Annual Review 2022-2023
Did you know?
Technology impacts the university in many ways, but did you know about the various areas and reach of Rutgers IT efforts? From providing new student-facing cameras and expanded video recording capabilities in Camden classrooms to working on outreach programs to address digital disparities in the Newark community to securing ground-breaking medical data and research in a new storage platform, Rutgers’ tech needs continue to be taken care of throughout each campus.
Technology in the service of patient care
2.3 million
annual patient visits to Rutgers health practices
Joining 1,000+ institutions for the Common App
Progress is being made on numerous Cornerstone initiatives to transform systems and processes at the university. Case in point: Work progressed during the fiscal year to allow for the launch of the Common App on August 1, 2023, for first-year, full-time undergraduate applicants. Rutgers has joined 1,000+ institutions in using the Common App—a change that will streamline the application process, eliminate separate forms and fees, and broaden awareness of Rutgers
Barnes & Noble First Day program now available to students during winter, spring, summer or fall
The Rutgers Barnes & Noble College project featuring the inclusive access program called First Day™ has officially been completed. First Day ensures that digital course materials are included for students as an additional course charge for a particular course or program. Now available winter, spring, summer or fall semester, students can be prepared on the first day of class with all their required materials and have seamless access to them through Canvas, the official learning management at Rutgers.
From six to 26–Rutgers permit parking payment enhancements
Rutgers Institutional Planning and Operations, University Finance Administration Management, and the Office of Information Technology worked together to extend payment plans for Rutgers faculty and staff parking permits. With these technical enhancements to the permit parking system, now employees can deduct the cost of parking at Rutgers over the entire year (26 pay periods) rather the first six pay periods.
RU-N IT goes beyond confines of campus to make impact on community
RU–N IT has been working on numerous Rutgers–Newark outreach programs that address digital disparities and promote digital inclusion in the community including:
- Senior Connect Digital Divide
- NJ-STEP Connections
- U.S. Department of Education Connecting Minority Community
- NewarkWorks VR Training program
Providing devices including configuration, ongoing management, and support and training for the programs and their participants have been key responsibilities for RU–N IT to ensure these vital community programs succeed. This is in addition to ongoing internal RU–N IT programs that work to bridge the digital divide and enhance digital inclusivity for our students and employees.
Student-facing cameras, expanded video recording capabilities, and more in RU-Camden IT classrooms
RU–Camden IT worked on new tech upgrades for various classrooms this year. Now, all Camden classrooms are equipped with student-facing cameras that can be utilized for hybrid courses and any video conferencing needs. Additionally, Miracast Wireless Presentation (screen mirroring) joins the list of classroom technology features available. Video recording capabilities have also been expanded to include automated captions and allow for multi-angle playback views of both the instructor and content. This ensures that any content on faculty’s classroom screens will be easily captured, recorded, and shared with virtual participants.
New storage platform for IFH ground-breaking medical data and research
The Rutgers University Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research (IFH) hosts over 300 TB of health data on a secure, HIPAA-compliant platform. Used for various projects and initiatives, the IFH data includes information from the state of New Jersey including COVID-19-related data, hospital billing and state prison data; national Medicare and Medicaid data; and more.
With that much information and more being added on a regular basis, IT staff relocated that data to the Rutgers Clinical and Research Data Warehouse platform to broaden research capabilities, enhance data security and analytic capacity, and decrease costs. This relocation project has been in progress over the past fiscal year and is scheduled to be completed by January 2024.
School of Engineering connects students with IT research in summer internship program
The Rutgers School of Engineering‘s Wireless Information Network Laboratory (WINLAB) brought 79 students from across the country together this summer to participate in its annual internship program. The students, who spanned high school, undergraduate, and graduate levels, got the opportunity to work on IT-related research projects for 10 weeks, culminating in the presentation of their work. The program covered fifteen topics ranging from artificial intelligence to distributed data infrastructure, and was sponsored by the National Science Foundation, AT&T, and nVerses Capital.
Filling up Rutgers’ fuel tank with Gasboy upgrades
Gasboy, the on-site fuel management system used at Rutgers to manage fuel pedestals at the Busch and Cook/Douglass fuel stations, went through some major upgrades this year. Gasboy is a technical system that tracks gasoline and diesel usage and manages thousands of fuel transactions for various Rutgers departments each month. Implementing two-step login, adding automated alerts of underground tank events, and transitioning the Gasboy application to the cloud were a few of the major tasks done to improve security and enhance the fuel system at Rutgers.