn, seeing what other groups at Penn are doing with IT, and creating connections that last far beyond the convention itself. We have content for everyone involved with IT - local support providers, sysadmins, developers, information security gurus, social media mavens, data analysts, new hires, and seasoned staff.
This spring's convention will once again feature our traditional convention format with sessions covering the breadth of things we are doing in IT at Penn, covering topics that include:
- Information Security
- Emerging Technologies such as AR&VR
- Classroom & Learning Technologies
- Enterprise Systems and Projects Overviews
- Novel Uses of Technology on Campus
- IT Retention & Career Improvement
- etc.
We'll have a mix of open-ended, moderated discussion sessions, panel discussions, and more formal presentations (with Q&A), as well as our the return of our “Hack-a-thon” partner event. The convention will run for most of the day: lunch will be served and a reception will wrap up the day's activities. Coffee, tea, soda, and water will be available throughout the day.
Follow us on Twitter @PennITSC for updates!
The IT Staff Convention is part of a series of programming organized to facilitate information sharing and collaboration across campus. We highly recommend looking through the Events Calendar for other upcoming events hosted by our various Special Interest Groups (SIGs) on all sorts of topics.
Semi Fictitious Realms – Virtual Reality and Unrealized Architecture
Speaker: Chris McAdams, School of Design
Time: 9:45AM to 10:45AM
Location: Golkin 100, Michael A. Fitts Auditorium
Bio:
Christopher McAdams is a project designer at the award-winning architecture practice, DIGSAU, and founder of Pluralist, a design laboratory based in Philadelphia. Specializing in digital design and visualization, his work explores the hybridization of digital and physical realms through the use of Virtual Reality as an integrative tool. Working on a variety of projects, from small apartments to large office buildings, breweries to galleries, Chris believes in the power of design to transform the urban fabric. Outside of professional practice, Chris is a lecturer at PennDesign and adjunct assistant professor at Temple University where he teaches graduate architecture studios.
Description:
The pursuit of immersive digital experiences has long been a goal of the computing industry. Early wearable displays designed in the 1960s depicted simple three dimensional graphics in ways that had never been seen before. Through trial and error, digital pioneers reframed the relationship between user and machine, and over the last five decades, have made strides that advanced both the input and output mechanisms we are so comfortable with today. As a field, architecture has been reliant on these advancements to design and document buildings, but these tools still leave the architect removed from the physicality of the design, with their work depicted as 2D lines or 3D planes alone. Christopher McAdams of the School of Design will discuss his course in which his class studied the evolutionary advancements made that now allow us to fully inhabit digital worlds through Virtual Reality. Using the HTC Vive and Unreal Engine, students generated immersive, photorealistic models of unbuilt architectural works and explored digital/physical interactivity. From the terraces of Paul Rudolph's Lower Manhattan Expressway to Boullee's Cenotaph for Newton, this course strove to breathe new life into places and spaces that have, until this time, never been built or occupied.
Please stick around afterwards to try out Christopher's HTC Vive setup and discover some never-before-built spaces, in virtual reality, for yourself! Sign up for a time slot through our registration page.
Session 1 @ 11:00AM to 12:00PM
Format: Presentation
Bidding HCM: How do you source a new enterprise cloud application suite and get 98% of the team to agree with the decision? The Human Capital Management (HCM) initiative has become Penn’s most complex technology and business transformation initiative in university history. This strategy seeks to replace many of Penn’s legacy human resource applications, including the existing payroll system running on 40 year old code, operating on a 30 year old mainframe. The university will also undertake transforming most end-to-end human resource business processes, from job posting through retirement, in order to make managing the university’s human assets more efficient, less burdensome, and nearly paperless. To support this change, a new suite of cloud-based enterprise HR applications will be necessary to maintain business continuity now, while being flexible enough to grow with Penn in the future. The HCM initiative has involved input from over 250 employees, resulting in nearly 2,000 technical, functional, and business requirements. More than 100 system interfaces will also be required for Penn’s to-be state of HR systems and processes. This session will provide an overview of how the project team conducted detailed pre-bid market analysis, designed and executed a highly complex Request for Proposal, and engaged with 100 staff in evaluating HCM software products and integration service providers. Insights will also be shared on how to plan for vendor negotiations and communications so that a successful negotiation can be achieved.
Format: Presentation
DeskPRO is a ticketing system that provides both users and IT Support Specialists with ease of use when managing and resolving technology issues. Moreover, DeskPRO empowers users with self-help content by either browsing the Knowledgebase or chatting with an IT Support Specialist prior to submitting a ticket. Come see how the School of Nursing utilizes DeskPRO to provide comprehensive customer service to our constituents!
