AI for Your Inbox? Improving Incoming Emails Being Marked as Junk

No SPAM or phishing emailOIT recently deployed Abnormal Security to supplement Microsoft Defender for Office 365, our primary email security (anti-spam) application. Utilizing artificial intelligence as part of the criteria to determine if a message is malicious, these applications help to eliminate emails that are unsolicited or contain threats to data security. With assistance from our end users, the AI learns to correctly identify suspicious messages by the act of users dragging and dropping false positive spam from Junk to Inbox, or vice versa for any unsolicited or unwanted messages. Other methods of strengthening the results include using the Report Message button in Outlook or forwarding messages to spam@smu.eduContinue reading AI for Your Inbox? Improving Incoming Emails Being Marked as Junk

Spring Data Science Workshops Are Open to All

OIT's Data Science iconThe Spring 2024 O’Donnell Data Science and Research Computing Institute (ODSRCI) and OIT Research and Data Science Services (RDSS) workshop series provides a hands-on experience that will guide those of the SMU campus community in the basics of using SMU’s supercomputing resources to take advantage of AI workflows, learn the fundamentals of deep learning, start programming in Python, and more. The topics cover information useful for users to quickly begin to use the advanced compute capabilities provided by SMU’s High-Performance Computing (HPC) clusters, the NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD and M3.

Those interested need to register for the workshops in advance via Continue reading Spring Data Science Workshops Are Open to All

XWiki Project Gets Closer to Migration

XWiki logo

The XWiki Implementation Project has entered its next phase and is working through the technical aspects of migrating years of posts and updates to our campus wiki system. The main goal of the phase to provide a seamless migration for all spaces. The migration team is working with the vendor to find the right balance of downtime and performance—targeting end of February for the switch. Continue reading XWiki Project Gets Closer to Migration

Microsoft Teams Migration Project Enters Phase II

The mono version of the Jabra Evolve2 40.In the second part of January and running through February, Phase II of the Microsoft Teams Migration Project will begin with the exchange of desktop phones for headsets for any employees who requested one but were not able to get one as part of Phase I. We will also be deploying the Jabra speaker puck as part of this Phase. OIT representatives will visit campus buildings between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. to meet with employees and conduct the exchange.

The schedule for these exchanges is as follows:

Week 1
Monday, January 22 Prothro Hall, Selecman Hall, Kirby Hall, Bridwell Library
Tuesday, January 23 Owen Arts Center, Meadows Museum, Dr. Bob Smith Health Center, Umphrey Lee Center
Wednesday, January 24 Embrey Engineering Building, Caruth Hall, Hughes- Trigg Student Center
Thursday, January 25 Crum Basketball Center, Loyd All-Sports Center, Blanton Student Services Building
Friday, January 26 Revisit locations
Week 2
Monday, January 29 Dawson Service Center, Patterson Hall, Clements Hall, Hyer Hall, Fondren Library Center
Tuesday, January 30 Dallas Hall, Heroy Science Hall, Fondren Science Building, Harold Clark Simmons Hall, Annette Caldwell Simmons Hall, Moody Hall
Wednesday, January 31 Perkins 
Administration, Storey Hall, Collins Hall
Thursday, February 1 East Campus
Friday, February 2 Revisit locations

As it was with Phase I, if the scheduled date does not work with an employee’s availability, the team will return the following Friday to try again. No exchange will happen without the requester being present. Also, if an employee would like to exchange a desktop phone for a headset, they can ask one of the OIT representatives while they are in the building, and they will be happy to assist.

2023: Championing Excellence Through Certification

Certiport MOS Top 10 awardIn 2019, the Office of Information Technology added the Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) certification as an official service offering. Over the years, we have continued expanding and growing participation in these industry-leading assessments. In 2023, we have several milestones to celebrate. Not only did SMU students, staff, and faculty successfully complete over 5,000 Microsoft certifications since launching the pilot program, but we also added several new faculty to the roster requiring certification for their courses. Most of all, one of our SMU undergraduate students received the top score for the state of Texas. Continue reading 2023: Championing Excellence Through Certification