By Ola Popoola. Editor’s Note: A member of the UC IT community, Ola Popoola, posted in her blog the following opinion piece about the recent killing of George Floyd at the hands of the police. It is reposted in the UC IT Blog with her permission because the UC IT community is committed to diversity, inclusion, and equity. Many people across the UC system are working to advance these values,

UC San Diego has launched an ambitious program called Return to Learn. The goal is to find out if 65,000 faculty, students, and staff can be routinely tested for COVID-19 so the campus may be safely re-opened in the fall.   A three-week pilot with current on-campus residents has been completed, and campus leadership is evaluating next steps.   Please join members of the Return to Learn team in a webinar next Tuesday, June 9. They will discuss the program, its evolution, and how

By Melani Roberson. While we work from home, due to COVID-19, UC San Diego is using an innovation platform to gather employee feedback on how their work is transitioning (virtual or otherwise) in this new and uncertain environment. The response has been overwhelmingly positive, even though it was expected that some people might feel frustration. (That’s OK; we all feel this way to some degree.) One of the main objectives

Over the past few months, we all have heard the CDC’s guidance that we should be wearing masks when we head out and cannot keep six-feet of distance between us in order to help flatten the curve. While many have (and have not) followed this guidance, the symbolism of “wearing a mask” could also be extended to our digital lives. With more of us at home working, schooling, and engaging

By Jim Phillips. Stevenson College at UC Santa Cruz overlooks the Monterey Bay, offering one of the most impressive views our campus has to offer (and that is saying a lot). Each year, on the three-day Martin Luther King day weekend, students from the region descend on Stevenson Events Center to participate in the annual CruzHacks hackathon.    This year, CruzHacks hosted some 450 students. Participants included students from UC Santa Cruz, CSU Monterey Bay, multiple

Over 400 people from around the UC system joined the UC IT Town Hall on May 5, 2020. If you missed it, you can watch the town hall now. Interim UC CIO Mark Cianca opens the session with some interesting stats about Slack usage.   The featured speaker was Michael Dennin, professor of Physics and Astronomy at UC Irvine, who discusses how UCI is leveraging data systems and data analytics

By Imran Ghori. Ensuring that UC Riverside students, faculty, and staff members can access proper equipment and technology has been a key part of the campus’ transition to remote learning and working. Information Technology Solutions, or ITS, has been at the forefront of that effort by loaning laptops to students, purchasing over 4,200 Zoom licenses, and resolving thousands of ServiceLink tickets related to remote work issues. The department has also

By Judy Thai. For many of us, our professional lives and the lives of our students have moved online with the COVID-19 pandemic. But is that online world accessible to people with disabilities? As a university committed to diversity and accessibility, we need to always think about making accessible choices. That starts with simply learning more about accessibility. How do I learn about accessibility? No matter your role in the

By Shani Murray. Informatics researchers are currently leading two accessible technology projects: one targeting children with neuro-developmental disorders, and the other targeting older adults and people with vision impairments through a partnership with Toyota. Two current projects led by researchers from the Department of Informatics represent the broad spectrum of accessible technology users, with one project targeting children with neuro-developmental disorders, and the other targeting older adults and people with vision impairments. Gillian

By Liezel Labios. A research team led by the University of California San Diego has developed a soft robotic lens whose movements are controlled by the eyes — blink twice and the lens zooms in and out; look left, right, up or down and the lens will follow. The lens is the first example of an interface between humans and soft machines. “The human-machine interface, as we know it,