Who connects all the systems within our university? You do not see these people, many do not even know where to find them, but it is thanks to them that the Internet, telephone communications, websites and multimedia classrooms of our university work, the mobile application gets improved, and server attacks are repelled. We are talking about the staff members of the SUSU Informatization Office.
On Programmer's Day, we have decided to talk about the work of this office and show those who do not allow us to lose contact with each other at the university.
There are four departments in the Informatization Office: Computing Centre, Global Network Technologies Office, Communications Сentre, and Data Processing Centre. The head of the Informatization Office Elena Podivilova notes that she and her staff are engaged in the entire IT structure of SUSU: providing network connections (Internet, Wi-Fi, telephone communications), supporting the work of multimedia classrooms and computer classes, developing IT services for the "Univeris" Corporate Information and Analytical System, automating various university processes, and creating new services.
Elena Podivilova shares on the current projects and plans for the future:
"We are constantly improving the infrastructure: equipping new multimedia classrooms, developing the Internet − expanding the Wi-Fi coverage area, developing IT services. Now we are actively improving our "SUSU Online" mobile application. In parallel, we are solving problems of integration with federal information systems: for example, we participated in an experiment on using electronic diplomas and grade books. Our university's immediate plans include the creation of a unified electronic Dean's Office, so we will also be required to work on automating this process."
The Computing Centre is one of the oldest departments of the Informatization Office. The Head of the Computing Centre, Marina Valeeva, tells us about what its employees do:
"The Computing Centre works with all areas of our university. Thus, for the Admissions Committee, our department has developed and supports the Admissions Service software, which allows synchronizing data on applicants with the Gosuslugi (State Services) portal, or applicant's personal account. We are also developing an Electronic Document Management System (EDMS), thanks to which you do not need to carry documents around the university for signing and transferring, it is enough to upload them to the system. The EDMS reliably protects data, and network administrators monitor the stable operation of the server. But if a failure does occur, the backup copies we create will help restore the data."
Of course, this is only a small part of the work of the Computing Centre programmers. Marina Valeeva notes that they try to support new technologies and keep up with the times. Now they are planning to update the servers and switch to domestic operating systems.
Each student or employee can log into their personal account, read news on the SUSU website or simply checks in at a turnstile to enter the building. But all this would not be able to function if it were not included in the "Univeris" Corporate Information and Analytical System. The Deputy Head of the Computing Centre Aleksandr Beliakov tells us about it:
"Our main work is, first of all, the designing and developing of the "Univeris" system. This system was among the first ones to emerge in our country. It was launched in the early 2000s. It was created as a single information system covering all business processes of the university as a whole. And today, "Univeris" acts as a digital platform, a kind of a core that unites other systems, creates integration between them. Corporate mail, e-learning portal, turnstile system, electronic document management system, IP telephony, library system, various external systems − these are all connected with each other using "Univeris". And any new system will not live and work in the university until it is integrated in "Univeris"."
The Computing Centre, among other things, is engaged in distributing the workload and creating the schedule of classes. It sounds simple, but in reality, a variety of departments and employees are involved. And only programmers deal with all of them. One of the employees of the Computing Centre, lead programmer Pavel Gritsenko, shares his impressions of this work:
"Distributing the teaching load between teachers and the creating class schedule is an important matter. Most of the university employees deal only with a small part of this system: HR Services, assigning teaching loads, creating a curriculum. And only we, the Computing Centre programmers, see all the parts of the system and interact with them."
Everyone has heard of the software products of the 1C system. SUSU is currently making the transition to it in the field of personnel records. Leading programmer of the Computing Centre Shamil Iksanov is supervising this transition and notes that working in 1C is interesting:
"The 1C system is one of the accounting programs developed in Russia. We have the task of transferring all the data from the HR accounting modules of "Univeris" to 1C. I am modifying some forms, making changes to the standard code of the system so that it would be possible to adapt some HR business processes within 1C. We are currently at the stage of completing this project. We are testing it together with the HR Services, looking for inconsistencies and finalizing everything. It is interesting to work with the 1C system because it has many tools. There are even those that allow you to connect artificial intelligence to the work."
There are about 300 websites on the SUSU servers, but only 5 people from the Web Projects Sector in the Global Network Technologies Office work on them. Head of the Web Projects Sector Andrey Zaitsev speaks about the tasks of his department:
"The Web Projects Sector is responsible for the SUSU's web space. One of our tasks is to provide server capacity for hosting websites: we are the university's hosting provider. We also develop and support the university's web resources. In addition, our sector is engaged in repelling attacks on servers. A lot of attacks occur during the Admissions Campaign, but we successfully cope with them and maintain the stable operation of our university's most important resources."
According to Andrey Zaitsev, many people have a very stereotypical idea of a programmer and do not even think about the fact that there are different profiles of their work:
"I want to dismantle one stereotype right away: the work of a programmer does not only relate to the sphere of exact sciences, as most people think. Many tend to think that a programmer should have an exclusively analytical mind. But there is a nuance: programming is similar to architecture, so we must also have a creative side. We design information systems and implement them. And another prejudice: a programmer is a taciturn person in a bulky sweater, but in fact we are not like that − we can be different and cheerful."
Our congratulations to all the staff members of the Informatization Office on their professional holiday, Programmer's Day! We wish you success in your work, clear and interesting technical tasks and dismantling of stereotypes!