blog posts

• What You Need to Know: The Essentials of Effective Teaching Workshop Series

  Jun 4, 2018 10:45 am6 views

  June 12, 14, 19, and 21, 11 a.m. - noon and 12:30 - 1:30 p.m. each day

  Registration is now open for the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning Summer Workshop series, titled "What You Need to Know: The Essentials of Effective Teaching."  The series as a whole is designed to get new instructors a head start on designing their first course, but any instructor (or future instructor) can attend any part of the series to brush up on their skills or learn something new.

• Michigan State University's Empower Women in IT Conference: July 19

  Jul 12, 2018 9:00 am6 views

  Michigan State University Information Technology and MSU IT Club25 are excited to announce the inaugural Empower Women in IT Conference on July 19, featuring keynote speaker Emily Calandrelli! They have extended a warm welcome to all people working in IT. Emily Calandrelli is an Emmy-nominated science TV host. She's featured as a correspondent on Bill Nye Saves the World and an executive producer and the host of FOX's Xploration Outer Space.

• Partner Investment in 7 TESLA MRI Impacts Illinois Research, Patient Care

  Jul 29, 2019 10:15 am6 views

  Carle and University of Illinois leadership recently approved funding to purchase a MAGNETOM 7 Tesla (7T) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner. They join an elite network of clinical facilities (currently one of only six nationwide) to offer patients access to this technology, the highest magnetic field imaging strength commercially available in the United States approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for brain and knee scans of patients greater than 66 lbs.

• Attend the XSEDE HPC Workshop

  Jan 8, 2018 3:30 pm5 views

  XSEDE along with the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center are pleased to announce a one-day OpenMP workshopTuesday, January 9. This workshop is intended to give C and Fortran programmers a hands-on introduction to OpenMP programming. Attendees will leave with a working knowledge of how to write scalable codes using OpenMP. This event will be presented using the Wide Area Classroom (WAC) training platform.

  Add event to your calendar:  iCal   Outlook 2010

• What is CU Hack Night?

  Jan 10, 2018 2:30 pm5 views

  CU Hack Night is a group of civic-minded individuals who seek to find solutions to community challenges. Hack Nights began as a community group in January 2017. The weekly Tuesday night meetings include dinner, technical presentations and breakout sessions focusing on projects ranging from bee pollination to mass transit and public health. Hack nights locate publicly available data with the goal of addressing challenges in local communities. The group focuses on having fun with new and old friends to create new solutions.

  For more information visit the CU Hack Night Twitter or Facebook pages.What is CU Hack Night?

• Simplifying HIPAA-Related Processes

  Jan 10, 2018 2:30 pm5 views

  A cross-campus working group collaboratively drafted questions to be used in faculty interviews to assess their sensitive data needs.  The working group also identified opportunities to improve the Institutional Review Board (IRB) process, as it pertains to HIPAA, by populating the form with choices and reducing, if not eliminating, free-form text boxes.  Faculty welcomed the suggestion for simplifying the IRB form.

• Supercomputing for students

  Jan 10, 2018 2:30 pm5 views

  University of Illinois students interested in high-performance and extreme-scale computing can sign up now for the Joint Laboratory for Extreme-Scale Computing (JLESC) Summer School, which takes place July 20-21 at NCSA. The summer school will feature two days of talks on topics like Python, MPI, OpenACC and more. Seating is first-come, first-serve. Register today.

  Add event to your calendar:   iCal    Outlook 2010

• 2017 June Newsletter (Archive)

  Jan 10, 2018 2:30 pm5 views

  Read the June 2017 Research IT at Tech Services Newsletter.

• Software and Data Carpentry Workshops Reach Over 27,000 Learners

  Jan 10, 2018 3:00 pm5 views

  Software and Data Carpentry workshops are held all around the world. The combined sessions have brought over 27,000 learners into workshops to learn to better use "R and Python to work with data, write functions, and initialize repositories in git".

  The Data Carpentry community has reviewed its assessment results and published an article on the impact of these sessions.

  Read the article

• Scientists Pioneer Use of Deep Learning for Real-time Gravitational Wave Discovery

  Mar 2, 2018 11:15 am5 views

  This new approach will enable astronomers to study gravitational waves using minimal computational resources, reducing time to discovery and increasing the scientific reach of gravitational wave astrophysics.

