NEWS: UC Tech Awards 2024 Showcase Advances in Tech Across the University of California System

UC Tech awards winners on stage

September 30, 2024All Articles

On October 28, 2024, five individuals and eleven teams from across the University of California received 2024 UC Tech Awards at the UC Tech Conference hosted by UC Davis and UC Davis Health. The UC Tech Awards Program recognizes individuals and teams in the university’s technology community for their contributions to advancing the university’s mission using technology tools and methods.

Teams competed in seven award categories, each representing an area of critical importance to advancing technology — innovation in information technology; design; IT security; operational excellence; UC-wide collaboration; diversity, equity and inclusion leadership; and sustained impact.

2024 Tech Award winners

This year’s award-winners span the UC system. The new technologies and capabilities they have introduced impact diverse fields, from virtual reality and experiential learning to medical research. Select each link below to access the award applications and learn more about the teams’ achievements.

Larry L. Sautter Awards for Innovation in Information Technology: Recognize a team for having implemented an innovative technology project that has had a significant beneficial impact on UC’s academic or research mission, student life, business operations, patient care or public-service mission. Innovation is defined as the new application of technology, the creative use of limited resources or an emphasis on collaboration to solve a problem. 

Winners

Larry L. Sautter Award for Innovation in Information Technology: 

Larry L. Sautter Awards for Innovation in Information Technology: Recognize a team for having implemented an innovative technology project that has had a significant beneficial impact on UC’s academic or research mission, student life, business operations, patient care or public-service mission. Innovation is defined as the new application of technology, the creative use of limited resources or an emphasis on collaboration to solve a problem.

  • Silver Award: California National Primate Research Center (CNPRC), Hydra Development Team – UC Davis: The Hydra project was conceived to develop a platform for the CNPRC’s legacy modernization efforts to enable development teams to build, test, and deploy modern applications quickly, cost-effectively, and with disaster recovery in mind. Hydra’s Application stack was designed to be flexible enough to integrate with any data source while maintaining common industry standards to ensure interoperability. To date, 9 systems, 16 applications, 73 data entry forms, and 115 reports have been deployed on the platform.
  • Golden Award (Tie):
    • Oral Health Recommender System (OHRS) Team – UCLA: Oral Health Recommender System (OHRS) is a multi-university effort, developed in cooperation with Procter & Gamble (P&G). Participating universities include UCLA, Harvard University, University of Michigan, Arizona State University and Florida State University. Brushing data is stored in the Cloud (AWS) and analyzed by a custom-built Reinforcement Learning Engine to encourage better dental hygiene and reward desired brushing behaviors for underserved populations. 
    • Ilios Curriculum Management System Team – UCSF: The Ilios Curriculum Management System addresses the needs of the Health Professions educational community by providing a user-friendly, accessible, flexible, and robust web application to collect, manage, analyze, and deliver curricular information. Built by and for the health professions, Ilios supports the sharing of curriculum outcomes and materials among programs, departments, schools, and institutions, while maintaining the flexibility to accommodate the unique practices of each respectively, within our diverse health professions community. Since 2021 there have been 131 releases of the Ilios application, demonstrating the team’s commitment to maintaining a usable, accessible, and secure platform that meets the needs of students, staff, and faculty at UCSF, as well as dozens of health science institutions around the world. 

Design Awards

Design Awards: Recognize an individual or team that transformed one or more touchpoints through the application of various design disciplines (e.g., visual design, interaction design, user experience design, customer experience design and/or industrial design) to improve usability and/or create a more elegant experience for all users, including those with disabilities.

  • Silver Award: Usability Training and Insights Team –  UCLA: staff, leading to significant improvements in UCLA’s learning management system. The program incorporated student insights by integrating a case study into UCLA Extension’s UX capstone course, providing students with practical experience and staff with innovative ideas. This initiative not only democratized human-centered design principles but also fostered a culture of collaboration and innovation, benefiting over 40,000 students and faculty. 
  • Golden Award: UC Procurement Portal Team – UC Office of the President: Systemwide Procurement partnered with UCOP IT and Marketing teams, plus the UC campus locations to create one unified web presence for UC Procurement: https://procurement.ucop.edu/ The content from five existing sites was reorganized and optimized in a responsive, branded design, meeting all web accessibility standards, with detailed analytics, and maintaining all functionality of the existing sites. We now have one home for UC Procurement.

