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In this edition of OIT's Technology News, we highlight the results of the 2017 Student Technology Needs Assessment, how machine learning is defending campus systems, the positive impact of Microsoft Certifications for staff, protecting yourself from hard drive failure with CrashPlan Pro, plus much more.

We recently surveyed over 1,900 undergraduate and graduate students at ÃÛÌÒ½´regarding technology use and support in order to assess and and .

CylancePROTECT wasÌýintroduced to the ÃÛÌÒ½´campus as a way to improve securing systems against viruses and malware. As the University became regularly inundated with malicious files, employees could not be expected to keep up with the volume and complexity of these new threats. As the threats evolved, – machine learning.

In order to adhere to ÃÛÌÒ½´policy 12.3 and ensure employee files are protected and recoverable in the event of a hardware failure, automatically to faculty and staff computers. "In addition to the focus on data science and data analytics, interdisciplinary collaboration is also vital to success in undergraduate education." SMU's CIO Michael Hites on Preparing for a Data Science Future in March's .

, we cover general updates to announcements, new section-specific announcements, comments on announcements, and updates to Canvas Mobile. Ìý Over 2 dozen Microsoft Office certifications have been issued to staff since the program’s launch in September.ÌýSee what ÃÛÌÒ½´Staff are saying about .

Each year, hundreds of computer orders are processed requiring coordination between Purchasing and OIT. In reviewing the ordering experience, we decided to make some major improvements. Next month, we will launch allowing you to order computers, tablets, monitors, and accessories for departmental purchases. While Windows 10 is the standard OS for faculty and staff computers, we have kept Windows 7 as the standard throughout all labs and classrooms to provide a consistent experience for faculty and students in these spaces. Over this summer, all managed computer labs and classroom instructor stations will be .

When some Physics researchers needed a few dedicated computers for running experiments, they reached out to OIT Customer Service Director Rachel Mulry to see if she could help. Within 24 hours, several laptops were found that could be donated to . We have several options for videoconferencing on campus. In this video, see how you can in your area.