Office of the University CIO – Human Resource News – May 2008

New employees to meet

	Chris Badrikian joined Harvard University's Network and Server Systems Department on April 21st, 2008. His role in our organization is as a VMWare Virtualization Systems Engineer. Chris previously worked at Analog Devices as a Sr. Systems Administrator, managing the VMWare Virtualization Environment and Windows server environment.
	Sumanth Kamenani joined IT Infrastructure Services as a Senior Software Engineer/J2EE Developer April 30th. His major responsible will be the creation of state-of-the-art technologies for use by the group. Prior to joining Harvard, Sumanth was employed by Fidelity Investments as a Senior Software Developer, where he designed and developed middle-tier framework for the next generation of Fidelity's Stocks Research web page. When we asked Sumanth what he would like his new colleagues to know about him, he said to share these comments about himself: "I am a sensitive and caring person who enjoys software design and development, who is eager to learn and understand various things. I also enjoy listening to music and watching movies." Welcome aboard Sumanth!
	Technology Services welcomed Anthony Grey on April 23rd as a Product Specialist. Anthony's role will be as product expert and sales person for hardware and software sold or represented by Technology Services at the 219 Western Avenue and Science Center locations. Prior to joining UCIO, he worked for nearly 9 years with National Grid, the power company for upstate New York. During this time he acquired his Bachelor's Degree from Medaille University in Business Administration. Please welcome him into the Harvard community.

Recent Transfers

Kevin Lawless, who originally joined UCIO in April 2007 to assist with the Exchange Migration, filled the position of Computer Assistant in Support Services Desktop & LAN Support on April 28th. Kevin's new responsibility will be to provide tier one assistance for the group and perform basic desktop support. Congratulations Kevin!

Bridge Program – Award recipient

We are pleased to announce that Barbara Cowan, Human Resources Assistant in the UCIO HR Office, as been recognized as the longest serving tutor for the Bridge Program. She has, for over five years, furthered the education and personal goals of students enrolled in the program. Congratulations Barb!

Harvard Bridge to Learning and Literacy is a worker education program for hourly employees at the University. For more information on the program, such as classes offered, please visit the Bridge website at http://harvie.harvard.edu/learning/cwd/bridge/.

Interested in volunteering your time to a worthy case? Visit http://harvie.harvard.edu/learning/pdf/bridge-volunteer-tutor-program.pdf to find out how.

Know of a work related achievement or honor recently given to a colleague and wish to share it? Please contact George Ducharme at george_ducharme@harvard.edu and to provide a description. It may appear in a future edition.

UCIO Annual Meeting - Recap

The UCIO Annual Meeting was held on April 9th at the Charles Hotel. Provost Steve Hyman and Harris Band, Director of Master Planning for the Allston Development Group were the featured speakers. Dan Moriarty also provided a short presentation focusing on the topic of Security, the Smart Card Project and IT Allston Planning.

The Provost's focus was on the need for Harvard to adapt to a 21st century model of research, teaching and education which encourages cross collaboration across a multitude of disciplines. While individual schools such as Public Health and Medical are consistently ranked in the top of their fields, tomorrow's breakthrough medical advances will only be achieved through an interdisciplinary approach to problem solving. Mr. Hyman used multiple examples to illustrate this point, highlighting in the process the Harvard University Science and Engineering Committee (HUSEC), whose mission is to bring together diverse groups of academics and resources to solve today’s most pressing issues. The Allston Initiative is an integral part of reducing physical barriers to the creation of these partnerships and is considered a long term vision in continuing Harvard's success.

This new consciousness is a departure from Harvard's past, which has served the University well. Though the process of collaboration will present challenges, the rewards will be significant. IT's role in this venture is critical, as stake holders will rely on the computing power, professional experience and dedication our department can provide.

Mr. Hyman also discussed the closing of the Fogg Art Museum on June 30th for a four year, state of the art, renovation. Of the 250,000 objects in its collection, the majority will be placed in permanent off-site storage, inviting the question of "How will such materials be accessible to those who need them for research purposes?" IT can provide a solution through databases, collection management tools and other technologies designed to disseminate information to large audience.

In closing, the Provost highlighted the University's continued academic success and leadership is highly dependent upon the strength of IT.

