UBC consistently ranks as one of the world's top research universities, implementing outstanding research that contributes to the educational mission of the university and creating an improved quality of life around the world. To support this high-caliber of research, UBC launched the Advanced Research Computing (ARC) team to meet the growing demand for digital research infrastructure, resources and services.

The ARC team is an institutionally dedicated group that provides support at no cost for researchers across all disciplines that have large data and computational needs. Essentially, this kind of research generates large scale datasets and makes use of advanced computing technologies, including high network speed, big data storage, data analytics platforms, and advanced visualization tools, to name a few.

ARC works in partnership with VP Research + International Office (VPRI), UBC IT, UBC Library, Compute Canada and other strategic partners to broaden scientific and technical support offered to researchers. Since the team started in 2015, ARC has engaged with several research groups to house infrastructure in the University Data Centre and provided pre-award consultations to determine IT needs required as part of research funding applications. Visit the ARC website to learn more about what opportunities are available.

A residential tower with occupant capacity of 1,152 should have resulted in a significantly large mailroom size. Miraculously, the mailroom for the newest student residence, Ponderosa Commons, only take up a small fraction of space in square footage due to the transition to electronic mailboxes.

As parcels are more commonly received than snail mail, electronic mailboxes are larger in size in comparison to traditional mailboxes to meet the demands of today's online consumerism. Modeled after corporations with an efficient and sustainable delivery system, such as Amazon, the system uses the concept of shared mailboxes. When a piece of mail or parcel comes in, tenants are notified and assigned to a mailbox that can only be accessed by the student's UBC card. Once mail is picked up, the mailbox is reassigned to a different recipient.

Based on the positive response at Ponderosa Commons, upcoming residences that will have front desk management will also have electronic mailboxes in place, reducing excess space and infrastructure costs to build individual tenant mailboxes.

Microsoft Office products are a necessity of life for university students in Canada and millions of people around the world rely on the software every day for creating essays, presentations, and spreadsheets. This year, UBC IT worked with Microsoft to offer all full-time UBC students the ability to install Office 365 at no cost. The free annual subscription comes with unrestricted access to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other essential software for students.

Since the initial launch, over 21,000 students have downloaded the software and that number continues to grow daily. So far, offering free Office 365 software has helped students save over $1.2 million dollars and that number will increase to $5 million over a four-year term. UBC students can learn more and download the software at the UBC IT Software Downloads page.

Higher education institutions are often the target of data breaches, which not only affect the individuals whose personal information is exposed, but also the organization experiencing the breach. In order to move the university to a position where risk analysis and mitigation are embedded in policies, practices, and systems across the institution, the Privacy and Information Security Management (PrISM) program was launched in 2016.

The PrISM Program is a coordinated effort between Risk Management Services, Office of the University Counsel, and Information Technology with a mandate to educate and encourage staff and faculty to assign higher priority to privacy and information security. Through technology, maintenance, data mapping, training, and communications, the program is working to build a privacy and information security conscious culture at UBC.

Over the next few months, PrISM will be the driving force behind several university wide projects including a privacy & information security awareness initiative and online training for faculty and staff.

Databases are used by virtually all businesses today, where they store and facilitate the analysis of large volumes of information, helping business owners make timely and relevant decisions. To help students understand the role that databases play in business, the Bachelor of Commerce Business Technology Management option requires students to take COMM 437, Database Technology. To ensure that students have practical experience, UBC IT deployed an enterprise-level Oracle data management platform to support the student learning experience. Students can securely access the database platform from their own computers, from any location, at all hours, reducing the dependency on a physical computer lab.

Feedback has been extremely positive. Sauder has agreed to fund support for the platform and is investigating broadening its use for other courses.

To simplify and improve the purchasing experience for IT equipment, software and services at UBC Okanagan, a new purchasing portal called buyIT was launched this year. Prior to buyIT, faculties and departments of UBC Okanagan (customers) would request quotes through the IT HelpDesk ticketing system (also known as IT Management Database or 'ITMDB'). Using ITMDB, the process typically requires several emails or phone call exchanges to complete the purchase.

