We are proud to announce that Josh Abrams has been awarded the DoIT Gritty Award for his critical support of instructors and colleagues in the Instructional Technology team.  The Gritty Award is in recognition of outstanding work within the Division. Full-time DoIT employees and teams are eligible to be nominated for going above and beyond! Anyone in DoIT can nominate someone for the Gritty by completing this short Gritty Nomination Form. 

For his exceptional efforts and commitment to excellence, we are proud to present Josh with the DoIT Gritty Award. Congratulations!

Josh Abrams has consistently demonstrated exceptional dedication and adaptability in his role as an instructional design specialist at UMBC. His unwavering commitment to providing seamless support for users and team members has been particularly evident during challenging moments, such as complex Blackboard support requests or vendor downtime. Through thick and thin, Josh has remained responsive and proactive, swiftly identifying issues, communicating effectively with all stakeholders, and providing practical remedy options to minimize disruptions.

One user recently expressed deep appreciation for Josh's guidance, highlighting how his expertise has been invaluable in helping them become comfortable with Blackboard Ultra. Thanks to Josh's patience and clear explanations, they can confidently navigate a new platform to prepare their course and better support students. His recent assistance in copying a course and setting up a gradebook showcased his meticulous attention to detail, ensuring that each gradable item had the correct point values while decluttering unnecessary items.

Beyond his professional knowledge, Josh's warmth and kindness create a supportive environment that puts people at ease. Users feel comfortable asking questions because he approaches every interaction with encouragement and patience. This supportive attitude has made a significant difference in the personal growth and confidence of those he assists.

Josh Abrams is truly an inspirational contributor to faculty and student learning at UMBC. His contributions are deeply appreciated, and it is clear that he has a profound impact on the individuals he helps. 

Thank you, Josh, for your time, expertise, and kindness—your efforts do not go unnoticed.

The DoIT Community & The DoIT Gritty Committee

Erica D’Eramo

Ally Hepp

Carlos McKinney

David Toothe

Dondre Hatef

Kashka Donaldson

Mariann Hawken

Nick Beech

Tony Finneran

Roy Prouty

Debbie Michaels - tiebreaker

Ray Soellner  - tiebreaker 

Congratulations Dave Souder and Khalil Alston for being selected as this month’s DoIT Gritty Award winner!

We are proud to announce that Dave Souder and Khalil Alston have been awarded the DoIT Gritty Award for their critical support of National STEM Day.  

Dave and Khalil designed the hybrid event to meet the needs of sponsors and presenters, trained all of the presenters, and provided day-of event support. The event was a STEM Speed Networking Event, held as a webinar. At least 45 students who registered through the Career Center attended this event and 15 professionals from the Environmental Protection Agency, United States Geological Survey (USGS), and United States Forest Service shared information about career paths and internships with students.

A few weeks before the event, Dave and Khalil were brought in to assist with the National STEM Day virtual event taking place on Friday, November 8th. With the assistance of Audio Visual full-time staff Steve Anderson, Hunter Gordon, and a team of DoIT student employees, they started testing the Webex Webinar process and workflow. They set up several test meetings internally and then, as we received the list of external presenters, Khalil and Dave started meeting individually over Webex with them to be sure they could all attend and present smoothly on the day of the event. 

They worked closely with members of the Office of the Provost, the UMBC Career Center, USGS, and the Chesapeake Bay Program to put this program together as a team effort. They are looking to expand this event to include other Universities and Government Agencies in the future, as it was a wonderful networking opportunity for the students and panelists who attended. 

For their exceptional efforts and commitment to excellence, we are proud to present Dave and Khalil with the DoIT Gritty Award. Congratulations!

The Gritty Award is in recognition of outstanding work within the Division. Full-time DoIT employees and teams are eligible to be nominated for going above and beyond! Anyone in DoIT can nominate someone for the Gritty by completing this short Gritty Nomination Form. 

Thank you for all of your hard work, Khalil and Dave! 

The DoIT Community & The DoIT Gritty Committee

Erica D’Eramo

Ally Hepp

Carlos McKinney

David Toothe

Dondre Hatef

Kashka Donaldson

Mariann Hawken

Nick Beech

Tony Finneran

Roy Prouty

Congratulations Debbie Michaels for being selected as this month’s DoIT Gritty Award winner!

We are proud to announce that Debbie Michaels has been awarded the DoIT Gritty Award for her outstanding work in inventory management.

