IT News for Pitt Faculty & Staff (May 2025)
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Pitt and AWS Launch Innovative Cloud Center:
Bringing AI to Health Sciences and Athletics Analytics
On April 23, the University launched the newly established University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences and Sports Analytics Cloud Innovation Center, powered by AWS. Attendees from Pitt Information Technology, Pitt's Schools of the Health Sciences, Pitt Athletics, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) came together to celebrate this innovative collaboration. Vice Chancellor and Chief Information Officer Mark Henderson, emphasized the University's tradition of innovation, saying, "The Cloud Innovation Center aligns with our ongoing efforts to enable and empower the Pitt community. It will support the work of our researchers in health sciences. It will enhance the success of our athletics program. And it will help students to develop skills they need for an AI driven feature."
Dominic Delmolino, VP of Field Technology & Engineering, AWS and Mark Henderson, Vice Chancellor and CIO, Pitt IT
Uduak Ndoh, Deputy CIO for Health Sciences; Mark Henderson, Vice Chancellor and CIO; Dom Delmolino, AWS; and Ryan Varley, Sr Assoc Athletic Director
AWS CIC interns Mohammed Misran, Rowan Morse, Varun Shelke, Roman Koshovnyk, and Vincent Niedermayer
Use Generative AI Safely and Responsibly
Generative AI can supercharge our work—but it also comes with risks. The new Acceptable Use of Generative AI Tools operating standard will help protect the University and guide safe usage. If you work with restricted data, only use approved GenAI tools. The list will grow as more tools are vetted—stay informed and review the guidelines today.
Say Hello to Our New Tech-Savvy Sidekick!
There’s a friendly new chatbot, nestled at the bottom-right of technology.pitt.edu, eager to guide you through Pitt IT service and support options. We encourage you to explore its capabilities and click the link on the bottom-right of the chat window to share feedback. Your insights will help the assistant grow even smarter with every interaction.
Keep Your Email Communications Safe
Pitt IT's Data Loss Prevention (DLP) framework will now scan emails sent by faculty and staff for sensitive info, unencrypted data, and external recipients (except UPMC). If a message meets these criteria, you’ll receive a follow-up email with guidance so you can protect future messages.
Only YOU Can Start the Chat
To prevent phishing and social engineering, Pitt IT is implementing a new measure in Microsoft Teams Chat to reduce the risk. Now, external users without a Pitt computing account cannot initiate Chat conversations. Instead, you must make the first contact with them.
Zoom Security Enhancements
Zoom meetings got more bomb-proof. Now, screen annotations by participants are disabled by default, and non-approved AI note-taking services (e.g., read.ai, otter.ai, and fireflies.ai) are blocked from joining Zoom meetings hosted by Pitt users. Secure your meetings.
Panther Bytes to Nibble On
Check out these bite-sized blogs about tech topics you should know.
LinkedIn Learning: Bite-Sized Courses with a Big Impact
All Pitt faculty and staff have access to the full range of LinkedIn Learning courses at no cost. Here are some of the newest and most popular courses on the platform.
- Rapid AI Generation Using AI
- The Practicing Photographer
What Project Managers Need to Know about Business Analysis
SharePoint: Creating Communication Sites
The Master Key to Overcoming Procrastination
Problem-Solving Techniques