Harris Band was the second speaker and began his presentation with the challenges and complexities of the Allston Project, a total of 350 acres or an area roughly the size of the Boston Business District. Historically the land supported salt hay farming, a cattle industry and most recently light industry. Currently the area is under utilized and is not conducive to attracting people.

The University has grown immensely since the 1950's when 7.8 million square feet of property was actively used. That footage has now reached 23 million and continues to grow. In order to support Harvard's transformation and reach into the 21st century, themes the Provost echoed, new academic venues must be developed. These venues known as "districts" will encompass the cultural needs of the area as well as undergraduate housing, research, and be the new home of several schools.

The Project's Master Plan incorporates several critically important dimensions; Interdisciplinary Teaching and Research, Community Building, Environmental Sustainability and Economic Development. Mr. Band provided an overview of each theme and the major principles behind them including borrowing the best design ideas from the Cambridge campus, celebrating the Charles River and using "best practice" sustainable strategies in creation of the new area.

Four networks of transportation will be required to support the new campus of which pedestrian walkways is considered the most vital. In addition a robust series of bicycle paths and shuttle services will be available. Discussion of new or redesigned streets was accompanied by slides showing where these new links to existing roads would be located.

Mr. Band finished by providing the audience artist renderings of what the new area will look like when completed based upon the direction of viewing.

The final speaker was Dan Moriarty who began by thanking all those involved in making Project ICE, a complex and highly visible endeavor, such as success. Security was Dan's major topic focusing on the need to protect IT assets as well as Data and the differences between the two. IT assets are viewed as activities we are all involved in, such as networks, of which security needs are well understood. Data security is more elusive and requires the full participation of schools/departments in communicating to Dan where high risk data resides and the steps that will be taken in securing it. Physical security is also a priority, with the Harvard University Police Department taking a more active role in developing policy and plans with a more consistent approach.

The creation of a Smart Card, to be rolled out in the Fall to undergraduate students, is progressing on schedule. The multi use card is being developed with the following in mind; nothing breaks, allows for combination of any number of old and new card technologies (barcode, mag-stripe, contact and contact less smart chips) and enables physical access to be used for logical/IT access.

Major decisions involving Allston IT, such as the agreement that all research computing proposals will go to HUSEC, there will be one unified data center strategy to leverage assets and all voice, networking, wireless and core infrastructure is to be done by central-IT, have been finalized. Outstanding questions do remain such the model for general IT services (desktop, helpdesk, applications, etc.). Will a new consolidated organization or "home school" model be pursued?

Dan also discussed, briefly, his five year capital plans for IT projects as well as provided mention of a need for substantial new investment in Administrative Systems. Academic computing collaboration with the Libraries and Museums, the Harvard Alumni Association and Executive Education was highlighted.

Dan thanked everyone for their hard work and commitment to providing superior customer service each and every day.

Office of Administrative Systems, Grants Management – This month’s spotlight department.

The OAS Grants Management Practice builds and supports applications that enable sponsored research across Harvard University. Our flagship application, GMAS, is a web based enterprise resource planning system for administering research grants from inception to closeout. GMAS allows users around the University to manage the financial, compliance, approval and reporting requirements of federal and non federal grant funded research.

GMAS was built from the ground up by Harvard and launched in October, 2004. The Practice is made up of six full time developers, and a manager, all specializing in web application development, Java and J2EE.

The Practice is continually working to add new features to the application. Recently, direct system to system submission of grant applications to the federal government was added and we continue working on related enhancements, replacing paper driven processes wherever possible.

The Practice also supports the Harvard IRB Electronic Reporting Tool, which provides workflow and tracking functions for the research protocol approval process, Harvard Ethics Training in Human Research, an online training program for investigators working with human subjects and the Comprehensive Rate Information System, used to provide the data for negotiating Harvard's overhead rate with the federal government.

Have an idea for a story or area you would like to see highlighted in the UCIO Human Resources News? Please contact George Ducharme at george_ducharme@harvard.edu to share your ideas, thoughts or comments.

Harvard’s Office of Human Resources – News

Join BSG for a retirement and TDA orientation

The Benefits Services Group still has a few openings for their brown-bag seminar Retirement Plan and TDA Orientation. This session offers an overview for newly eligible staff and faculty, but also provides a helpful refresher for staff and faculty who already participate. The orientation will review Harvard's retirement and TDA options, and will also feature a speaker from one of the financial vendors who will discuss risk and return and investment allocation strategies. To register for the May 19 or June 9 session, please visit the Benefit Seminar Offerings page on HARVie.

