Information Technology (IT) professionals from around campus gathered in the State Farm Hall of Business on August 2 for the Continuous Improvement in Technology (CIT) conference. 2018 marked the sixth year for the annual event and honored the first winner of the CIT MVP Award.
Illinois State employs more than 200 staff who support the University’s IT infrastructure. CIT brings IT staff together to learn about upcoming projects outside their area and to identify opportunities to collaborate even more effectively.
This year’s keynote speaker was Robbie Osenga, who currently serves as the vice president and chief potential officer at Cybernautic, a Bloomington-Normal based start-up. During his keynote, titled Fighting for the Humanity in our Technological World, Osenga spoke about the gaps in interactions we have with our coworkers and how nothing can beat a strong person to person interaction to solve stresses in the workplace.
Osenga ended his presentation by stressing how important these strong relationships are to create the best possible versions of Illinois State University and the Bloomington-Normal community.
“This community needs you because they need this campus to thrive,” he said. “That doesn’t happen without you.”
After the Keynote Address, the first ever CIT MVP Award was presented to Network Engineer in Administrative Technologies Chris Johnson. The award recognizes a full-time IT staff member who has made outstanding contributions to the support of faculty, staff, students, and operations over the previous fiscal year.
AT-ION Director Craig Jackson said that Johnson is an exceedingly worthy initial recipient of the award.
“He has had a phenomenal impact on the campus and is always trying to work hard to make the services we provide better,” Jackson said.
During the Spring 2019 CITx Conference, the committee will recognize a student worker for their contributions to the campus community. Nominations are being accepted now.
After the presentation of the award, campus leaders shared several project updates during IT News:
- A faster, sleeker My.IllinoisState.edu is primed to be launched the week before students return to campus.
- Studio Glass is now available at CTLT. Studio Glass is a tool that allows faculty, staff, and students to record their own presentations and short videos.
- As of August 1, 2018, all faculty, staff and graduate students of Illinois State University have access to both the Adobe Creative Cloud suite of applications and Adobe Document Cloud. For more information, go to about.illinoisstate.edu/Adobe.
- Milner Library announced that they have done more than 62 jobs with their new 3D printer. Throughout the trial period, they have improved the submission forms and troubleshot printer issues. The official launch is August 20.
- The TechQual+ survey results were presented, showing that IT services exceeded user standards in six of 18 categories.
Throughout the day attendees chose from 21 sessions, ranging in topics from what IT professionals need to know about Adobe products, the development of the new Illinois State University homepage, and improvements being made to My.IllinoisState.edu. Attendees also took advantage of networking with colleagues they might not see on a day to day basis.
“The Planning Committee was very pleased with the sixth CIT Annual Conference,” Director of Client Services Carla Birckelbaw said, “We had an inspiring keynote address, great track sessions on relevant topics, and a record high number of attendees could be seen sharing ideas with colleagues, which is exactly what the CIT Conference is all about.”
CIT is co-sponsored by Administrative Technologies, Student Affairs IT, and the Office of Academic Technologies. It’s hosted by the College of Business.
