Our esteemed colleague Thomas Nau has unfortunately left us for Switzerland on 31 October 2023. We are very sorry to see him go, both on an operational and personal level. At the same time, we are delighted that he was able to take up such an exciting and challenging opportunity. Some opportunities only come along once in a lifetime.

The position has now been advertised and we naturally hope to find a successor for Mr Nau in the near future. Together with Thomas Nau, Pia Schmücker and Christian Spann have been the acting directors of the kiz since 1 July 2022, and the two of them have now been the acting directors of the kiz since 1 November 2023. Guido Hölting is the permanent deputy. Karl Gaissmaier is interim head of the Infrastructure department. Christian Spann will represent Ulm University in the ALWR until further notice. Prof Rautenbach will take on the role of CIO in future.

 

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The IT service provider at Ulm University, then called URZ (University Computing Center), began training IT specialists in 1999 with a young lady and a young gentleman. Michaela Hering took over the training management. In 2017, Stefanie Bendele and, since 2021, Diana Denk strengthened the trainer team. 45 young people have been trained since 1999, 11 of whom were young women; We had good experiences with a “couple” right from the start and so such constellations were sought again in the following years (unfortunately the application situation did not always allow for this). 41 have so far successfully completed their training at kiz; there are guaranteed to be 44 (see above!). After completing their training at kiz or other positions at Ulm University, 22 trainees were taken on on a temporary or permanent basis - and some of them are still there today! 9 or possibly more trainees obtained their high school diploma and studied. Unfortunately, we have no information about a small number of ex-trainees about their future career paths. The numerous training officers contributed and still contribute to the success story of FI training! These are colleagues from three kiz departments, information systems, infrastructure and media, who work intensively on fulfilling the training topics according to the training framework plan, be it in learning and deepening programming or in networks, computer architectures and media services, etc.

 

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Our service points are closed at the turn of the year, as there is a university-wide heating reduction:

- Service Point Library Centre: 23.12.2023 - 01.01.2024
- Publication Management Service Point: 23.12.2023 - 01.01.2024
- IT consultation hours: 23.12.2023 - 02.01.2024
- Helpdesk: 23.12.2023 - 01.01.2024

- Helmholtzstraße service point: 23/12/2023 - 07/01/2024
- Print service point: 23.12.2023 - 07.01.2024

Recently, the threat situation has intensified massively due to cyber attacks on the country's institutions. Authorities as well as colleges and universities have fallen victim to successful attacks, which in severe cases have led to drastic restrictions or even prolonged suspension of normal operations.

Government agencies such as the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), the Baden-Württemberg Cybersecurity Agency (CSBW), the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the State Office of Criminal Investigation (LKA) have expanded their activities in the areas of threat defence and the investigation and prosecution of cyber attacks and have established corresponding information and communication channels, in which Ulm University is also involved.

Ransomware attacks in particular have been successful time and again and have already caused considerable damage. Unfortunately, all experts agree that even with the best endeavours, the risk of occurrence cannot currently be reduced to a negligible level. Successful ransomware attacks, at least on individual PCs and servers, must therefore be assumed at present. Ulm University has also already been affected. Although the incidents could be contained quickly, they always required the reinstallation of the compromised computers and a restore of the data from the backup.

In this context, it is important to emphasise the need to back up data that is considered important. The kiz provides a powerful centralised service for backups that can be used by all institutions at no extra cost. The solution also offers adequate protection against ransomware according to the current state of the art.

The service is described in detail in the kiz service catalogue:
https://www.uni-ulm.de/index.php?id=1503

Please make use of it. There is sufficient capacity available in the tape library. The volumes for clients or facilities listed in the service description are generally negotiable.

