Mission
The Advocacy and Research Support (ARS) group was established in 2012 as part of the reorganization of Information Technology (IT) resources within the College of LSA. The catalyst for establishing the ARS group was feedback from faculty that LSAIT did not understand their research or IT needs, nor was LSAIT easily accessible. The ARS group was created to address these gaps. By working as advocates for the researcher, ARS staff will achieve four goals:
- Provide personal attention to and focus on a specific departments’ IT needs.
- Help researchers navigate the complicated, ever-changing campus IT landscape.
- Collaborate with researchers to design and develop IT solutions that address their research needs.
- Build relationships between researchers facing similar IT issues.
The advocacy role is just one service that the ARS team provides. The other services provided by the team fall under Research Support.
Advocacy Pilot
The Advocacy and Research Support team (ARS) in LSA IT is moving forward with rolling out the Advocacy role across LSA. Our objective is to start with a subset of departments and expand the offering to additional departments throughout 2013. By adding departments incrementally, we will have the opportunity to collect data, gain valuable insights, and ensure appropriate staffing levels to scale the service College-wide. Additionally, this approach will allow the most flexibility in shaping the Advocacy role. Services will be driven by and adapted based on feedback and data from participating departments.
Advocate Assignments
Advocate assignments for the initial departments are listed below. Throughout the first quarter of 2013 we will present to faculty and administrators in those departments about the Advocacy role and launch the program. Additional departments will be added throughout 2013. For more information about the Advocacy Pilot, please contact Erin Dietrich, the Manager of the Advocacy and Research Support team.
| Unit | Advocate Name | Phone | |
| Anthropology | Peter Knoop | 734.763.0801 | knoop@umich.edu |
| Asian Languages and Cultures | Nancy Herlocher | 734.926.9365 | nbrack@umich.edu |
| Department of Afroamerican and African Studies (DAAS) | Peter Knoop | 734.763.0801 | knoop@umich.edu |
| Earth and Environmental Science (EES) | Peter Knoop | 734.763.0801 | knoop@umich.edu |
| Economics | Nancy Herlocher | 734.926.9365 | nbrack@umich.edu |
| English | Seth Meyer | 734.764.8407 | smeyer@umich.edu |
| History | Charles Antonelli | 734.763.0607 | cja@umich.edu |
| Linguistics | Nancy Herlocher | 734.926.9365 | nbrack@umich.edu |
| Museum of Anthropology | Peter Knoop | 734.763.0801 | knoop@umich.edu |
| Political Science | Nancy Herlocher | 734.926.9365 | nbrack@umich.edu |
Feedback
Feedback on the Advocacy service is always welcome, and can be directed to the manager of the ARS, Erin Dietrich. You can also always easily submit feedback via our web form.
Examples of Work
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ARS developed an integrated software and hardware solution for interfacing animal behavioral training systems with MATLAB and Arduino microcontrollers for Psychology. |
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LSAIT Infrastructure, LSAIT ARS, Chemistry, and Biophysics worked together on the development of a standardized NMR billing mechanism. In the longer term, this can be evolved into a simple, uniform chargeback system adaptable to research devices across LSA. |
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ARS facilitated interactions between OSEH, Michigan Creative, and Chemistry to update lab hazard signage in their department to use the Globally Harmonized icons. |
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In collaboration with the Statistics department, LSAIT is deploying an advanced visualization workstation to provide researchers college-wide with tools for exploring and manipulating large datasets. |
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ARS provides expertise in and demo equipment for faculty evaluating IT solutions for field work, whether that is conducting door-to-door surveys or gathering scientific data atop a mountain. |
More examples to come as the ARS Team continues work across LSA!
