News & Events

In this Section

New Beginnings: ITS MakerSpace and Service Center to Relocate

TL;DR

• ITS MakerSpace reopening in the Marshall Square Mall in January 2025.

• ITS Service Center reopening in the Women’s Building in January 2025.

As 2024 draws to a close, the ITS MakerSpace and Service Center are packing up and relocating on campus to bring new opportunities and enhanced services for students, faculty and staff.

The MakerSpace closed its doors at Kimmel on Wednesday, Dec. 18, and will reopen early in the spring semester at its temporary home in the former fitness space in the Marshall Square Mall. Information about the MakerSpace’s hours of operation will be available when it reopens. Access will continue to require an I.D. card swipe.

In parallel with the MakerSpace move, the ITS Service Center will also relocate. During the break, the Service Center will move from the Center for Science and Technology to the lobby of the Women’s Building. The Service Center is tentatively set to reopen on Jan. 10, 2025.

For those needing assistance during this transition, the Service Center staff is available at 315.443.2677 or help@syr.edu. Check the ITS Service Center page for updates and hours of operation as the move progresses.

AI Insights: December 2024 Newsletter

This message was originally shared to subscribers December 13, 2024.

Welcome to “AI Insights”

ITS is excited to share the first edition of “AI Insights,” our newsletter dedicated to all things artificial intelligence (AI). Each edition will feature the latest news in AI, including its applications in higher education and developments across the AI landscape. We also will share tips for how you can put AI to work for you in the office or in the classroom.

Would you like to share an article you found or a tip for taking advantage of AI? We’d love to hear it! You can share your links and ideas using our Microsoft Form.

News and Views

Government

  • Trump appoints former PayPal exec David Sacks as AI and crypto czar (Reuters)
  • The House AI Task Force readies the final report with eyes on “bite-sized” regulatory efforts (MeriTalk)

Higher Education

Industry

  • Grok is now free for all X users (The Verge)
  • Anthropic introduces the Model Context Protocol (Anthropic)
  • Introducing Amazon Nova foundation models: Frontier intelligence and industry leading price performance (Amazon)
  • AI eats the world (Benedict Evans)
  • Google Introduces A.I. Agent That Aces 15-Day Weather Forecasts (New York Times)
  • The End of Focus Groups? AI Replicates Consumer Responses With 85% Accuracy (PYMNTS)
  • OpenAI’s 12 days of ‘ship-mas’: all the new announcements (The Verge)

Science

  • Huge randomized trial of AI boosts discovery — at least for good scientists (Nature)

This Issue’s Tip: Protecting University Data

You should only enter University data when working in the following AI tools and platforms, which meet the University’s security and compliance standards:

  • Microsoft Copilot
  • Adobe Firefly
  • Gradescope
  • Blackboard’s AI

To learn more, refer to the University’s AI guidelines.

This Issue’s Prompt: Drafting an Email

Prompts are how you ask generative AI tools to do something for you (e.g., creating, summarizing, editing or transforming). Treat it like a conversation, using clear language and enough context to get the result you have in mind.

To get more practice, use the generative AI tool of your choice (for example, Microsoft Copilot, Open AI ChatGPT or Anthropic Claude) to draft an email customizing the following prompt: “Draft an email to [name] that informs them that [Project] is delayed two weeks. Make it short and casual in tone.”

You can then revise the result to add an important detail, reduce or increase the word count, change the tone or make any other modification. The more context and guidance you provide, the better the result will be.

Helpful Resources

ITS and the campuswide information technology community are available year-round to help with your tech questions. Resources include:

“AI Insights” will return on Jan. 2, 2025. Thank you for reading. Go Orange!

Tech Tips: December 2024 Newsletter

This message was originally shared to all faculty and staff via email on December 4, 2024.

At a Glance

Each month, Information Technology Services provides tech tips for the Orange community. Pressed for time? Here are this edition’s topics:

“AI Day” Panel Discussion

On Nov. 8, ITS invited our campus to “AI Day with Microsoft.” The morning panel featured University and Microsoft representatives discussing the opportunities and challenges of this transformative technology.

Research Computing Series

This semester’s Research Computing Series sessions featured Sarah Lucas, assistant professor of biology, and Younes Ra’di, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science.

Understanding Microsoft Teams

This video provides an overview of Microsoft Teams, explaining the differences between teams, channels and chats. It also covers how to create and manage teams and channels, set up notifications and use chat for quick, informal communication.

Presenting With Accessibility in Mind

When leading presentations with visual content, consider audiences who cannot see the screen. For example, instead of saying, “Review the bullets on the slide,” read them aloud. Instead of saying, “Click here,” say, “From the navigation bar, select new event.”

Holiday Cyber-Safety

The holiday season is a prime time for cybercriminals to strike. Beware of holiday scams such as phishing emails pretending to be from retailers or delivery services. As always, verify links before clicking. Never share your passwords or multi-factor authentication codes with anyone.

Gradescope

Gradescope is a tool within Blackboard that helps collect, organize and store work while streamlining grading for paper exams and assignments. It also offers insights into student performance through statistics and dashboards, making grading more efficient.

Course Feedback Window

The window for collecting course feedback this semester runs through Dec. 11. Course feedback is an important way for students to share about their academic experience. They are more motivated to respond when instructors communicate directly with them about it. To help gain more feedback, a great practice is to offer time during a class session for students to complete the course survey. Visit the course feedback page for a QR code you can share in Blackboard or in an email. The QR code directs students to the log-in page to access their course surveys. If you have any questions, please email coursefeedback@syr.edu. We know that the end of a semester is a busy time. We appreciate your time and effort!

Helpful Resources

ITS and the campuswide information technology community are available year-round to help with your tech questions. Resources include:

Thank you for reading. Go Orange!