The relevant contact person at kiz will be happy to advise you if you have any special requirements. Please direct any contact enquiries to the kiz helpdesk (helpdesk(at)uni-ulm.de)

 

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The Campus Portal project grew in 2023 with the introduction of additional product areas. In addition to the introduction of the APP module (application and admission process), the introduction of the STU (student management), RES (research management), DOC (doctoral student management), BI (business intelligence) and PSV (personalized services and directories) modules have started.

The APP4UUlm project, changing the application and admission procedures, is making further progress. The application campaign for the Master's degree program in Communication and Information Technology started in the new campus portal in mid-August. The application and admission process for the higher semesters of medicine opened in the new campus portal at the beginning of September. In December the last master's degree program "Economics" will be changed. The APP4UUlm project will be extended within the university for another 2 years in order to change other application procedures such as for teacher training courses. There have also been personnel changes in the APP4UUlm project. The vacant position of APP configurator could be filled with Ms. Aleena Khan as of October 1, 2023.

Work on the STU4UUlm project, converting student management to HISinOne, is progressing according to plan. The current focus is on data cleansing in the old system in preparation for migration to the new system. At the same time, after the technical planning was completed, the configuration work for student management and fee management as well as the reports and notifications in HISinOne began. Here too, the vacant position of STU configurator was filled by Oleksandr Miroshkin.

The RES4UUlm project, the development of research management with HISinOne, has gained momentum. The kickoff workshop and the first workshop with the central university administration on technical planning took place at the end of September. The workshop on technical planning with the Medical Faculty (University Hospital) was held in mid-November. The configuration work for the first milestone, “Projects/Third-Party Funding” can start in the 1st quarter. The position of technical project management for the RES4UUlm project has now been filled by Freya Häußler, and Albrecht Bayha is taking over the technical project management.

After the insolvency of last year's tender winner and in view of the urgency, it was decided to introduce HIS eG's doctoral student management under the project abbreviation DOC4UUlm. The decisive factor for this was the numerous expected synergy effects with the sister products of the HISinOne product family. In addition, with the semi-annual updates, HIS has substantially expanded the range of functions of HISinOne DOC compared to the status we last checked in summer 2022. The working environment is currently being set up and introduced to the project team. The first joint workshop with the HIS consultants will take place at the beginning of December. The central topics will be the first steps in going live, a possible schedule and, above all, the migration of the existing data. Close integration with the STU project is planned until it goes live as parallel as possible in 2024.

In order to be able to finally switch off the old HIS SuperX system at the end of the year and replace it with HISInOne Business Intelligence (BI4UUlm), increased work was carried out on migrating the key figure reports previously delivered to the MWK via SuperX. In Q4 2023, the key figure collection in accordance with the university financing agreement (BaWue 2017 key figure project) or the calculation for the 2022 reporting year and delivery to the MWK will now take place in HISInOne BI. If necessary, this key figure report can then also be made available internally within the university as part of academic controlling, for which appropriate roles still need to be developed. The employees of Department II-1 Approval can use the standard reporting options provided by HIS (data sheet and flexible data analysis) for evaluation requirements. For this purpose, the required data extraction from the APP was configured and carried out and a brief introduction to the evaluation options was given

In the PSV4UUlm Personalized Services and Directories subproject, the focus is currently on the organizational structure in HISinOne. Over the past few months, source systems have been identified from which an organizational structure can be built in the target system HISinOne using a migration concept via SVA. In a first step, this ensures that an organizational structure is in place for the go-live of STU4UUlm and the first go-live phase of RES4UUlm that can be used by both projects. In parallel to the work on the organizational structure, work is being done on defining a work pact for the roles and rights, which will enable structured authorization of people within the organizational structure.

 

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If you would like to apply for open access funding for articles with an invoice date up to and including November 2023, you should submit them for funding by week 49/2023 at the latest (link to form) in order to be sure to receive funding.

The funding application must be submitted in January 2024 exclusively for item invoices with an invoice date of December 2023!

