| 9:45 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. | Morning Breakout Session 1 |
| 10:45 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. | Morning Breakout Session 2 |
| 11:45 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. | Lunch & OIT Keynote Session |
| 1:45 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. | Afternoon Breakout Session 1 |
| 2:45 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. | Afternoon Breakout Session 2 |
UT Verse is a chat-based platform for UT-specific AI conversations. Explore how UT Verse can enhance your teaching, research, and communication with its innovative and secure features. We will also discuss the technologies behind UT Verse, such as Azure DevOps, and showcase our PowerBI reporting tool.
Mark Greig
IT Administrator III
Alex Trowbridge
Senior System Administrator
Blake Arnold
System Administrator
Office of Innovative Technologies — Systems: Windows Systems
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In today’s data-centric landscape, efficient data preparation is crucial for successful data analysis and the prediction of valuable insights. While handling duplicate data, missing values, and outliers has become more straightforward with the advent of automated tools, the challenge persists when dealing with data entered manually by humans. The data cleaning process takes about 80% of the time of the data analyst and scientist. It’s time-consuming and cost-consuming. In this session, we will discuss a solution to automate categorical data cleaning using AI.
Lamis Ghoualmi
Software Analyst
Office of Innovative Technologies — Applications: Information Management & Analytics
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Change can demand much from us and create negative attitudes among ourselves and our teams. Discover techniques to stay on track to maintain effectiveness through a mindset of positivity.
Will Ploskonka
Manager
Learning and Organizational Development
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This session will briefly overview Globus (globus.org) and its capabilities in transferring and sharing datasets within the national cyberinfrastructure. Capabilities include identity management, Globus Connect Personal, Globus Connect Server, storage gateways, data collections, and other basic Globus configurations to help researchers share data between institutions and colleagues.
Gary Rogers
HPC Systems Administrator
National Institute for Computational Sciences (NICS)
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NetInfra is a framework designed to manage both DHCP and DNS services. It does this through a single source of truth formatted to be consumed by configuration management software. This process reduces duplication of efforts and unifies the configuration of these interrelated services across otherwise unrelated software systems. In this session, we will review a production deployment of managing DHCP and DNS services via the NetInfra framework. We will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the framework itself.
Erick McGhee
HPC Systems Administrator
Stephen Milton
HPC Systems Administrator
National Institute for Computational Sciences (NICS)
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Elevate your collaboration! Explore Microsoft Teams, from basic chatting to creating Teams to coordinating projects. Unleash the full potential of Teams for seamless communication and efficient collaboration. OIT trainers will give you tips to help support your colleagues in using Teams to reduce email, streamline conversations, and organize files and projects.
Rachael Stanley
Learning Technology Specialist
Steve Chastain
Learning Technology Specialist
Christie Patti
Learning Technology Specialist
Office of Innovative Technologies — Support: Teaching & Learning Technologies
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This session aims to demystify the workings of large language models (LLMs) by using an interactive, human-centered approach. This session is designed to provide an intuitive understanding of complex AI concepts like data training, neural network operations, and the generation process in language models.
Attendees will leave with a foundational understanding of how AI language models work, including the concepts of data training, attention mechanisms, and the sequential generation of language. The session will also address the scalability and complexity of real-world LLMs, contrasting the human demonstration with the capabilities of actual AI systems.
Join us for a unique interactive session to understand AI language models. Be part of a live, human-powered demonstration that makes AI concepts clear, engaging, and fun. Discover the mechanics of AI in a way you’ve never seen before!
Mikhael Loo
Senior Software Analyst
Office of Innovative Technologies — Applications: Business Information Systems
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This talk gives an overview of The National Institute for Computational Sciences – one of the country’s leading high-performance computing centers of excellence. Learn about the center’s role within the university, how it engages with campus researchers, and the vital role it has played in progressing national cyberinfrastructure in the country. Come find out how we can collaborate on cluster administration, infrastructure, training, and facilitation projects for our community.
Tabitha Samuel
NICS deputy Director and HPC Operations Group Leader
National Institute for Computational Sciences, EECS
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In today’s world, technology and information are practically inseparable. Researchers and learners at UT seek, consume, and create information in a variety of mediums and through many platforms and information environments. At the University Libraries, we have many faculty and staff doing technical work to support our mission both behind the scenes and with the public. From managing electronic resources to supporting media production to gathering and analyzing research impact metrics, library technologists often have unique positions and collaborate with others across the university in the work they do. Our panel members each work in a unique capacity with technology in their role. Today, we’ll each share about what we do, the technologies we work with, and the impact our work has on the UT community.
