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Goals and Achievements

Last Updated: December 1, 2020 7:25:03 PM PST
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Read about IT Services goals for 2018-2020 and progress toward those goals.

1. Support student success & instruction

  1. Strengthen our learning management system tools to support ongoing operational teaching and learning needs and address strategic education goals including the Strategic Academic Program Development (SAPD) initiative.
    • Completed fully-supported migration to Canvas LMS, a modern learning management system, replacing TritonEd (Blackboard), in Spring 2020.
    • Built and launched Open edX, UCSD’s course platform to enable SAPD offerings to a global audience
    • Rebranded Open edX to UC San Diego Online, and offered 18 new revenue generating courses
    • Implemented Kaltura, the new campus-wide video delivery service, and integrated Gradescope, the auto-grading software
    • Expanded Ed Tech service offerings, support hours, and staffing to meet the needs of the SAPD initiative
    • Integrated all support channels into Service Now, and enabled fully remote faculty service points
  1. Grow the analytics community of practice and its outreach to improve student analytic practices across campus, integrate additional student systems according to the planned roadmap, integrate with and implement student mobile messaging.
    • Five COP's have been deployed https://blink.ucsd.edu/technology/bi/communities/index.html
    • Monthly meetings for all CoP's, including data domains for Student, Finance and Research in addition to tool-specific monthly trainings for Tableau and Cognos. Open office hours for pop-in questions. 
    • Co-facilitated  course design, delivery, and support workflow process sessions with ITS and The Teaching & Learning Commons.
  1. Integrate learning record data from Triton Ed and other tools and enable pedagogical improvement analysis for faculty researchers, academic units and the TLC.
    • Went live in conjunction with full Canvas rollout in Fall Quarter, 2019
    • Enabled both Canvas LMS and Open edX to feed all course activity data to the Student Activity Hub for rich learning analytics.
  1. Working with the EDI office and IR, research digital divide issues in the student population that may impact success.
    • Data Analytics Governance Committee approved moving ethnicity data into Student Activity Hub so analysts can run reports by those and other demographic components.
  1. Assess common and specialized student computer and software needs and adjust policies and expand services accordingly.
    • Initiated software management Lean Six Sigma project to optimize software availability by providing a one stop shop for all available software. Slated to be complete by Q3, 2019.
      • Software Asset Management team assembled to consolidate administrative and educational technology software distribution
    • Developed and rolled out CloudLabs, a multi-vendor virtual computer lab solution, for instructional use to meet the needs of remote learning in Spring, 2020.
  1. Develop a sustainable business plan for the Data Science / Machine Learning Platform (DSMLP) for education and expand usage across campus.
    • Sustainability plan for Data Science/Machine Learning Platform developed by ITC and approved by the Educational IT Governance (EITGC) in Spring 2019
    • Student employee hired to help support the DSMLP (6/20)

2. Implement the Enterprise Systems Renewal program on time within budget

  1. Complete the student information system RFP process and selection; establish schedule with EVC office; begin implementation.
    • RFP issued and down-select complete, on track to complete selection by the end of 2020.
  1. Meet milestones for implementing enterprise content management, academic personnel solution (AP Next), research administration (eCompliance, eRAP), facilities management (Tririga), data warehouse replacement, universal workflow.
    • Enterprise Document Management System is in production for Enrollment Management and now on boarding Policy and Records Administration. Interfolio Review Promotion and Tenure module now live for all departments.  Tririga Space and Real Estate Management, Kuali Research, Kuali Conflict of Interest, UC Path, Oracle Financial Cloud and SAP Concur, Student Activity Hub, Employee Activity Hub and Research Activity Hub are all live.  
    • Kuali IRB, Kuali Build (Universal Workflow), Bio-bib Automation to inform AP processes, Events Management, Enterprise Identity Management, next generation Student Information System, and additional Activity Hubs (Financial, Facilities, Compliance, and Workflow) in progress.
  1. Conclude financial applications procurement process and manage the finance module implementation within schedule and cost guidelines.
    • Oracle Financial Cloud and SAP Concur implemented as of July 1, 2020 within schedule and cost guidelines.
  1. Working with business and financial services (BFS), develop a one-stop shop customer support model (‘Hyper-Care’) to support the new systems.
    • All central offices providing support has been migrated into ServiceNow as each new system goes live. The Services & Support portal now includes: Research Administration, Budget and Finance, Student Support, and Payroll, AP and HR.
    • Central Support Portal: http://support.ucsd.edu.