Mojgan A. Amini Operational Excellence Award

  • Silver Award (Tie):
    • Leiyah Shan – for Practice Affiliations & Epic Community Connect (PACC) –  UC San Diego Health: The PACC (Practice Affiliations & Epic Community Connect) program at UC San Diego Health has not only transformed healthcare delivery and operational efficiency for our community practices and patients but also exemplified how strategic integration of advanced Electronic Health Record (EHR) technologies can expand access to care, integrate services, and streamline patient care across a growing network of regional affiliates 
    • UC Santa Barbara Canvas Support Team –  UC Santa Barbara: Following the selection of a new learning management system (LMS) for instruction, the UCSB Instructional Support team developed and implemented a phased two-year plan to migrate the campus to a new LMS. The first phase of the project was to implement and customize the new environment and facilitate an easy transition path for all instructors. The second phase of the project specifically aimed to leverage features of the new LMS and hire experts in design and pedagogy to enhance the teaching and learning experience.  These outcomes of both phases were measurably successful and were performed by a comparatively (by UC standards) small team.  This team is the central support for UCSB’s LMS.  The team historically supported the older LMS (moodle) and were required to simultaneously support both platforms for over a year.
  • Golden Award: UC Merced Academic Activity Team –  UC Merced: In 2021, UC Merced embarked on a project to reimagine their Academic Activity solution, a problematic process with huge financial and resource management impact for the campus. By late 2022, the project team had delivered a user-friendly UI that is deeply integrated with Banner (SIS) and Canvas (LMS) to significantly minimize the operational burden of governmental regulations to faculty, staff, and students. 

IT Security Award

IT Security Awards: Recognize an individual or team that advanced IT security at UC through awareness and training, policy, technical controls and/or IT security hygiene. Projects that intersect with legal, privacy and compliance are eligible.

  • Silver Award: UC Investments and UCOP Information Technology Services –  UC Office of the President: The UC Investments Office partnered with UCOP Information Technology Services (ITS) teams to address unique cybersecurity needs related to their management of UC’s $170 billion investment portfolio. 
  • Golden Award: Scott Currie, CISO; UCSD Health Information Security Team; PHI in Email Cleanup Project –  UC San Diego Health: Phishing is one of the most common, and successful, threats to healthcare organizations.  Given that email is commonly used for communication and collaboration, often including patient information, a successful phish can result in a breach of protected information.  While many tools are in place to reduce the likelihood of a successful phishing attack, a reduction in the amount of protected data in email can substantially reduce the impact when phishing does occur. 

Yvonne Tevis UC Collaboration Award

Yvonne Tevis UC Collaboration Awards: Recognize an individual or team that conducted a strong collaborative technology initiative across two or more UC locations, a UC campus and UC health system, and/or with other UC partners.

  • Silver Award: Project Surfliner Team –  UC Santa Barbara and UC San Diego: Project Surfliner, a five-year collaboration between the UC San Diego Library and the UC Santa Barbara Library, exemplifies the essence of the Yvonne Tevis UC Collaboration Award through its transformative impact on digital library platforms, fostering cultural shifts, and embodying the spirit of cross-campus cooperation and innovation within the UC system. 
  • Golden Award: SMART Cumulus Team – UC Davis Health: The SMART Cumulus Project, a Multi-Center Information Technology Collaborative project, with Boston Children’s Hospital as the hub, enables fast-track Public Health reporting with de-identified Electronic Health Records data using the HL7 BULK FHIR Access APIs for EHRs.

Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) Leadership Awards

Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) Leadership Awards: Recognize the leadership of an individual in advancing DEI in technical communities, as demonstrated by specific tactics to create vehicles that improve visibility, access and engagement of underrepresented populations.

  • Silver Award: Jill Wolter for leading the UCSF/UCSF Health Web Accessibility Team – UCSF Health: Two members of the UCSF Health web team, with integral guidance and oversight from UCSF’s Jill Wolters, built a website accessibility protocol from the ground up to introduce digital accessibility to their flagship patient-facing sites – ucsfhealth.org and ucsfbenioffchildrens.org –  that, combined, receive approximately 2.5 million page views every month. 
  • Golden Award: Shirley Bittlingmeier –  UC Office of the President: Shirley Bittlingmeier has been an integral member of the UCOP IT leadership team for more than a decade. Throughout her distinguished career at UC, she has remained steadfast in her commitment to promoting fairness and inclusion for underrepresented communities. In addition to her substantial responsibilities within her role, she consistently goes above and beyond to champion diversity, equity, and inclusion within both UCOP IT and the broader UC community.

Sustained Impact Award

  • Silver Award: Brian Koehmstedt – UC Berkeley: As primary identity architect, Brian has led UC Berkeley in implementing wide-impacting changes throughout his career. Most recently, Brian was instrumental in a successful implementation of UCOP’s Gender Recognition and Lived Name policy. He is also a valued campus partner, particularly in maintaining system security and improving end user experience. 
  • Golden Award: Azra Ayers – UC Riverside: Since 2018, Azra has directly managed several major complex projects that have directly contributed to the modernization and substantial improvement of IT operations at UCR for Campus clients.      