Debbie’s efforts as the property custodian for DoIT, and the successful and timely completion of the FY23 sensitive and FY24 capital inventory cycles have been outstanding. Of all custodians across campus Debbie has been charged with one of the largest, but most mobile, departmental inventories of any single person. Despite these challenges, she managed to complete the task with only six missing items. In addition, Debbie has completely modernized the process by which DoIT and many other departments handle the inventory process. She has collaborated with Asset Management and the Business Systems Group to help create campus-wide Docusign forms for inventory management control, moving away from the cumbersome paper process. Additionally, she implemented electronic scanning methods for sighting equipment. These major improvements have made the inventory process more effective and efficient.  Congratulations on a job well done! Debbie is much appreciated.

For her exceptional efforts and commitment to excellence, we are proud to present Debbie Michaels with the DoIT Gritty Award. Congratulations, Debbie!

The Gritty Award is in recognition of outstanding work within the Division. Full-time DoIT employees and teams are eligible to be nominated for going above and beyond! Anyone in DoIT can nominate someone for the Gritty by completing this short Gritty Nomination Form. 

Thank you Debbie for all of your hard work! 

The DoIT Community & The DoIT Gritty Committee

Erica D’Eramo

Ally Hepp

Carlos McKinney

David Toothe

Dondre Hatef

Kashka Donaldson

Mariann Hawken

Nick Beech

Tony Finneran

Roy Prouty

Congratulations to our Graduating students in the Division of Information Technology Class of Winter 2024!

Congrats on all your well-deserved success and best wishes for your next adventure! There’s so much still to come. Go out there and enjoy life, make a difference, and be who you truly are.

Thank you to our full-time and student staff for getting AV systems ready for the fall semester!

Much of our campus community slows down a bit over the summer session while students are working, interning, or at home with family and friends. For the Audio-Visual (AV) teams, the summer is the busiest time of the year because classrooms are available for upgrades!

In preparation for the fall semester, the Operations and Design & Engineering teams completed several major projects, including comprehensive classroom evaluations, new system installations and programming, and upgrades to existing technology. 

Comprehensive System Evaluation 

The AV Operations team meticulously checked 203 technology-enabled classrooms throughout the summer session. Once rooms were checked, the team repaired or replaced any aging or broken equipment, completed firmware updates, and did a final operational check before the fall semester began. This involved assessing various components of each AV system across:

·        91 Registrar Scheduled Classrooms and Lecture Halls

·        36 Departmental Classrooms

·        76 Webex Conference Rooms

This proactive initiative aims to enhance the experience for students, faculty, and staff as they return to campus. Key systems that underwent scrutiny included the review of Fall 23 - Spring 24 Request Tracker (RT) tickets for potential issues, full operational tests of AV systems, testing of lecture capture and HyFlex systems, firmware updates, and the repair or replacement of non-functional items. 

Additionally, remote AV system monitoring has been implemented in 142 locations, encompassing a total of 967 devices. This capability enables staff to identify offline systems swiftly and investigate proactively ahead of reported issues.

Wifi-based Assistive Listening in Lecture Halls

This summer also saw the introduction of Wifi-based Assistive Listening in all lecture halls, allowing users to receive room audio directly on their personal devices via the Listen Everywhere application. Radio-frequency (RF) receivers have been available for some time in large classrooms and lecture halls, but the new advantages do not require users to retrieve and return earbuds and receivers for every lecture hall they visit.

Design & Engineering 

The AV Design & Engineering team works through the fall and spring semesters completing new system designs for Registrar classrooms, departmental classrooms and lab spaces, and conference rooms. The majority of these new systems are installed, configured, and programmed by full-time staff and the student installation team through the summer semester. 

New Systems Installed in Summer 2024 include:

• Full Classroom Technology Upgrades in 4 Registrar locations, including:

• Lecture Hall 1, PUP206, PAHB132, PAHB234

• Army ROTC House

• Smokeless Range, video conferencing systems, and wireless collaboration systems

• 4 Visual Arts Classrooms

• 3 Biology laboratory spaces

• Physics Astronomy laboratory space

• CAHSS classroom space in Fine Arts

• UMBC Training Center for CNMS 

• Admissions classroom/conference room 

• Parking Services Conference Room & Digital Signage for new location in 900 Walker

• Webex Room Kit Systems for Geography & Environmental Systems and CAHSS

• Digital Signage for the AOK Library and Computer Science & Electrical Engineering (CSEE)

Congratulations to our Graduating students in the Division of Information Technology Class of Spring 2024

We're so happy for you! Celebrate your accomplishments and keep on shining! Congratulations on your momentous accomplishment!