3. Enhance research services

  1. In concert with SDSC and Health IT, design and implement improvements in the awareness and delivery of fundamental research IT services. Continue expansion of research facilitation services to reach more research labs.
    • ITS/Research IT has hired a graduate student Domain Consultant (1/20) and replaced our vacant second full-time Research Facilitator (8/20)
    • ITS/Research IT replaced our vacant P5-level integration expert position (5/20)
    • Number of researchers reached continues to grow, while we maintain long-term relationships with all past PIs/labs served
    • Per our governance committee's recommendations, ITS/Research IT initiated a pilot of no-cost basic GPU/CPU cluster services for long-tail researchers, with a 'growth path' to SDSC, national NSF resources, and commercial cloud providers
    • ITS/Research IT continues to work in close collaboration with the SDSC, Heatlh IS, and the Library to provide seamless services to faculty
  1. Leverage active participation in national/international research IT efforts (e.g., ACI-REF Workshop, PEARC, GO FAIR, and CaRC programs) to increase UCSD competitiveness. 
    • ITS/Research IT leads the annual 3-day training workshop for UC-wide facilitators
    • ITS/Research IT staff hold leadership positions in Cyberinfrastructure/Research Computing and Data (RCD) professional organizations (CaRCC, EDUCAUSE)
    • ITS/Research IT staff co-authored papers, participated as named senior personnel on grant proposals, and presented and lead workshops at national events (e.g. EDUCAUSE and PEARC annual conferences)
    • ITS/Research IT members have been invited participants in nationally-represented working groups and workshops (Internet2, CaRCC)
    • ITS/Research IT members are active participants on NSF and NIH grants 
  1. Implement the cloud optimization business case plan.
    • Completed cloud optimization pilot with Strategic Blue and business case. Over the course of 5 months, using third party cloud compute reseller saved researchers on average 25% overall. Projected net overall savings including funding for resources to manage the program, 18%.
    • Moving to phase 2 expansion, UC San Diego is part of $5M National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to manage CloudBank, a suite of managed services to simplify public cloud access for computer science research and education. 
    • The campus continues to add new research AWS cloud accounts on a steady rate, including providing integration support where needed.
  1. Working with research IT governance, conduct an assessment of researcher data needs and service gaps.
    • ITS and research IT governance conducted an assessment of researcher data needs and gaps and reported to IT Executive Governance Committee (ITEGC) 
    • ITS/Research developed (in collaboration with the Library) and continues to refine and maintain a research data storage explorer tool
    • ITS/Research IT continues to identify gaps and address research computing and data (RCD) needs 
  1. Complete the Restricted Cloud Data Storage Pilot and make the compliance and technical templates available to faculty and staff in UCSD, UCSD Health System, coordinating with the UC-wide Research IT Committee.
    • Pilot completed in fiscal year 2018-19
    • Additional AWS Protected Data Environment Maintenance proof-of-concept project completed in fiscal year 2019-20 
  1. Develop a plan to provide software tools for PI and researcher productivity at low cost or through campus-wide agreements.
    • This is a continuing effort by ITS/Research IT
    • ITS/Research IT coordinated group purchase of scientific research analysis and graphing solution software, realizing savings upwards of $10,000 per year

4. Improve cybersecurity

  1. Coordinating with Health IT, implement multi-factor authentication broadly; complete install of next generation firewall technology; fully implement file share scanning tools across file shares. 
    • Multi-Factor Authentication successfully deployed to 35,000 students building on the deployment of MFA to the entire faculty and staff. Since deploying MFA to all faculty and staff we have seen a 50-60% reduction in compromised accounts. 
    • Expand deployment of nextgen network firewalls to increase coverage from 60% to 100% of the network capable of being placed behind the firewall. 
    • Completed deployment of a confidential data discovery service to all IT Services’ managed network file shares. Use of a similar service on administrative desktops has resulted in the removal of files containing over 3 million SSNs.
    • Implement a policy on the formation of passwords that eliminated the need for annual password resets and checks new and existing passwords against a dynamic service of account credentials known to be compromised. Implemented on Active Directory for all password changes, and on the password change website. 
  1. Working closely with the ESR program and Health IT, implement the new identity management system.
    • New Identity Management Project in progress: Software procured, and new architecture designed.
    • Significantly lower the risk of inappropriate access to student information through managed and audited account creation and deprovisioning. In 2018 over 20,000 inactive but enabled Active Directory accounts were removed. 
    • Access for alumni to transcripts and academic history using social identities now in production. 
  1. Refresh UC San Diego’s local information security policy, generate an acceptable use policy.
    • Working with CAIT faculty senate committee 
    • A draft acceptable use policy is under review.
    • Participated in the revision of the campus PCI policy and helped ensure UC San Diego received its PCI certification.
  1. Provide additional training, workshops and documentation in security practices for researchers.
    • Awarded NSF grant to develop training materials and hold workshops (NSF Grant 1840034)
    • Contributing recurring column to Research Compliance newsletter
    • Provided several training sessions pertaining to CMMC to administrators and researchers. 
  1. Build security awareness into the curriculum; utilize campus teaching talent to improve current material.
    • Delivered twice monthly workshops to campus on information security
    • Delivered twice monthly newsletter to campus IT community on information security
    • Developed and deployed the Six Words program http://sixwords.ucsd.edu. 