  Read more

• U of I Researcher Recognized with AMC Fellowship for Contributions to Parallel Programming

  Mar 2, 2018 11:15 am5 views

  NCSA Faculty Affiliate Laxmikant "Sanjay" Kale was named to the the 2017 class of fellows from the Association for Computing Machinery.

  Read more

• Leading cloud providers join with NSF to support data science frontiers

  Mar 2, 2018 11:15 am5 views

  The National Science Foundation (NSF) is providing nearly $30 million in new funding for research in data science and engineering through its Critical Techniques, Technologies and Methodologies for Advancing Foundations and Applications of Big Data Sciences and Engineering (BIGDATA) program.

  Read the full story

• Women in IT Networking at SC applications

  Mar 2, 2018 11:30 am5 views

  WINS - Call for Participation - SC18 - Dallas, TX

  The Women in IT Networking at SC (WINS) program is now accepting applications for the 2018 program. Awardees will receive funding to participate as a SCinet team member during the SC18 conference in Dallas, Texas. Interested and qualified women are encouraged to apply. Please feel free to distribute this information to your networks and contacts.

  Access the 2018 WINS Application from the WINS website:

  women-in-networking.net/apply-to-wins/

  Application deadline: March 23, 2018 at 11:59pm AoE

  Award notifications will be sent by mid to late May 2018 

  WINS is a three year National Science Foundation-funded program that awards up to five early to mid-career women from diverse regions of the U.S. research and education community IT field to participate in the ground-up construction of SCinet, one of the fastest and most advanced computer networks in the world. WINS is a joint effort between the Energy Sciences Network (ESnet), the Keystone Initiative for Network Based Education and Research (KINBER), and University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR).

  Full text of the official 2018 WINS Call for Participation (CFP) is on the website.

• 2018 January Newsletter

  Mar 2, 2018 7:30 am5 views

  View the January newsletter online.

• Technology Services Expanded Walk-in Support Hours

  Mar 26, 2018 11:15 am5 views

  The Technology Services Help Desk is expanding the hours for walk-in support at the Digital Computer Laboratory. Assistance via email (consult@illinois.edu), phone (217-244-7000) and walk-in is available:

  Monday - Friday: 8am - 9pm

  Saturday/Sunday: 12pm - 5pm

• 2018 Summer Boot Camp XSEDE Registration Pages Available

  May 15, 2018 9:30 am5 views

  The registration pages for the 2018 Summer Boot Camp event are now available.

  This 4 day event will include MPI, OpenMP, OpenACC and accelerators and run June 4-7. This event will be presented using the Wide Area Classroom(WAC) training platform and will conclude with a special hybrid exercise contest that will challenge the students to apply their skills over the following 3 weeks and be awarded the Fifth Annual XSEDE Summer Boot Camp Championship Trophy.  In addition, an XSEDE Badge will be available to those who complete the Challenge.

  https://www.psc.edu/hpc-workshop-series/summer-bootcamp-2018

  https://portal.xsede.org/web/xup/course-calendar

• "Humanities and Arts in the Age of Big Data", taking place October 4-5

  Sep 5, 2018 8:45 am5 views

  The panel conversations on the 5th should be particularly engaging. Two authors of my favorite books in 2018 are panelists: Safiya Noble and Virginia Eubanks will both be speaking. Their respective works Algorithms of Oppression and Automating Inequality, are some of the best works on the systemic problems of big data processing that I have read in the past several years. 

  For more information visit https://publish.illinois.edu/humanitiesartsinageofbigdata/schedule/

• Webinar: Introduction to Running Jobs on Comet

  Jan 4, 2019 9:00 am4 views

  Date: Tuesday, January 8, 2019, 11am-1pm PST

  Presenter: Mary Thomas

  This webinar covers the basics of accessing the SDSC Comet supercomputer, managing the user environment,  compiling and running jobs on Comet, where to run them, and how to run batch jobs. It is assumed that you have mastered the basics skills of logging onto Comet and running basic Unix commands.  The webinar will include access to training material.

  This meeting will use the Zoom conferencing system. You should receive an email with connection details when you register. If you do not have the connection details, please send an email to eot@sdsc.edu. 

  Slides and recording will be made available after the webinar. 

  Register for this webinar. 