Stay informed with the May edition of the Resource

The May issue of the Resource is now available online; visit the paper by selecting the link to the left or the headlines below:

News: HUCTW, Harvard mark 20 years as partners. "We have found it more powerful and effective over time to rely less on antagonistic maneuvers and more on building mutually respectful relationships within which we can change people's minds about what's fair and good policy," says HUCTW Director Bill Jaeger.

Glad you asked: Will the health plan consolidation affect my HUGHP plan?

Opinion: Culture of philanthropy strengthens Harvard. "Harvard teaches that giving back is not an option but a necessity of belonging to the Harvard community," suggests Dan Allenby, director of annual giving strategy & operations at Tufts University. "And that if not for the generosity of others Harvard would not be where it is today."

Profile: She minds the pennies, so the research takes care of itself. Rose Veras, grants manager in the Epidemiology Department at the Harvard School of Public Health is charged with handling a portfolio of sponsored research funding worth $2.6 million.

Participate in upcoming HARVie chats

HARVie chats offer the opportunity to learn from experts across the Harvard community. All chats are held from noon to 1 p.m. To participate, go to HARVie and select the blue "Chat Now" button in the top left-hand corner.

June 12: Professional masters' degrees and graduate certificates from the Harvard Extension School.

More than 80 chat transcripts on all kinds of topics are available on HARVie. To read them, find the blue "HARVie's Chats" box on the left hand side of the HARVie homepage and select "Chat Transcripts."

Target your professional development needs with CWD

The Center for Workplace Development has openings available in upcoming courses. To view a full list of course offerings and to register, please visit HARVie.

Resume Writing
Create an eye-catching resume and clear, focused cover letters.
May 19, noon to 2 p.m.

Advanced Word
Apply styles, create forms, use form fields, add graphics, work with large documents and share documents.
May 20, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Introduction to Flash
Achieve a solid foundation in Flash tools and methods.
May 22 and 23, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Advanced Photoshop
Class features advanced tutorials designed to help you master imaging and layering tools.
May 23, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Career Roadmaps
Build your understanding of the career management process.
June 3, 4, 11 and 18, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Registration Deadline: May 23.

Advanced Harvard Accounting
Learn about the accounting that is unique to Harvard and how it applies to your daily responsibilities.
June 4 and 5, 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Understanding the Harvard Chart of Accounts
New administrative and financial staff learn to prepare, review, approve and/or report on financial transactions. The course covers the Harvard chart of accounts, the P-card and basic cash management procedures.
June 5, 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Express yourself on HARVie Viewpoints

Is your department green? What do you do as an individual or as part of a green team to reduce Harvard’s carbon footprint? What else could be done? Log on to HARVie Viewpoints to weigh in, and to read your colleagues' perspectives. Also, if you missed the entertaining responses to previous month's questions about commuting and meetings, read them now in the Viewpoints archives. If you'd like to suggest a question, or if you're having technical difficulties, send an email to OHR_Webmaster@harvard.edu.

Register your child for Summer Science Week

The Harvard Museum of Natural History's Summer Science Week lets kids explore the museum through games, activities and study. Summer Science weeks take place Monday through Friday from 9:30 a.m. to noon, with a early drop-off option. For program dates and age groups, visit the Harvard Museum of Natural History website. Fees are $140 for nonmembers or $126 for members. Class sizes are limited; to register email reservations@oeb.harvard.edu or call 617-495-2341.

Create art with the Ceramics Program

The Ceramics Program of the Office for the Arts at Harvard provides a creative learning environment for anyone throughout the Harvard community. Instructors and visiting artists engage students in developing expressive and technical skills for making sculptures, tiles and murals. Summer 2008 courses, visiting artist master classes and firing workshops begin the week of June 9. For more information or to register, please go to the Ceramics Program site.

Go green with Zipcar

Zipcar has reduced its rates for all Toyota Prius' in the Boston/Cambridge area. Join Zipcar for the $25 a year Harvard-affiliate price and drive a Prius for the reduced price of $7 an hour instead of $10. For more information, visit a Commuter Choice kiosk around campus or visit their website

CAIT HR NEWS AND UPDATES: February 2008

CAIT HR NEWS AND UPDATES: March 2008

CAIT HR NEWS AND UPDATES: April 2008