Accessing via Campus-Wide Login credentials, BuyIT allows customers to browse the catalogue, select and place orders on supported technologies online or request a quote for items not in the catalogue. Since launched, over 166 orders have been handled by buyIT. User adoption for this new system is steadily increasing. UBC Vancouver is also looking to implement this system in the near future. Further information on buyIT can be viewed on the UBC Okanagan knowIT website.

Video has become an integral learning resource, acting as a powerful delivery method for knowledge sharing. UBC Studios works with faculty members, teaching assistants, and student helpers to develop digital video and audio materials to support and enhance learning.

This year, with support from the Provost's Office and in collaboration with CTLT, UBC Studios has started a series of educational media support services including media consultation, access to studio facilities, as well as a virtual reality lab.

One highlight is the "One Button Studio", an innovative solution (based on a Pennsylvania State University design) to the sometimes-overwhelming world of multimedia production. In this studio, users can create multimedia content quite literally at the push of a button. Minimal setup time and technical knowledge is needed to operate this studio, as users simply step in front of the camera, prepare their notes, press the button, and start filming.

For more information about the One Button Studio, view a demonstration of the service.

Gathering feedback is a necessity in a strong research community like UBC. The UBC Survey Tool is the new solution launched to replace its former tool, Verint. Canadian-hosted with enterprise features through the vendor, FluidSurvey by SurveyMonkey, the UBC Survey Tool complies with the BC Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA), with data stored and backed up in Canada. Users can easily build surveys and forms, and track event registrations, with features such as logic and branching, and offline capabilities.

To ensure the selected solution was most suitable for the university, functional requirements were gathered from the community prior to selecting the vendor. Since launched, the tool has 3,592 users (which is a 346% increase from its former tool) and 11,742 surveys created.

Available to all UBC faculty, staff, and active students at no cost, users can learn more on the UBC Survey Tool page.

The new UBC Baseball Centre is the latest state of the art indoor training centre added to UBC's growing portfolio of leading edge facilities. Located in Thunderbird Park, the $3.5 million facility provides a heated and comfortable year-round training centre for UBC's varsity baseball team, as well as community sports groups, such as Baseball Canada.

To design an interactive training environment that is unique to UBC, the Audio Visual Team integrated HitTrax Technology to the centre's digital system. This technology provides virtual simulations of baseball stadiums and real-time statistics for athletes, enabling them to enhance their playing techniques. In addition to HitTrax, a wall of high definition flat panel displays and cameras for the batting cages and pitching areas were also installed in the centre to provide a more stimulating visual experience.

The UBC Varsity team managed a 36-18 (home) and 23-12 (away) record in their first year in the new facility and entered the 2016 NAIA West Grouping Baseball Championship as the number two seed.

With over 2,500 students in the Department of Computer Science alone, identity management plays a crucial role when providing access to many essential services (e.g. computer labs, restricted websites, and building access). In recent years, access has been granted using both department-local and campus-wide credentials: a source of confusion for students.

Similar situations were identified across the University, highlighting the growing need for a central authentication and authorization system that could work with disparate systems regardless of the vendor or platform. To develop a solution, the UBC Identity and Access Management (IAM) team and a technical staff member from the Department of Computer Science worked together while consulting extensively with groups campus-wide to develop a tool to leverage CWL login information as well as institutional identity data from across the institution.

The new Enterprise Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (ELDAP) system provides a much faster and substantially more secure process to determine a user’s relationship with the university (e.g. incoming/active student, active faculty member, courses, instructors) in order to grant access to a specific service or application. The tool was created based on input from the broader UBC community with representatives from Faculties such as Science, Applied Science, Arts, Medicine, Advanced Research Computing (ARC), and Graduate Studies.

This extensive collaboration also included one on one meetings with local department staff, a steering committee, the ELDAP user group, and Faculty of Science IT presentations. Ultimately, ELDAP was created to greatly simplify the process of authorization and access, reducing weeks of work down to a few hours.