• Who Is Doing Our Data Laundry?

  Jan 10, 2018 2:15 pm4 views

  We are seeing a surge in firms with offers to take institutions' data so that they can reformat it and make it available as dashboards, with trends and models. It is time to ask: Who is doing our data laundry, and why?

  Read the full story

• Social Media Analytics Summit Success

  Jan 10, 2018 2:30 pm4 views

  The Social Media Analytics Summit (led by the Illinois Data Science Initiative and co-sponsored by Research IT, Technology Services) was a gathering of over 200 registrants that spanned academic research, industry research, social media practitioners, students, and other interested parties. The goal of the summit was to showcase what is happening in the realm of social media analytics both on the Illinois campus and beyond. A researcher from Spredfast (one of the largest social media analytics companies) and the network science group from Indiana University presented on things happening with social media analytics beyond Illinois. The State of Illinois marketing officer was also present to understand what is happening in this realm. It was an incredibly successful summit and hope that this was a springboard for many activities to come within the realm of social media analytics.

• Research IT Team Members Lead Sessions at IT Pro Forum

  Jan 10, 2018 2:30 pm4 views

  Research IT team members Tony Rimovsky (IT Architect) and Tracy Smith (Director of Research IT) will lead multiple presentations and workshops at the Spring 2017 IT Professionals Forum on June 7-8.

• 'Smart' Campuses Invest in the Internet of Things

  Jan 10, 2018 2:30 pm4 views

  Some campus academic leaders are interested in the possibility that IoT devices could help improve student success efforts, although obviously these efforts raise a number of privacy concerns. Arizona State University has launched a pilot project to see if using IoT to take attendance could help advisers reach out to students.

  Read the full story.

• 2017 September Newsletter

  Jan 10, 2018 3:00 pm4 views

  Read the September 2017 Technology Services Research IT Newsletter.

• 2017 October Newsletter

  Jan 10, 2018 3:00 pm4 views

  Read the October 2017 Technology Services Research IT Newsletter.

• Sign up for Data Nudge for Monthly Reminders to Manage Your Research Data

  Jan 10, 2018 3:00 pm4 views

  Want to manage your research data more proactively? Sign up to receive monthly data management reminders that come with quick, easy tips and activities designed by your local Research Data Service.

• Impact of the Federal Government Partial Shutdown

  Jan 14, 2019 9:15 am4 views

  As you are aware, a partial federal government shutdown has continued into the new year. While NIH and the Department of Education are funded, others such as NSF, NASA, NOAA, USDA, NIST, and NEH are not.

  Illinois Sponsored Programs Administration (SPA) has developed these FAQs to address some questions that members of the Illinois research community may have.

  Agency Contingency Plans and FAQs can be found on the OMB website:

  https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/information-for-agencies/agency-contingency-plans/

• Handshake Helps With Job Placement

  Mar 2, 2018 7:15 am4 views

  Are you a Graduate Student starting your job search? Handshake, a new service offering at Illinois, can help you get started. With over 200,000 employers nation-wide, it's a fantastic way to get yourself seen.

  Read the full story.

• 2017 December Newsletter

  Mar 2, 2018 7:15 am4 views

  Read the December 2017 Technology Services Research IT Newsletter.

• Illinois chancellor and chemist elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences

  Apr 22, 2019 10:30 am4 views

  Chancellor Robert J. Jones and chemistry professor Catherine J. Murphy have been elected as members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the oldest honorary societies in the nation.

  They are among more than 200 individuals with compelling achievements in academia, business, government and public affairs to be elected to the academy this year.

• Call for Proposals now open for the Women Advance IT Conference

  May 2, 2019 10:15 am4 views

  "Women Advance IT" is an IT leadership conference that will be held at the Nebraska Innovation Campus, 2021 Transformation Dr, Lincoln, NE 68508 on November 5-6, 2019. This two-day conference is open to the public. The final day of registration is October 29, 2019.This year's conference theme is, "Disruption." We want to hear about programs that encourage inclusiveness and continued education in improving diversity and inclusion, growing future leaders and adding more women in IT. This year's Emerging Tech track will focus on STEM, we encourage students to submit proposals on their research projects.  