 

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From January 1st, 2024, a whole range of new Read&Publish agreements will be offered:

• American Chemical Society (ACS)
• Company of Biologists
• Elsevier (inklusive The Lancet und Cell Press)
• Rockefeller University Press
• Taylor & Francis

Detailed information and further links for authors will be bundled on our website on Open Access funding as soon as the information is available from the publisher.

At the time of going to press, no final renewal details were available for the current DEAL contracts with Springer and Wiley. The extension of the contracts has already been announced by the publishers and will be proposed for participation in the university committees once the participation documents have been submitted.

Please direct enquiries regarding the eligibility of individual journals to:

oa(at)uni-ulm.de or +49 731 50 15 476

You can find our full range of information on Open Access at

https://www.uni-ulm.de/open-access

 

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From 2024, the Faculty of Medicine will expand its journal portfolio - which is provided by kiz - to include the specialist titles in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) and JAMA. The following titles will be added:

• NEJM Evidence
• JAMA Cardiology
• JAMA Dermatology
• JAMA Internal Medicine
• JAMA Neurology
• JAMA Oncology
• JAMA Ophthalmology
• JAMA Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery
• JAMA Pediatrics
• JAMA Psychiatry
• JAMA Surgery

The titles will be available on the university's campus network for a test period from 1 December 2023.

 

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Since November 2023, e-books from the publishers Elsevier and Springer can also be offered directly as individual campus licences on the ScienceDirect and SpringerLink platforms respectively. The titles offered there are available as DRM-free PDFs in the campus network and are regularly listed in the library catalogue. You are welcome to take this into account when making your purchase requests:

Purchase request form

 

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Since the operating company has not submitted a corresponding offer to continue the consortium license for all universities in Baden-Württemberg, the license for the literature management program Citavi expires on March 31, 2024.

Please switch to a different reference management software.

If you are currently using cloud projects in Citavi, we recommend saving a local backup copy of the project. This can be imported into another reference management programme and used again later if required.

We recommend the use of Zotero as free, platform-independent open source software. Zotero is not tied to a university account. You can continue to use your references even if you leave the university.

For Endnote, we continue to provide a low-cost licence via a Baden-Württemberg licence agreement. However, you must pay for the licence for Endnote yourself and updates are not available free of charge.

An alternative for LaTeX users is the free software JabRef.

Further information on the individual programmes can be found on our website: www.uni-ulm.de/einrichtungen/kiz/service-katalog/wid/literaturverwaltungssysteme

Please send enquiries by e-mail to: kiz.litverwaltung(at)uni-ulm.de

 

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Our service points will be closed at the turn of the year, as there will be a reduction in heating throughout the university.

Central library closed from 23.12.2023 - 01.01.2024
Helmholtzstraße library closed from 23.12.2023 - 07.01.2024

From 02.01.2024 to 05.01.2024 these opening hours apply in the library centre:

Mo - Fr

9 - 18 h

 

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In summer 2023, both the central learning platform Moodle and the lecture recording software Opencast were updated to their latest versions. This process was carefully planned, particularly with regard to existing integrations. The upgrade was extremely successful and brought significant improvements.

As part of the upgrade of Moodle to version 4.1, extensive revisions and modernisations were made to the user interface.

The menu navigation for both lecturers and students has been adapted to make it more intuitive and efficient to use. These changes help to significantly improve the user experience.

Together with the Centre for Teaching Development (ZLE) and the Competence Centre for eEducation in Medicine, the documentation and FAQs for both systems have been adapted accordingly. This measure aims to provide users with clear and comprehensive guidance on how to make the most of the new features. The updated resources are available at the following link:

Moodle Help and tipps

In addition, the ZLE offers workshops on Moodle to facilitate the transition. These workshops are a valuable resource to help faculty and students use the new features effectively. More information about the workshops is available here: Moodle Workshops

The upgrade not only improved the technical infrastructure, but also optimised user-friendliness and support for users. The careful planning and implementation of this upgrade ensured smooth integration into teaching operations.

 

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