2024 Program Awards Selection Committee

  • Van Williams – CIO of the University of California
  • Adam Hamilton – UC College of the Law
  • Monte Ratzlaff – UC Office of the President
  • Julie Eastman – UC Irvine Health
  • Matthew Gunkel  – UC Riverside and UC Riverside Health 

All 2024 UC Tech Award Nominees (listed by location)

Select each link to access the award application and learn more about the team’s achievements. 

UC Agriculture and Natural Resources (ANR)

UC Berkeley

UC Davis

UC Davis Health

UC Irvine

UC Merced

UC Office of the President

UC Riverside

UC San Diego

UC San Diego Health

UC Santa Barbara

UC Santa Cruz

UCLA

UCLA Health

UCSF

UCSF Health

All applications from 2001 to current

View UC records, with all UC Tech Awards applications since 2001.

About the UC Tech Awards

The UC Tech Awards Program celebrates individuals and teams in the UC tech community who have contributed in areas of strategic importance to the university using technical approaches. The UC CIO Council created the program in 2001 when an award for innovation was named after Larry L. Sautter. The program has grown to seven awards, which includes design, DEI leadership, innovation, IT Security, operational excellence, UC-wide collaboration and sustained impact. The UC Tech Awards Program celebrates those designing or implementing high-impact technology initiatives. It promotes an inclusive UC tech community by recognizing the technology contributions of people from all areas of expertise, including business operations, research, education, patient care and public service. The UC Tech Awards are sponsored by the UC CIO Council, composed of the Chief Information Officers (CIOs) across UC locations. Each year, five members of this council, who rotate on an annual basis, select the awards winners. The annual call for submissions is announced in winter with a spring submission deadline. The selection committee meets by early June and awards are presented at the annual UC Tech Conference. To learn about the UC Tech Awards program, please visit the UC Tech Awards Program Description or contact Laurel.Skurko@UCOP.edu.

Award naming

Three awards are named for UC staff whose extraordinary contributions have had a lasting impact on the university: (1) The annual Larry L. Sautter Awards for Innovation in Information Technology are named after the late Larry L. Sautter, UC Riverside associate vice chancellor for computing and communications, who led technological innovation through the entrepreneurial and efficient use of resources; (2) The Yvonne Tevis UC Collaboration Awards celebrate Yvonne Tevis, former chief of staff for UCOP Information Technology Services, who devoted 18 years to facilitating, advocating for and supporting collaboration across the UC system; and (3) The Mojgan A. Amini Awards for Operational Excellence recognize the efforts of Mojgan A. Amini, director of process management and continuous improvement at UC San Diego Information Technology Services, to make Lean Six Sigma a broadly recognized and practiced set of operational excellence skills across the university.

ChatGPT summary of winning teams by location

UC Berkeley

  • Silver Award: Brian Koehmstedt, acknowledged for sustained impact in technology that has consistently benefited the UC Berkeley community.

UC Davis

  • Silver Award: California National Primate Research Center (CNPRC), recognized for innovative contributions in information technology that benefit research operations.

UC Davis Health

  • Golden Award: SMART Cumulus Team, honored for collaboration excellence in health technology initiatives.

UCLA

  • Golden Award (Tie): Oral Health Recommender System (OHRS) Team, awarded for innovation in health-related IT, enhancing access to oral health recommendations.
  • Silver Award: Usability Training and Insights Team, recognized for its work in improving the usability and design of university systems.

UCSF

  • Golden Award: Ilios Curriculum Management System Team, honored for its innovative approach to curriculum management within the health sciences.

UCSF Health

  • Silver Award: Jill Wolter, acknowledged for leading the UCSF/UCSF Health Web Accessibility Team, promoting digital inclusivity and accessibility.

UC Office of the President

  • Golden Award: UC Procurement Portal Team, recognized for achievements in streamlining procurement processes across campuses.
  • Silver Award: UC Investments and UCOP Information Technology Services, awarded for contributions to enhancing security and operations across the UC system.
  • Golden Award: Shirley Bittlingmeier, honored for leadership in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), particularly in system-wide accessibility initiatives.

UC Merced

  • Golden Award: UC Merced Academic Activity Team, awarded for operational improvements that support the academic mission.

UC Riverside

  • Golden Award: Azra Ayers, recognized for enduring contributions and impact within the UC Riverside community.

UC San Diego

  • Silver Award: Project Surfliner Team (collaborative project with UC Santa Barbara), recognized for excellence in enhancing shared digital services.

UC San Diego Health

  • Silver Award (Tie): Leiyah Shan, honored for her role in Practice Affiliations & Epic Community Connect (PACC), supporting operational excellence in health IT.
  • Golden Award: UCSD Health Information Security Team; PHI in Email Cleanup, awarded for exceptional IT security practices, particularly in patient data protection.

UC Santa Barbara

  • Silver Award: UC Santa Barbara Canvas Support Team, recognized for operational excellence in academic technology support.
  • Silver Award: Project Surfliner Team (collaborative project with UC San Diego), awarded for fostering collaboration in academic digital infrastructure.