• Breakfast meeting on undergraduate data science education - 9/5

  Aug 27, 2018 11:15 am4 views

  A breakfast on undergraduate data science education on Wednesday September 5 from 8:30 to 10:30, Rm 314, Illini Union. Hear about an initiative for a broadly accessible introductory course on data science as an on-ramp to other educational opportunities on campus. The goal is that every Illinois undergraduate should have the opportunity to have a meaningful exposure to data science. RSVP by 8/29.

• Savvy Researcher Workshops

  Nov 6, 2018 9:30 am4 views

  Check out this week's Savvy Researcher Workshops:

  Personal Information Management: Monday, November 5, 4 – 5 p.m., Main Library, room 314

  Designing with Microsoft Publisher: Tuesday, November 6, 11 a.m. - noon, Main Library, room 314

  Making Scanned Text Machine Readable through Optical Character Recognition: Tuesday, November 6, 1 - 2 p.m., Main Library, room 314

  Smart & Simple Data Management: Tuesday, November 6, 3 – 4:30 p.m., Funk ACES, room 509

  Google for Scholars: Wednesday, November 7, 11 a.m. – noon, Main Library, room 314

  Drowning in Citations and PDFs? EndNote Can Help!: Wednesday, November 7, 1 – 2 p.m., Main Library, room 314

  Navigating the University Press Ecosystem: Thursday, November 8, 11 a.m. - noon, Main Library, room 314

  Building Digital Exhibitions with Omeka: Thursday, November 8, noon – 1 p.m., Main Library, room 314

  Introduction to Infographics Using Piktochart: Friday, November 9, noon – 1 p.m., Main Library, room 314

  The Power of Presentations: Enhancing your Slides for Teaching and Engagement: Friday, November 9, 1 – 2 p.m., Armory, room 172

  Learn more and register online.

• XSEDE Researcher Applies Supercomputing to Global Financial Markets

  Jan 8, 2019 9:45 am3 views

  Until recently, the thought of using supercomputers, the world's most powerful computational machines, to study global financial markets was relatively unheard of. Today, Mao Ye, a Finance researcher from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is seeking to change that, and perhaps even inform regulatory decision-making in the future, all with the help of XSEDE's computational and consulting expertise.

• NCSA processes big data with breakthrough results for Dark Energy Survey

  Jan 10, 2018 2:30 pm3 views

  New measurements from data processed by the Dark Energy Survey Data Management (DESDM) project at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign verify the theory that 26 percent of the Universe is in the form of mysterious dark matter and that space is filled with an also-unseen dark energy, which is causing the accelerating expansion of the universe and makes up 70 percent of the Universe’s contents.

  To read the full story, visit http://illinois.edu/emailer/newsletter/135889.html

• 2017 August Newsletter (Archived)

  Jan 10, 2018 2:30 pm3 views

  Read the August 2017 Technology Services Research IT Newsletter.

• Managing Your Research Data

  Jan 10, 2018 2:45 pm3 views

  Research Data Services offers a monthly newsletter to help researchers proactively manage their data. Focuses include organizing data, improving storage and backup security, documenting data structure, and more.

  Subscribe to the newsletter at  https://go.illinois.edu/nudge

• Updated Guidelines for Digital Humanities Advancement Grants

  Jan 10, 2018 3:00 pm3 views

  The National Endowment for the Humanities has updated guidelines for applications to receive a DH Advancement Grant through their Office of Digital Humanities. Application deadline is January 16, 2018 for projects to begin in September 2018.

  For full details visit the National Endowment for the Humanties website.

• Gel Imaging On a Budget

  Jan 10, 2018 3:00 pm3 views

  Dr. Lindsay Clark, a Research Specialist in the department of Crop Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, needed a gel imager for her work. She didn't want to spend $10,000, so built her own for considerably less.

  Read the full story

• Agriculture Technology Innovation Summit - registration open!

  Feb 5, 2019 3:30 pm3 views

  Registration is now open for the 4th AgTech Summit, March 5-6 at the Research Park. Champaign-Urbana is one of the premier AgTech hubs in the nation, and we are uniquely positioned to bring together entrepreneurs, investors, academics, and industry for learning, networking and advancing this sector. 