5. Improve service levels and cost-effectiveness

  1. Implement vendor-assisted image deployment within ITS managed desktops. Working with Health IT, distributed IT units, implement standard workstation images, common remote software management tools to all administrative computers.
    • Developed standardized images for all ITS supported units, covering over 3,000 workstations. 
      • Thin image deployed and managed through SCCM and layered images for each of the supported departments
    • Deployed SCCM remote management software for PC's and Jamf for Mac computers. Also offer Big Fix to academic units for patching and security software.
      • Reviewing current services and determining if one or more can be decommissioned. A decision by Q4 2020, completion by Q3, 2021.
    •  
  1. Develop guidelines ethical use of machine learning and AI within administrative processes and systems, anticipating future use of AI/ML driven process automation methods.
  1. Continue the cloud-first infrastructure strategy. In close coordination with Health IT, move  infrastructure to cloud providers or SDSC data centers. Retire one of two ITS data centers.
    • Applied Physics and Math (AP&M) data center decommissioned 08/2018. Total cost recovery for UC San Diego, $98,410.
    • Deployed Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) in AWS as central data movement platform for ESR and beyond
    • Developed partnership with Nutanix for co-development of cost optimization and security monitoring tool for cloud environments
      • Net cost recovery for cloud computing environments: ~$3000/month
    •  
  1. Publish regularly service metrics for widespread services including WiFi, call center and field support activities, coordinating with Health IT metrics.
      • Monthly metrics reported first week of each month on last month's activities for all IT Services. Metrics include total number of incidents and requests. Incident time to first response, time to resolution, calls per day, percent of calls answered in under 10 seconds, average call duration, call abandonment rate, and customer satisfaction metrics. Link: https://blink.ucsd.edu/technology/about/metrics.html

6. Invest in inclusive excellence

New goal as of December 2019!

  1. Continue our commitment to flexible work arrangements (such as telecommuting), and ensure equitable participation across groups.
    • Implemented strong telecommuting & flexible work arrangement policies
  1. Increase diversity in higher roles by ensuring goals are addressed in the hiring process, and increase community outreach.
    • Became a strategic partner ($10k investment) in Women in Cybersecurity
    • Implemented review of referral pool diversity.  Positions with insufficient diversity are reopened. (10 of 51 recruitments were reopened due to insufficient diversity in 2020)
    • Strengthened diverse interview committee requirement
    • Support Recruiting staff with upgraded LinkedIn memberships ($20k/year investment)
    • Reclaimed position to invest in an Executive Recruiter for IT
    • Implemented requirement for implicit bias training for all search committee members (95 staff completed training as of 7/8/20)
    • Implemented review of job posting language to make ads welcoming to all, especially women.
    • Implemented plan to require ITS Recruiters to review interview questions.
    • Implement a Diversity/Inclusion question in all interviews.
    • Use campus partners in recruitments where appropriate (18/51 recruitment in 2020 used campus partner on interview panels)
    • Conduct annual review of gender/ethnicity representation statistics by job group identifying underutilization
    • Conduct annual review of performance appraisal ratings by gender/ethnicity
    • Conduct annual review of salaries by gender/ethnicity in job groups/titles
  1. Improve engagement with nearly 100 student employees.
    • Strengthen ITS student worker program to create a student worker community including sharing all student job postings.

  1. Help distributed IT units establish and meet their diversity goals.