Issue 31, January 11, 2022

Technology trends are affected by the world around us, and finding solutions for our current challenges is our top priority. With that in mind, here are some of the current hot technology topics and how we will be addressing them in the coming year.

• Equitable access for students. By investing in connectivity, tools, and skills, faculty, staff, and students at the UTHSC will continue to have access to premier tools and software such as Microsoft 365, Blackboard Ultra, Zoom, OnBase, and research software.
• Adoption Of Cloud Technology. ITS evaluates providers that give us the best experience, whether on campus or remote. In the past decade, we have moved to cloud providers for email, file sharing and collaboration, video conferencing, and learning management systems. More recently, the migration of Mediasite to the cloud for our lecture capture service and the move to RingCentral is moving our telephony service to the cloud. In 2022, we continue to invest in the solutions that best serve our faculty, staff, and students.
• Mitigating Risks. Part of our responsibility is to reduce risks for the university. Services such as two-factor authentication, upgraded firewalls, and systems for continuous monitoring of servers have all contributed to this effort. Moving forward, we are looking at solutions to help us manage the university's workstations and laptops to ensure that we can mitigate risks should these devices be stolen or compromised. You will hear more about device management and mobile device management in the coming year.
• Certificates and Online Training. While we offer several options for asynchronous online training, including K@TE and LinkedIn Learning, we can also help you with your college and department's initiatives. We also offer personal consultations and departmental training for desktop business productivity tools, such as Microsoft 365, Qualtrics, and Zoom, for faculty, staff, and students. We look forward to partnering with you and helping you upskill in the coming year.

How do you find information on the technology you need when you are new to the campus? Look no further than our TechConnect knowledge base New to Campus category!

We have information for faculty, staff, and students about:

• file storage
• how to purchase hardware and software
• everything you need to know about your NetID and email address
• how to install/access/use Microsoft 365
• telephone and voicemail information
• how to set up remote desktop for Windows and Mac computers
• all about the student labs and printers

Share this information with new employees in your area!

The new ISAAC Next Generation (ISAAC-NG) High Performance and Scientific Computing cluster is online and ready for you and/or your workgroup’s use. All existing ISAAC cluster users have been given access to ISAAC-NG. All existing users can use the shared University resources available in this cluster, including 3 petabytes of Lustre storage, 48 compute nodes, and 4 GPU nodes. This cluster (ISAAC-NG) uses the SLURM scheduler and workload manager.

We are excited to announce that the new ISAAC-NG HPSC cluster is ready for use by you and/or your workgroup. On the ISAAC-NG HPSC cluster, researchers will have access to 52 nodes of the University resources and 3 petabytes of storage, which are available and shared among all ISAAC-NG users. Detailed information about the ISAAC resources available (both University and private condos) is located on the HPSC website at https://oit.utk.edu/hpsc -> ISAAC-NG -> System Overview page.

We have introduced SLURM as the scheduler and workload manager for ISAAC-NG, unlike the existing ISAAC Open Enclave cluster (ISAAC Legacy), which uses Torque/Moab, a variant of PBS. Therefore, there will be a learning curve if you or your workgroup are unfamiliar with SLURM.

To get started, please see the ISAAC-NG documentation, including the following:

• Access and Login
• Running Jobs
• Writing Jobs Scripts
• SLURM vs. PBS for SLURM information
• Open On Demand
• Data Transfer

To check the available software on ISAAC-NG, you can either review the Available Software page or log in to ISAAC-NG and run the “module avail” command.

If you need to request a new account, project space, or software, please contact UTHSC HPSC Liaison Akram Mohammed (amoham18@uthsc.edu).

Microsoft has some excellent FREE training courses we recommend. As UTHSC faculty or staff, you can access all Microsoft 365 apps listed. Students may not have access to all these apps.

Introduction to Microsoft Teams Calling
This course offers training on how Microsoft 365 voice provides a secure, reliable, and rich cloud-based phone system backed by Microsoft Teams. In this course, learn to use the calling features you need to be productive. Register

• Jan 17 - 9:30 am - 10:30 am

Getting Started with Outlook
This course offers an insight on how to get started with Outlook email. Register

• Jan 13 - 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
• Jan 17 - 11:00 am - 12:00 pm

Fundamentals of Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel, the spreadsheet app, lets you create, view, edit, and share files quickly and easily. Get started by learning to navigate excel, organize data, and use basic formulas. Register

• Jan 17 - 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
• Jan 24 - 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm

UTK is offering a free two-hour online Qualtrics Basics course on 01/20/22 (10:00 am - 12:00 pm EST) and 02/16/22 (10:00 am - 12:00 pm EST).

