We write today with initial guidelines on the use and procurement of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google Bard. The University supports responsible experimentation with generative AI tools, but there are important considerations to keep in mind when using these tools, including information security and data privacy, compliance, copyright, and academic integrity.
IT Stakeholders’ Forum was held on Thursday, April 11, 2024.
Michael Tran Duff, Chief Information Security and Data Privacy Officer, and members of HUIT’s ISDP team offered the feature presentation on PrivSec at Harvard. HUIT team members also offered updates on a variety of services.
If you missed the session or would like to review any of the sections or materials, please refer to the links below:
On April 10, HUIT launched its new Digital Digest newsletter. The newsletter features news, tips, resources, and updates on information security and data privacy, digital accessibility, IT services...
Microsoft is upgrading the Teams app. The new Microsoft Teams will improve performance, making the app faster and easier to use.
In early April, new Teams will become the default app, and users can toggle between it and Microsoft Teams classic. Starting in mid-May, all computers which meet the...
Two guests joined the PDF to share important updates: Vanessa Aller explained several exciting improvements to the PM curriculum at the IT Academy and Jefferson Burson showcased the upcoming Horizon Reports
Horizon Reports – now in their second year – bring a Harvard perspective to the ever-changing technology landscape. These reports represent a rare look into the present and future. They characterize possible answers to questions like:
Please note that this company is not affiliated with Harvard or the website transition project. Owners of Harvard OpenScholar websites will be contacted directly...
The Information Security and Data Privacy (ISDP) office sends monthly simulated phishing emails to Central Administration and FAS employees. This program provides members of the community with experience identifying and reporting phishing emails in a safe environment, in addition to gathering valuable metrics to help improve our security services. These simulated emails are based on real phishing attempts seen at the...
Project Delivery Forum was held on February 22, 2024.
Celeste Scott and Kaitlyn Santa Lucia shared valuable ideas that you can try on your projects to be more effective. We discussed 1) Creative thinking on how to approach a project, 2) Tools that help teams overcome complex problems, and 3) Real stories of how they were applied to scale the FAS Data Hub program.
Microsoft and Google have announced that they are phasing out free storage for university customers. To prepare, HUIT has partnered with Schools and units to assess the University’s overall storage needs and is rolling out new default storage limits for Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace accounts with some exceptions by school.
Impacted Schools and units are contacting their affiliates directly to communicate processes to request additional storage or find alternative solutions.
IT Stakeholders’ Forum was held on Thursday, January 18, 2024.
Alpha Sanneh and Terry Connolly of HUIT’s Identity & Access Management offered the feature presentation on Grouper, a foundational service for many of the tools we access at Harvard. HUIT team members also offered updates on a variety of services....
Project Delivery Forum was held on January 11, 2024.
The Project Delivery Forum welcomed Kelly Viola from Harvard University Strategic Procurement who shared insider tips on how to be successful with contracts and agreements, plus we navigated the world and jargon of MSAs, DPAs, SLAs, CMS, IP, and SOWs.
In February, Google and other email service providers will enforce stricter requirements on senders of bulk mail to help reduce spam and malicious email. To meet these requirements, administrators of email marketing platforms (e.g., Mailchimp, Constant Contact, etc.) need to set up email authentication to avoid disruption in delivery.... Read more about Google implementing stricter email authentication requirements for bulk senders
In May we wrote to let you know that Harvard is transitioning away from the OpenScholar web platform, and that all Harvard OpenScholar websites that are compliant with Terms of Use will be moved to a new platform by November 2025.
Project Delivery Forum was held on December 5, 2023.
Amy English from the EPMO led a discussion on a buzzworthy topic: Generative AI’s Impacts to Project Management. Our conversation included the power of generative AI in project management, its potential to enhance productivity, speed up product development, and improve customer experience. We also discussed the risks associated with this technology, such as data security, bias, and the need for human validation.
Just as with text-based AI tools, image generation tools such as Adobe Firefly rely on a user’s prompts to create good images. After you enter a prompt, the AI model analyzes your input and generates a response based on the patterns it has learned through its training. More descriptive prompts can improve the quality of the outputs. This guide gives you a basic overview of how to generate prompts for image-based AI...
The University supports responsible experimentation with Generative AI tools. This page provides an overview of possible use cases, and important things to keep in mind before you begin experimenting. It is intended as general information only and is not a comprehensive list of all the ways in which people across the University are exploring the use of AI. You can find more resources, including available tools, at HUIT’s Generative AI page.
The latest macOS upgrade, Sonoma, is now available for HUIT-supported devices. This upgrade includes security enhancements as well as expanded functionality for video conferencing and widgets.
Project Delivery Forum was held on October 31, 2023.
Portfolio Management is one of those terms that you hear, yet do we have the same understanding of what it means, and how your day-to-day duties fit in a portfolio? In a special Halloween version of the PDF -- Teresa Schreitmueller, Matt Mazer & Katherine McCormack hosted fang-tastic opportunity to learn about portfolio management, that sent shivers down many spines plus offered tricks & treats to the attendees.
In recent years, there has been an increase in incidents of online harassment from outsiders targeted at members of the Harvard community. Harvard provides this resource for community members who have been identified and targeted for online abuse, harassment, and intimidation.
IT Stakeholder’s Forum takes on Generative AI at Harvard.
We were glad to see so many of you were able to attend our IT Stakeholders’ Forum on October 12, 2023, and we hope you found it as informative as we did. A special thank you to David LaPorte and Steve Burns for presenting on Harvard’s work around Generative AI. This is a topic that will have an impact on the ways we all work and live and is rich soil for conversations. Don’t be surprised if we revisit this area down the road!...
Project Delivery Forum was held on September 20, 2023.
Meena Pandey led an engaging conversation titled, Breaking the Myth: Agile Processes are less disciplined and structured than those of Waterfall. We shared agile acumen, along with multiple guests who offered their real-world learnings from recent agile projects.
On September 7, 2023, Apple announced a software vulnerability dubbed "Blastpass" affecting iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and MacOS Ventura. This vulnerability can be exploited without any action by the user, making it especially urgent to patch.
HUIT, in collaboration with VPAL, the FAS Division of Science, and colleagues across the University, has developed an AI Sandbox tool to enable Harvard community members to securely access Large Language Models (LLM). The AI Sandbox provides a “walled-off,” secure...
The information, sentences, or questions that you enter into a Generative AI tool (“prompts”) are a big influence on the quality of outputs you receive. After you enter a prompt, the AI model analyzes your input and generates a response based on the patterns it has learned through its training. More descriptive prompts can improve the quality of the outputs.