Leigh Mosley
Accessibility Coordinator
Michelle Brannen
Librarian and Head of Immersive Spaces & Technologies
Niki Cobb
Health Sciences librarian and Assistant Professor, Health & Wellness department
Mike Jones
Director of Digital Initiatives
Mike Rogers
Director of Discovery and Technology Solutions
Woody Holmes
Public Services Technology Coordinator
Libraries
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Discover how to utilize your Microsoft A5 license to its full extent with SharePoint, PowerApps, and PowerAutomate. Learn from experts and peers the best practices for using SharePoint as an intranet solution and data source. Learn when and how to create business solutions with PowerApps and when to use PowerAutomate to automate bulky, manual, and repetitive processes.
Blayne Cowan
Assistant Director ITCS
Andrew Vargas
Power Platform Developer
Haslam College of Business — Technical Innovative Solutions
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We detail UTSA’s journey from legacy applications written for Adobe Cold Fusion to Microsoft .NET to run on Azure App Service and Azure SQL Server. We’ll cover our DEV /QAS / PRD environments and how we organize those in Azure.
Mike Stanley
IT Administrator IV
Michael Guenther
IT Administrator IV
UT System (UTSA) — Department of Technology Solutions
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Dive into ‘Laugh, Learn, Link,’ an AI-themed Kahoot adventure! Co-hosted by Sky, an AI voice, this quiz offers a unique blend of learning, laughter, and networking. Join us to explore AI, build connections, and possibly uncover the making of an AI co-host!
Mikhael Loo
Senior Software Analyst
Office of Innovative Technologies — Applications: Business Information Systems
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What is the right amount of extra effort to put into the code you write? Should you version control that one-off script? What about unit tests? Release schedules? Issue tracking? In this discussion session, we will explore the different kinds of software developed by technical staff who aren’t developers. We will also cover the various tools and practices that may (or may not) prove useful in improving their quality and reliability.
Adam Howard
HPC System Administrator
National Institute for Computational Sciences (NICS)
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This presentation will show how EECS automated the configuration and application installation for Apple Mac computers using the Ansible configuration management system, replacing an error-prone, checklist-driven process with a mostly automated system. A student-developed Ansible playbook reduced our deployment time for a new Apple laptop (from opening the box to deployment) to about an hour.
Markus Iturriaga Woelfel
IT Manager
Imani Pelton
Computer Science Graduate Student
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
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The CIREN program provides training and mentorship to CI facilitators, enabling and expanding their ability to engage in transformational research utilizing high-performance computing, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. This presentation will give an overview of the program and present opportunities for research faculty, staff, and graduate students to participate in the program as funded CI facilitators. Additionally, opportunities will be presented for researchers to propose collaborative projects for the program’s funded CI facilitators.
Lonnie D. Crosby
Group Leader and Research Director
National Institute for Computational Sciences (NICS) — Scientific Computing
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Open OnDemand is an open-source software platform that simplifies user access to computing resources and scientific applications. It provides a web-based user interface that enables users to interact with and utilize complex computing resources more easily.
Tom Krobatsch
HPC Systems Administrator
National Institute for Computational Sciences (NICS)
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Join ‘Tech Talk Team-Up’ for engaging, casual discussions surrounding tech. Team up to share insights and ideas in a friendly, low-pressure environment. Ideal for connecting with fellow tech enthusiasts and delving into topics that intrigue you! Check out the topics at our event table all day long, get a free chocolate bar while supplies last, or just crash the session!
Mikhael Loo
Senior Software Analyst
Office of Innovative Technologies — Applications: Business Information Systems
Michelle Brannen
Librarian and Head of Immersive Spaces & Technologies
Libraries
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This session will highlight a project that combines conversational AI with VR to teach immersive concepts in a novel and deeply embodied way. This project initially aims to populate a 14th-century Anglo-Norman castle in VR with period AI avatars to allow students to ask questions about daily life, gender roles, and socio-political dynamics. Students will delve into the personal narratives and identities of the characters and gain insights into their everyday challenges and beliefs during that period. This project will have implications for any linguistic, cultural, or literary exploration.
Douglas W. Canfield
Coordinator III, World Languages & Cultures
Language Resource Center
Anne-Hélène Miller
Director of the Marco Institute; Associate Professor of French and Francophone Studies
Department of Modern Foreign Languages & Literatures
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This session will examine the current health of UTK’s wired and wireless network. Join us for an insightful dive into the digital backbone of the University of Tennessee Knoxville. Topics include a summary of utilization trends and ongoing efforts to sustain, expand, and secure a healthy network environment. Capabilities include the Internet of Things, design features for wireless networks, and new technology like WiFi6.
Gary Pickens
Assistant Director
Office of Innovative Technologies — OIT Communications Group
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For Questions about this exciting symposium, please email the IT Symposium Committee at utitsymposium@utk.edu.
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