Panelists: Tim Struder (Nursing), Tony Vo (SAS), Andrew Saraceni (Wharton)
Format: Panel
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is taking the computing world by storm, and Penn is taking advantage of the dramatic growth in services. In this session, panelists will share the services that they are using from AWS, and their real-life experiences solving problems. We will be discussing the benefits of using AWS, as well as challenges and recommendations for success. Panelists will share how they have enabled web hosting, backups, disaster recovery, deployment of Cloud native applications, and deployment automation with AWS. The audience will have ample opportunity to ask the panelists questions and share experiences to create a lively dialog about the future of Cloud computing at Penn.
Panelists: JoDe Beitler (ISC), Sarah Spaulding (ISC), Lisa Waring (ISC), Sarah Toms (Wharton), Deirdre Woods (Deirdre Woods Technology Advisors), Annette Perry (Dell)
Format: Panel
What does it mean to be a woman in Technology in 2017? How did we get here, and what attracted us to this field? Join us, and share your journey, as our panelists share theirs. Learn how women have navigated their paths and supported their career trajectories in varied and dynamic ways. We will share the resources, development opportunities, and personal & professional networks that have supported our success. We’ll explore together how we can attract more bright, energetic women to pursue careers in technology – highlighting the possibilities & rewards, facing the challenges, and addressing some of the misconceptions. Additionally, we’ll look at some of the external factors that may impact women in all fields, including concerns about the current political climate and the Philadelphia Wage Equity Ordinance. Finally, whether or not you are able to participate in this session, consider joining us over lunch to continue the dialog and explore ways we can support and encourage women beginning or advancing their careers in technology. If you wish to attend, please register for the lunch discussion when registering for the IT Staff Convention.
Session 2 @ 1:15PM to 2:15PM
Format: Presentation
Large file transfers are a way of life for many of the researchers on Penn's campus. Come and learn what ISC is doing to support these efforts. Aaron Smith, Network Engineer in ISC, will talk about the Science DMZ and using perfSONAR to monitor and troubleshoot Penn's network and beyond. Otto Valladares, Sr. Programmer Analyst with Institute of Bioinformatics, will join for a panel discussion about using to perfSONAR in recent efforts to prepare for sending large genomics files to multiple sites across the country. This will be followed by Q&A.
Format: Panel
As cloud has become more pervasive, the ways of three-tiered virtual platforms have become old hat. In its wake has come a new trend of running on-premises virtual platforms on more streamlined environments with fewer moving parts, and less management overhead. Our panel will talk about the pros and cons of several of these environments, and what went into their decision. Solutions and speakers include: vSan (Don Shappelle - ISC), Nutanix (Matt Frew - Wharton), and vxRail (Josh Poinsett - Nursing).
Panelists: Linda Lee (Wharton), Rich Cardona (Annenberg), Christine Droesser (Law)
Format: Panel
Scantrons are expensive to buy, difficult to keep working, and expensive to use, so schools at Penn are using other technologies for multiple choice exams in large classes and abandoning Scantron -- or are they? This panel discussion will include speakers from across the University who will tell us about the solutions they use and their costs and benefits.
Format: Presentation
Content Marketing + Tech to Best Tell Your Campus Story and Have It Be Remembered:
The Penn Sports Network, a member of the Ivy League Digital Network - http://www.ivyleaguedigitalnetwork.com/penn, is the digital video, live streaming, and on demand production house for Penn Athletics. Producing over 130 live streamed Penn Athletics’ events and over 250 professional on-demand video projects annually, the PSN is the fastest growing channel on the ILDN. Join us to see how the PSN has evolved from its inception to current initiatives which are recognized for best practices in marketing, video production, and live streaming.
Format: Panel/AMA
Three of Penn Law's distinguished faculty members will discuss their research and answer questions from the audience. Their collective expertise touches on many aspects of technology, including: intellectual property, data breaches, privacy, regulation, and much more. For more information, please see their faculty profile pages below:
Session 3 @ 2:30PM to 3:30PM
Format: Presentation
There are many new things happening in the wireless world. Come and hear about some of the plans we have coming down the line for IoT and improvements to overall user experience and security. This session is meant to be interactive and spawn discussion.
Format: Presentation and Town Hall Discussion
Join Mark Wehrle and JoDe Beitler from ISC as they discuss their work on the Unified Communications Strategy. This session will include a brief presentation about the strategy, some potential vendors, and a roadmap. To set the stage for some upcoming focus groups, the presenters will moderate a discussion with audience members to get everyone thinking about how we can ensure the right voices are heard as we evaluate future UC solutions, and what the changes in communication tools might mean to us as IT support providers.
Format: Presentation
As the universe of IoT continues to grow at a rapid pace, our abilities to interact with these devices can be useful. As an added bonus, developing these skills can be fun too! I'll take you through my journey of developing my first Alexa skill in Python for Amazon Echo devices aptly named Happy Days. It is a random quote generator that delivers positive quotes. I'll go over the skills of how to get Python to talk to Alexa and how to dump that code into Lambda for a seamless delivery between Amazon Web Services and the Alexa Skills Kit in just a little over 200 lines! Never developed an Alexa skill before? Don't worry, I hadn't either. I'll provide plenty of resources to help get you started on a path you'll never want to leave as an Alexa developer.
