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Just a quick blink and 2022 is already over.
Now we are standing in the middle of the first chapter of 2023.
Last year was characterized by many changes, especially based on the motto “ away from online – towards presence”.
We are looking back at the past year and take you with us.
In 2022 there was by far the biggest change in the IT Center in the last two years.
Reopening
While we were ably to enjoy a bit of normality in May as the IT-ServiceDesk in SuperC and the printing service opened their doors, we were even more pleased that the IT Center fully reopened in August. This means that employees have returned to the offices, personal support is again being offered and events are taking place on site.
Events
However, at the beginning of the year there were still some online events in which the IT Center participated.
Among other things the HPC Introduction was held for all interested parties and users of HPC, followed by the HPC seminar, the virtual PPCES.
In addition, the 3rd semester MATSEs had the opportunity to present their projects at the Software Technology Fair.
Other events in which the IT Center participated in were the #RWTHWelcomeWeek to welcome international students, the nationwide kick-off of the IDM.nrw project to raise interest and communicate project goals as well as the ISC High Performance Conference.
However, this is not all: Several events could be held on site again.
Employees had the chance to experience the SC22 and also the re:publica in Berlin.
Furthermore, the ACI conference, the steering group meeting and the annual workshop for HPC users, the aiXcelerate were held at the premises of the IT Center.
There were also some festivities to catch up on:
At the beginning of August, we had the pleasure to celebrate our annual summer party, where old and new employees could meet and get to know each other after a long time.
To the delight of all employees both the company trip and the IT Center’s Christmas party took place in attendance.
The IT Center was also active in sports. In September, nine runners took part in the Aachen company run to support non-profit projects.
As every year, the new MATSE trainees were welcomed. This joyful event was complemented by a MATSE rally through through the IT Center and a final math dual barbecue.
At this point we want to congratulate three member of the RWTH Aachen, who won the SPEC Contributor Award.
Furthermore, the social media channels of the IT Center celebrated their third anniversary and the project IDM.nrw reached a new milestone.
Changes and Adjustments
In 2022 there have also been new developments in the IT Center, especially in the fields of design and process optimization:
- The IT Center Blog, the website of NHR4CES and most recently the website of the IT Center have been fitted out with new designs.
- Additionally to the new designs, the process of the participant management in RWTHmoodle has been adjusted.
- The chat function for the support service has been connected to the omnichannel system. There is also an updated design as well as new features.
- New functions can also be found on the IT Center Blog, on the website of NHR4CES and further in the FAQ section on IT Center Help.
- The RDM Blog is now also available in English.
But not only designs and functions were adjusted.
There were also some introductions, conversions and even some goodbye’s:
- There was a Cyber-Security-Awareness training with a phishing-simulation for several months.
- The pilot project Overleaf started in cooperation with TU Darmstadt, to support collaborative editing of LaTeX documents and has been successfully extended until February 2023.
- The Macros-E-mail-Filtering and the new E-Mail Lifecycle started.
- The implementation of RWTHcontacts to modernize the organization and personal data management happened.
- Adobe SeviRe has been implemented to ease processing.
- The backup-changeover to Commvault’s backup software took place.
- Accounts of the university’s library were updated as well as the HPC accounts were updated to the RegApp.
- Websites which are hosted by the IT Center were automatically updated to “https” and equipped with the appropriate SSL certificates.
- A big clean-up campaign of Microsoft Accounts happened on the RWTH tenant.
- We say goodbye to our feedback function for the ticket system after receiving mainly positive feedback.
Moreover, new blog series’ were launched throughout the year.
Useful IT hacks such as the ITbites, the series “making video conferences more efficient” and the #GoodToKnow series are covered. Additionally the IT Center was introduced as an institution of the RWTH Aachen in the IT Center Picture Puzzle series.
As you can see, many exciting things happened last year. Now we are looking forward to what 2023 will bring our way.
Responsible for the content of this article is Sara Erdem.
