Category
Technology
Submitted By
Al Wirtes, al.wirtes@cu.edu, Director of Advanced Technologies & Enterprise Architecture
Project Team
Kevin Sarsen, kevin.sarsen@cu.edu, Integrations Platform Manager
Karthik Chigururu, karthik.chigururu@cu.edu, Sr. Database Administrator
Allmond McDermott, allmond.mcdermott@cu.edu, Enterprise Data Architect Manager
Faraz Ali, mohammed.faraz.ali@cu.edu, Lead Cloud Application Engineer
Project Description
ODIN Subscriptions is new technology developed by Kevin Sarsen’s UIS team. It allows our campus OIT partners to react to data changes in Campus Solutions within seconds of the change rather than waiting for a nightly update of all the data.
ODIN Subscriptions leverages modern data replication and messaging techniques to allow non-PeopleSoft developers in our campus OIT departments to receive and react to changes in CU PeopleSoft databases in near real-time.
The most exciting thing about this project is that it will pay efficiency dividends for years to come. It is a new capability which our campus OIT partners can use to improve the systems which directly impact our students, faculty, and staff.
Project Efficiency
What is the greatest efficiency or innovation? (100 words or less)
Boulder OIT recently utilized ODIN Subscriptions to eliminate the up to five day waiting period between when new students receive their acceptance letter and claim their IndentiKey. This means that newly accepted Boulder students can now start interacting with computer systems immediately upon receipt of their acceptance letter. It is hoped that this will help eliminate “spring thaw” and result in a greater percentage of accepted students arriving on campus in the fall.
More information about this particular application of ODIN Subscriptions is here:
https://www.cu.edu/blog/uis-news/uis-and-cu-boulder-use-odin-improve-student-experience
Project Inspiration
It was clear that we were reaching diminishing returns with our current paradigm for data transfer. There was a type of campus data need that we were unable to address. Kevin Sarsen built ODIN to specifically address the problem of up-to-the-minute student data being unavailable to campuses during UIS maintenance windows (which occur one day per month). Campus Solutions student data is now available to campuses via ODIN when Campus Solutions is down for maintenance. ODIN Subscriptions, or notifying campus OIT departments when data they care about changes, is the next logical step in the evolution of this paradigm.
What Makes You Happiest about this Project?
I love working with the campuses to help them achieve things that were hitherto impossible due to technical constraints.
In the case of the Boulder IdentiKey example, "Spring Thaw" and "Summer Melt" tend to disproportionately affect disadvantaged students. Reducing the number of students that "melt" means increasing the number of disadvantaged students who attend CU Boulder. I can think of no more rewarding project that I've been involved with at CU so far.