In this introductory workshop, you will learn how to create and deploy a web-based survey using Qualtrics. Basic question construction (single and multiple response questions, grid/matrix tables for Likert questions, text questions) will be covered, as well as how to add Display and Skip Logic, which allows the respondent to skip questions that do not pertain to them, thereby shortening their response time. This course also covers an overview of the reporting tools, how to export data as an SPSS dataset (for researchers) and an overview of best practices for collecting online data will also be presented.

Register online using your NetID and password. You will receive an email confirmation as well as a reminder 3 days before your workshop.)

The Office of Communications and Marketing has an Email Signature Generator that creates the official UTHSC email signature for your UTHSC email account.

An email signature provided by the generator is required for all UTHSC faculty and staff to use on all internal and external email communication and should not be altered. A consistent email signature provides recipients with an awareness of UTHSC, while also reflecting positively on the professionalism of our institution. This generator complies with the guidelines set in the UTHSC policy on email signatures.

Need help keeping those New Year's resolutions? A University of Scranton study showed 77% of people were only able to keep their New Year's resolutions for a week and only 19% were able to maintain them for two years. Why? Some of the reasons stated were lack of willpower and personal control.

But, there are Lean 6 Sigma tools that can help you keep those resolutions! Check out this Six Sigma Daily article titled How To Six Sigma Your New Year’s Resolutions. Maybe after using Lean 6 Sigma tools in your personal life, it will make it easier to think of ways to apply them to your work life (a win-win situation!).

Your personal email should be private. UTHSC owns all its email addresses and has the right to read them if necessary. UTHSC’s emails are subject to eDiscovery searches and disclosures.

Think of your personal correspondence. Communications with family members or friends, your bank, your doctor’s office, notifications for all these accounts you signed up for, i.e. Facebook, Amazon, credit cards, etc. should not be any business of UTHSC.

If you use the same username and email account for everything you access, the risks are higher for an incident. An attacker can reuse that same information against other accounts to gain access to a wide range of your life. If you use different email addresses in different areas, then a breach in one resource cannot necessarily be used against another.

When you leave UTHSC, whether through retirement, a new job opportunity, or no fault of your own, you have limited access to your email.

Setting up one, or more, new email addresses is easy. There are free accounts (Google, Yahoo, and others), as well as paid accounts through internet service providers (AT&T, Comcast).

Consider setting up different email addresses for different purposes. One can be for personal correspondence with people and organizations with which you want to have communication. Another one can be set up for those “fill in the blank” instances, but you don’t want to be spammed by that organization into eternity. Possibly, even a third email address is associated with any type of sensitive account. You need to choose the best security and privacy options for this one.

ITS does not have a specific recommendation for a provider of personal email accounts. Depending on what you are trying to accomplish there are several, some provide anonymity, some provide encryption, some do not scan your mail, etc.

Here is a great site that compares the leaders in the business. Best Free Private Email Providers to Protect Your Data (clean.email).

Bottom line, separating your business and personal emails makes good sense, both for your protection and the protection of UTHSC.

In each issue, we feature one of our amazing ITS team members. We learn more about Nathan Boswell with our Technology Innovations team in this segment.

What is your role and how long have you been in ITS at UTHSC? My responsibility is maintaining and managing the physical network infrastructure for the campus. This includes the cable to the desktop computer and the fiber optic cables throughout the campus. This involves troubleshooting when things go wrong ensuring performed by our contractors is done to UTHSC standards. I have been with UTHSC since August of 2003. I started about a week after “Hurricane Elvis” in Network Services and a few years later moved on to my current position, which is part of Technology Innovations.

What is a day in the life of Nathan like? I start my day by checking in with Tennessee 811 to make sure that none of our underground cables are dug up by nearby construction. Then I move on to checking work orders and projects. My main large project now is the Dunn Dental addition. At times I must coordinate with the general contractors, IT contractors, people in my own department, or other departments at UTHSC. I sometimes tell people I am that guy between IT and construction. I want to ensure everything is going right technology-wise and up to codes and standards during construction.

What is your favorite thing about working at UTHSC? The benefits. If you or someone in your family have ever faced a major health crisis, you will be grateful that you work here.

What’s something most people don’t know about you? When I was a teenager and part of my time in college, I worked at a Christmas tree farm. To get ready for the holiday season, it is year-round work – replanting, trimming, fertilizing, etc. When I see families at local tree farms today, all I think about is the hard work accomplished the entire year.