Michigan IT Symposium Past Events

2021

Michigan IT colleagues came together December 14–16 for the 2021 Michigan IT Symposium. Dr. Ravi Pendse, vice president and chief information officer for the university kicked off the event with a leadership panel discussion about the role of technology in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI). The symposium hosted 16 breakout sessions, 2 spotlight sessions, and 36 poster presentations in an interactive format and several opportunities for attendees to socialize, network, or catch up during each day of the event. Session topics included data, security, extended and virtual reality, software development, disaster recovery, accessibility, leadership lessons, and more.

2020

The 2020 Michigan IT Symposium was held virtually November 10–12, 2020, due to the pandemic, and exceeded expectations. With the theme, “Innovative solutions to support the university mission” the event was highlighted by a keynote fireside chat between Zoom CEO Eric Yuan and U-M VPIT-CIO Ravi Pendse, 18 fascinating breakout sessions, and 44 posters submitted by IT professionals from across the Michigan IT community. In its seventh year, the first virtual Michigan IT Symposium drew more than 720 people attending events over the three days. This is a higher overall volume of engagement than our previous in-person events, although numbers were not consistent across all sessions. The success of the event is due in large part to the skilled set of volunteers and planning committee members behind the scenes that made it possible. See materials from the 2020 Michigan IT Symposium.

2019

The sixth annual Michigan IT Symposium was held November 25-26, 2019 in the Michigan League with more breakout sessions, more opportunities to network, and more opportunities to grow professionally than ever before. Over 540 University of Michigan IT and technology professionals and advocates came together to share ideas and celebrate the expertise, innovation and talents of the Michigan IT community. This event featured more than 50 posters and 33 breakout sessions. Keynote speaker Marcus Collins spoke about the power of networks. An informative IT leadership discussion followed with Ravi Pendse, CIO and vice president for Information Technology, and Andrew Rosenberg, CIO for Michigan Medicine. See materials from the 2019 Michigan IT Symposium.

2018

The 2018 Michigan IT Symposium took place November 28 and 29 at the Michigan League. It kicked off late Wednesday afternoon with a Poster Preview and Reception followed by a full day of presentations, posters and breakout sessions followed on Thursday, November 29. All together more than 425 Michigan IT professionals attended the event highlighted by an invigorating and challenging keynote presentation by Dr. Kyla McMullen, professor and leader of the SoundPAD Laboratory at the University of Florida, and the first African American woman Ph.D. graduate in computer science from U-M and a U-M IT Leadership panel discussion moderated by Dr. Ravi Pendse, U-M’s vice president for IT and chief information officer. See materials from the 2018 Michigan IT Symposium.

2017

The fourth annual Symposium attracted over 560 U-M IT professionals from academic and administrative units from across all four campuses. Attendees developed skills, built stronger working relationships, and showcased how their work helps the university community tackle the challenges of our time—and the massive amounts of data their work requires—through the strategic use of cloud platforms. See materials from the 2017 Michigan IT Symposium.

2016

Nearly 500 IT staff, faculty, and administrators came together in November 2016 for the third annual Michigan IT Symposium. The 2016 event featured interactive sessions, hands-on-training, networking, and panel discussions about how the talents of the IT community enrich the U-M experience. See materials from the 2016 Michigan IT Symposium.

2015

More than 450 IT staff, faculty, and administrators came together in November 2015 for the second annual Michigan IT Symposium. The 2015 event spanned two days and featured keynote speaker President Mark Schlissel. See materials from the 2015 Michigan IT Symposium.

2014

More than 400 members of the Michigan IT community came together in November 2014 to create connections and celebrate the innovation occurring across all campuses. See materials from the 2014 Michigan IT Symposium.