This past summer, the UMBC Security Student Team made a significant discovery regarding compromised accounts, predominantly affecting alumni. In a series of alarming events, fraudulent Google forms were sent to users, threatening account deactivation unless they provided their usernames and passwords.

What Happened?

Initial investigations began when the student security team looked into a compromised account that had been disseminating phishing emails. They unearthed a troubling pattern during their probe: numerous password reset emails were shared across multiple accounts. This revelation led to the identification of many login failures from specific IP addresses, raising concerns that unauthorized individuals had access to these accounts.

Left to right: Ben Guest, William Brooks, Ouwen Dai, and Anna Plass

Investigative Steps

To contain the security event, the team collaborated with the Division of Information Technology’s full-time Security staff. Their first course of action was to lock and scramble the compromised accounts. Additionally, they proactively contacted affected users, urging them to create new passwords.

The security team also implemented a more structured approach to tracking the issue. They developed a shared spreadsheet to monitor affected users and created two Splunk dashboards to analyze abnormal user behavior and investigate suspicious IP traffic.

Key Learnings

Through this challenging experience, the student team realized the immense value of utilizing advanced tools and dashboards for efficient data retrieval and quicker identification of hacking attempts. Notably, the team credited DUO, a multifactor authentication (MFA) tool, with preventing many accounts from being compromised, highlighting the significance of robust security measures.

This ordeal also underscored the importance of up-to-date documentation and reporting, ultimately enhancing their understanding of UMBC’s authentication process.

Looking Ahead

With these steps, the UMBC Security Student Team is committed to safeguarding users from future hacking attempts, demonstrating the vital role of vigilance and innovation in cybersecurity.

If you have any questions about whether or not the mail you've gotten is legitimate, please contact the DoIT Security Department at security@umbc.edu. 

For more information about UMBC’s cybersecurity initiatives, go to doit.umbc.edu/security.

Ouwen Dai shares his experiences as a computer science student with a focus on cybersecurity and his work as a Security Analyst at DoIT. He highlights the importance of practical experience and the opportunity to connect coursework with work opportunities in college. Ouwen emphasizes the detective nature of cybersecurity work and encourages new students to seek help and engage fully in their learning process.

Passion for Cybersecurity

He discusses his passion for cybersecurity, likening it to detective work. Ouwen enjoys solving puzzles and believes his interest in technology made cybersecurity an ideal field for him.

Experience at DoIT

Ouwen describes his time at DoIT as enriching, due to direct exposure to various tools that are relevant to the cybersecurity industry. He believes that this hands-on experience is crucial for his future career.

Advice for New Students

Ouwen advises new students not to hesitate to reach out for help. He emphasizes that college is a unique time for learning, and combining coursework with work experience can provide a competitive edge upon graduation.

Future Career Aspirations

Looking ahead, Ouwen aims to continue working in the cybersecurity field, with interests in defense contracting, startups, and penetration testing.

Click here to watch the full video!

For more information about UMBC’s cybersecurity initiatives, go to doit.umbc.edu/security.

Thank you Dustin Roddy, Manager of UMBC’s New Media Studio, for this great video!

We are excited to announce that Regina Clowser, Dan Loftus, and Tim Boyle are the recipients of the October Gritty Award!

The Division of Information Technology’s Gritty Award recognizes the outstanding work within the Division and the positive impact individuals have on the campus. 

After over four years of dedicated effort, the legacy Rolm phones on campus have all been successfully replaced with new Cisco VoIP phones. This remarkable achievement began in 2018 with a pilot program at IMET, which gained momentum during the 2020 pandemic to address the urgent need for remote and hybrid work solutions.

Regina and her team meticulously collaborated with every academic and administrative department, not only documenting and inventorying existing phones but also facilitating a smooth transition to the new system. This process involved working closely with departments to assess their future needs and promoting the adoption of the Webex softphone. This thoughtful approach provided departments with tailored phone solutions and saved the campus thousands of dollars in unnecessary phone handsets.

Congratulations Regina, Dan, Tim, and their team of students for their outstanding commitment to the campus community!