We recently sat down with John Duska, Pitt’s Chief Information Security Officer. He’s spent more than 30 years at Pitt, and now, he leads a team that works to stay invisible. Here’s how John Duska navigates keeping one of the region’s largest universities secure — and why he still calls it the perfect job.

Health research can take years to design, conduct, analyze, and publish. Yet once the work appears in a medical journal, the people most affected by it can still struggle to understand what the findings mean for them.  

Before surgeons perform knee replacements, they need to know exactly how the patient’s knee is aligned. That means manually placing markers on an X-ray of the patient’s full leg from hip to ankle and measuring the precise angles that will guide the procedure. It’s a task that must be done for every patient, takes roughly 15 minutes each time and must be completed by a surgeon whose time is among the most expensive in medicine.

A year ago, the University of Pittsburgh Cloud Innovation Center (CIC), powered by AWS, opened its doors with a straightforward but ambitious mission: bring together Pitt students and cutting-edge cloud technology to solve real problems for the university community.

Before healthcare researchers can analyze patient data, they face a critical obstacle: removing all protected health information (PHI) to protect patient privacy. This de-identification process isn't just a formality; it's a legal requirement for research under HIPAA.

For organizations that rely on survey data to make decisions, the path from raw responses to actionable insight has always been frustratingly slow. Analysts often need to navigate multiple tools, wait on pre-processed dashboards, or depend on staff to manually interpret results, a workflow that limits agility and delays understanding and acting on the data.

For decades, healthcare researchers have faced a frustrating obstacle before they can even begin their work: deciphering what their data actually means. Medical records use proprietary codes that vary from hospital to hospital, requiring researchers to spend hundreds of hours manually mapping these codes to standardized formats before analysis can begin. 

The world of collegiate athletics thrives on passionate fan engagement, alumni connections, and philanthropic support. For the University of Pittsburgh Athletics department, reaching and nurturing these vital relationships has always been a priority. 

 

The Pitt Cloud Innovation Center, powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS), collaborated with the Pitt Diving team to improve operational efficiency and create automated highlight reels. Before this solution, coaches dedicated hours to reviewing practice footage, meticulously searching for individual dives. 

Brandon Sia, a mechanical engineering student at the University of Pittsburgh, has found the Student Computing Lab to be an invaluable resource in his academic journey. For Brandon, the Student Computing Labs are not only spaces filled with computers. The labs serve as hubs of essential resources that support his academic pursuits.

Pitt Digital successfully transitioned to a new security system, Microsoft Sentinel, within 68 days. This change was facilitated by Cribl tools, which helped organize and manage security data efficiently. This transition not only streamlined their data processes but also resulted in significant cost savings. The university's IT team benefited from Cribl's user-friendly interface, making it easier for them to manage over 1,000 servers and respond to security threats more effectively.

Graduation is a pivotal moment for students, marking the successful completion of their academic journey. Ensuring that all graduation requirements are met is a crucial task for university staff, but it can be a daunting and time-consuming process. At the University of Pittsburgh, an innovative approach was taken to simplify and expedite this process, thanks to the collaboration between the Academic Records Office and Pitt Digital.

At the University of Pittsburgh and in technology, innovation is a way of life. Recently, Pitt IT partnered with the Office of Budget Operations (OBO) within the Controller’s Office to transform their annual Target Letter process, which establishes budget targets for each University unit.

The University of Pittsburgh manages a massive $1.2 billion in research and other externally sponsored activities annually, comprising nearly 40% of Pitt’s total operating revenues and sustaining impactful increases of ~$350 million per year since 2018.

The Pitt Vaccination and Health Connection Hub collaborates closely with Digital to integrate advanced technology solutions, such as a custom-built vaccination management system, enhancing efficiency and accessibility for patients. This initiative not only streamlines the vaccination process but also supports community health through preventive care and educational opportunities for health discipline students.

The Office of Sponsored Programs' transition to DocuSign has streamlined research administration, cutting down on paper use, improving efficiency, and supporting remote work. The digitization of processes not only enhanced speed and transparency in grant approvals but also contributed to sustainability efforts and improved efficiencies.

When every click and keystroke can seemingly open the door to hackers, the role of cybersecurity is more critical than ever. At the forefront of this digital frontier is Pitt senior Kevin Fung, an information science major in the School of Computing and Information and a junior security analyst with Pitt Information Technology.

As geographic information system (GIS) technology continues to attract growing interest among students and employers, higher-education institutions must find ways to keep curricula on pace with innovations in technology.

Graduating is a significant milestone in a student's life, marking the culmination of years of hard work and dedication. At Pitt, ensuring that students can smoothly transition from students to alumni is a critical task. This blog post highlights the innovative approach taken by the Academic Records Office in collaboration with Pitt Digital to streamline the graduation process.