Staff News

The fall semester is winding down and as the holiday season settles in, gratitude naturally becomes part of our conversations, gratitude for moments of connection, for teamwork, and for the people who make our work meaningful. While Thanksgiving has passed, the spirit of appreciation extends well beyond November. Across University Information Technology Services (UITS), that gratitude shows up in the ways we support one another, collaborate across teams, and build the technological foundation that keeps the university running.

Behind every swipe of a CatCard, click in CatCloud, or update in Trellis, countless systems quietly talk to one another – and that’s where Boomi comes in. Boomi is a cloud-based integration platform used by the University of Arizona’s UITS Enterprise Integration Platform Services team to help campus systems share information quickly, safely, and automatically.

When most people think about the technology that powers the University of Arizona, they picture websites, classrooms and email. Few realize there’s an entire world of servers—thousands of them—quietly working behind the scenes to keep those systems alive. That’s where David Gay, Director of Server Administration and Security, and his team come in.

Now there is just one site to create and manage your university username, password and 2-Factor Authentication (2FA)—netid.arizona.edu. When the university first implemented Duo for 2FA, it was a nice-to-have add-on to help secure NetID logins. It has since become mandatory at the university, and 2FA is more widespread for other accounts. Rather than an add-on, it is integral.

At the University of Arizona, a new kind of outpatient clinic is opening doors, virtually. The AI Outpatient Clinic, developed through a collaboration between the Center for Transformative Interprofessional Healthcare (CTIPH), UITS iDX, and Campus Web Services (CWC), is helping health sciences students strengthen one of the hardest-to-teach skills in medicine: empathy.

The University of Arizona is helping unlock the mysteries of how our brains age, one powerful MRI scan at a time.

At the center of this work is the Precision Aging Network (PAN), a nationwide study led by Dr. Carol Barnes that’s examining more than 1,000 diverse participants across four U.S. cities: Atlanta, Baltimore, Miami, and Tucson.

National Security Awareness Month is usually a time to highlight safety tips and new defenses. This year, the University of Arizona’s Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), Tim Schwab, took a broader view – what’s really happening across higher education, and why universities are increasingly targeted by cybercriminals.

Implement the Core 4 of Cybersecurity Awareness Month to protect your information. October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month (CAM), a nationwide initiative dedicated to promoting safer online habits.

Project management touches nearly every corner of the University of Arizona, from IT initiatives to classroom scheduling. To support this work, University Information Technology Services (UITS) plays a vital role by offering software licenses, technical expertise, and consulting that help campus units manage projects more efficiently.

There are an estimated 37 million Americans with chronic kidney disease. Over 27 thousand Americans received transplants in 2024, with many more on the donor waiting list. The average transplant cost is close to $80,000 for Medicare patients. With numbers like these, it’s critical to improve outcomes and reduce overall costs. More data analysis on resource allocation, the risks for candidates and the viability of donor organs can help.