• Statement on executive order to maintain American leadership in artificial intelligence

  Feb 12, 2019 9:15 am3 views

  President Donald J. Trump is expected to sign an executive order Feb. 11, titled "Maintaining American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence." The order aims to promote sustained investment and innovation in artificial intelligence (AI), enhance access to resources for AI research, and train a next-generation AI research workforce. National Science Foundation (NSF) Director France Córdova, who will participate in the signing ceremony, issued the following statement.

• 2018-2019 NCSA Faculty Fellowship Application Now Available

  Mar 2, 2018 11:15 am3 views

  This competitive fellowship program provides a unique opportunity for faculty and researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign by offering seed funding for startup collaborative research projects.

  Read more

• Spring Savvy Researcher Training Schedule Released

  Mar 2, 2018 7:30 am3 views

  The library’s spring schedule for the Savvy Researcher Workshop series has been released.

  Join us for 50 minute, hands-on workshops that will help you improve your research and information management skills.

  Digital Humanities-related sessions include:

  Building Digital Exhibitions with OmekaDigital

  Publishing with ScalarBasics of Data Visualization

  Introduction to Text Mining Concepts and Sources

  Topic Modeling Theory and Practice

  Messy Data? Clean it up with OpenRefine!

  Making Scanned Text Machine Readable through Optical Character Recognition

  Using the DPLA (Digital Public Library) Primary Resources for Research

  GIS for Research I: Introduction to GIS Concepts, Software, and Data

  GIS for Research II: GIS Research, Data Management, and Visualization

  For more details and registration:   http://go.library.illinois.edu/savvyresearcher

  All sessions held in the Main Library, Room 314 unless otherwise noted.

• Can You Imagine: Shaping the future of finance with HPC

  May 6, 2019 3:15 pm3 views

  NCSA Faculty Fellow and Assistant Professor at the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois, Mao Ye’s research lies at the intersection of big data, high-performance computing and the economics, and finance realm. Using computing resources, Ye tackles large amounts of data currently being collected by companies and finance institutions. “The high-performance computing is more like a tool,” he said, “because we are basically doing big data research.”

• Box Community Summit June 27-28

  May 10, 2018 10:00 am3 views

  Universities from around the country will be gathering together to share ideas, concerns, and best practices. Learn how others are using Box on their campuses and how they address challenges they face.

• Food and Family Conference 2019 - Registration Open!

  Jul 29, 2019 10:15 am3 views

  Food and Family Conference | September 25-26, 2019 | Chicago, IL

  Join the nation's foremost experts in human nutrition, obesity research, and child and family health at the Food and Family Conference 2019. Hosted by the Family Resiliency Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in partnership with the Christopher Family Foundation.

  Click here to register: https://appserv7.admin.uillinois.edu/FormBuilderSurvey/Survey/uiuc_famil... .

  Detailed agenda coming soon!

• Unraveling the Mysteries of the Brain

  Jan 10, 2018 2:15 pm2 views

  Dr. Xiaohui Chen, Assistant Professor in Statistics, and his team are mining data to help neuroscientists find the mechanism that makes neurodegenerative diseases tick.

  Read the full story

• Black Holes and the Music of the Spheres

  Jan 10, 2018 2:15 pm2 views

  Dr. Eliu Huerta Escudero and his team are extending our understanding of gravitational wave astronomy by developing new tools that detect and characterize wave sources in dense stellar environments.

  Read the full story

• What is a Supercomputer?

  Jan 10, 2018 3:00 pm2 views

  The article These are the world's most powerful supercomputers by Popular Science not only highlights those with the most power, but also describes what a supercomputer is and how it differs from a server farm.

   

• Call for Proposals: SBSRI Small Grant Program

  Apr 2, 2018 9:15 am2 views

  The Social and Behavioral Sciences Research Initiative, with support from the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research both directly and via the Campus Research Board, requests proposals for its 2018 Small Grant Program. This program brings together interdisciplinary research teams to develop projects that show promise for external funding. Applications will be accepted until April 28, 2018.

• iSEE Congress 2019

  May 2, 2019 11:45 am2 views

  The iSEE Sustainability and Justice Conference will take place Sept 24-25, 2019 at the Illini Union rooms A, B, C. This event features a diverse group of researchers, educators, journalists and activists discussing cutting-edge issues surrounding sustainability and social justice, building bridges across different approaches, disciplines and geographies, and charting new directions to a sustainable, just future. Free attendance, but registration is required; instructors are invited to contact us to bring classes. Register here.