Format: Presentation
When re-inventing an entrenched business process technical expertise is only half of the success formula. Establishing a relationship, building trust, and understanding the needs of the client complete the formula. Wharton Computing's Strategic Partnership group has been designed to combine these two halves and deliver high impact technical solutions. In part one of this two part presentation the effectiveness of the Strategic Partnership model is explored using a particular project as a guide. The second part focuses on a solution created using Panopto, Canvas, and iPads as a recording device replacing a process that had been used for several years.
Session 4 @ 4:00PM to 5:00PM
Format: Presentation
We often inherit or build services that lead to unnecessary stress on our most precious resource: staff. This leads to late night paging from non-critical systems, new staff not empowered with necessary knowledge and new product selection done without identifying support impact. Let’s talk about some options to make these things less likely and less painful!
Format: Presentation
Join us for a discussion on how we are redesigning our systems and processes to use new cloud-based services. During this session, we will discuss device provisioning, configuration management, data loss protection, and more!
Format: Panel
Broaden your support horizons with a panel from Wharton Computing! Come learn about how to use Bomgar, a remote desktop tool with robust features that lets you support your end-users from Boston to Beijing. We’ll also talk about how we landed on Bomgar as our remote solution of choice, as well as how we mass-deployed it to the Wharton School.
Format: Presentation
In mid-FY2016, ISC deployed PennNet's first ever Layer 3 Virtual Private Network (L3VPN) to carry the Health System's network (HUPNet) virtually across the core, delivering network connectivity to users in multiple buildings on campus without the costs associated with additional network electronics and fiber circuits. Recently, ISC and PSOM have been working closely to develop a new network design that builds upon past successes and will enable PSOM to connect end users in multiple buildings across campus while filtering all end user traffic through a logically consolidated, geographically diverse departmental firewall cluster. Albi Kohen of PMACS and John O'Brien of ISC will deliver a technical walk-through of the new design and its features as Penn's network segmentation capabilities graduate from "Crawl" to "Walk."
Format: Presentation and Panel Discussion
At the IT Staff Convention evening soiree last spring, Kate, Ed, and Bill got to talking about how fun it would be to find out how folks got into IT jobs at Penn. For this IT Staff Convention, Kate and Ed got together with Lori and developed a survey that was distributed to all IT staff at Penn. They’ll present the results of the survey, then start a panel discussion/Q&A session on topics such as getting kids in school to consider careers in IT, recruiting people for IT jobs at Penn, IT staff development, IT career paths at Penn, and IT staff retention.
Hack-A-Thon
Time: 1:30PM to 4:00PM
Proctors: Bryan Hopkins, Matt Schleindell, Timothy Allen
The UPenn IT Staff Convention Hackathon returns, and this year will focus on exploring Python, Django and PostgreSQL. Never participated in a hackathon before? Not a coder? No problem! During the first hour, we will help you get set up with a development environment for Django. If you've always wanted to get started but never had the time, carve out an hour and we'll help get you off on the right foot with all the tools you need.
Women in IT: Lunchtime Continued Discussion
Time: 12:00PM to 1:00PM
Join us for lunch as we continue the discussion set forth in the Women in Technology panel discussion during Session 1. We will continue the dialog and explore ways we can support and encourage women beginning or advancing their careers in technology. All are encouraged to attend, whether you were at the panel discussion or not.
Virtual Reality Showcase
Time: 11:00Am to 4:00PM
Stick around after the Keynote to try out Chris McAdams' HTC Vive driven virtual reality setup. We will have two HTC Vive headsets configured in the Levy Room, along with displays, and you, yourself, can explore great, unbuilt architecture. Sign ups can be found under the Virtual Reality Trial Signup tab on this page. Reserve your timeslot now!
Vendor Fair
During the convention, we will be hosting a vendor fair in the Levy Conference Center (room 245) in Silverman Hall. The vendors will be available to talk about their products and technologies and answer questions, so don't hesitate to approach them while taking a short break during the day.
Confirmed vendors:
- Amazon Web Services
- Apple
- Computer Connection
- Dell
- Lenovo
- Microsoft
- Salesforce
- VMware
ATTENTION: Pre-registration for VR Trials are now closed, to allow us to finalize the list and plan accordingly. We will be allowing day-of signups, on site, to fill out time slots that have not yet been claimed. Please see the IT Staff Convention Planning Team member stationed at the VR trials to sign up, during the convention. Thank you.
After our Keynote Session, try out Chris McAdams' HTC Vive setup and discover some never-before-built spaces, in virtual reality, for yourself! There will be two HTC Vive headsets, and time slots will be alternating between headsets, each lasting 6 to 7 minutes. If you can't commit to a time, or won't be able to try out the headsets themselves, don't worry -- The VR showcase will be broadcast to televisions that you can stop by and watch at any time during the Vendor and Showcase Fair!