How can Information Technology (IT) professionals work better together to support the needs of research, teaching, and learning across British Columbia?
Last week at BCNET CONNECT 2026, the three-day higher education and research tech conference, many of our UBC IT colleagues gathered around this central question. Participating as both attendees and presenters, UBC IT staff had the unique opportunity to connect with industry-leading technology providers and higher education institutions across BC.
BCNET CONNECT 2026 Overview:
UBC IT Session Highlights:
Beyond the “Cool Factor”: Converting Emerging Tech Experiments into Sustainable Services
Speakers: Saeed Dyanatkar & Aarti Paul
Transformative ideas in higher education often stall between pilot and production. This session shared UBC IT’s practical framework for guiding emerging technologies from proof of concept into sustainable, enterprise-ready solutions. The sessions traced the development lifecycle of initiatives that survived the “valley of death” between experimental pilots and support services across three impact areas: high-stakes simulation, administrative efficiency, and pedagogical innovation. Real-world projects examined included:
The session concluded with providing attendees with a blueprint for how teams can overcome technical ambiguity, manage scope, and secure institutional buy-in.
Learn more about the Digital Experience Lab (DXL)
For more information about this presentation or the DXL's services, please contact the DXL team
AI in Action: Delivering Real Value with Workday at UBC
Speakers: Laleh Mosadegh & Shelly Morrison
This session focused on how UBC is using embedded AI and machine learning capabilities within Workday, to improve finance operations and institutional efficiency. The presentation outlined UBC’s AI journey, including how Workday’s built‑in AI functionality was implemented, how initiatives were prioritized, and how additional tools were integrated to extend capabilities across finance and accounts payable. Attendees heard firsthand from Finance and Accounts Payable leader, Shelly Morrison, about training AI-enabled systems, realizing measurable benefits, and adapting business processes to take advantage of AI-driven insights. The session concluded with a forward-looking view from Workday on the roadmap for embedded AI, automation, and agent-based capabilities, leaving participants with practical insights into adopting AI responsibly and effectively within a large Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) environment.
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Building Shared Accountability for Cyber Risk in Highly Distributed Environments
Speakers: Mawuena Glymin, Grainne McElroy, Gurm Dhugga & Waii Chow
Highly distributed environments that span multiple campuses, academic programs, research units, health-authority partnerships, and dozens of independently managed IT teams, often struggle to translate cybersecurity policy into consistent, day-to-day practice. This session follows a series of “wake-up calls” spanning 2020 to 2025 within UBC’s Faculty of Medicine, that transformed the faculty’s approach to cyber risk. The session explores how they addressed the challenges of a distributed IT landscape, governance ambiguity, resource constraints, and risk management silos by building coordinated cybersecurity governance through leadership alignment, structured engagement and enablement models, and continuous risk assessment. Attendees were guided through a replicable IT and cybersecurity operating-model journey, including wins, challenges, and practical lessons to apply to their own environments.
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AI Privacy & Information Security
Speakers: Taylor Bohn, Larry Carson, Malileh Oliver
As artificial intelligence adoption accelerates across universities, it is reshaping how privacy and information security risks show up in day‑to‑day work. But is it creating entirely new problems, or just amplifying long‑standing privacy, security, and governance challenges? In this session Larry Carson, Maliheh Oliver and Taylor Bohn, unpacked how AI is changing the privacy and cybersecurity risk landscape at UBC. Speakers discussed how AI impacts core privacy obligations around collection, use, and disclosure of personal information. Speakers discussed how AI is accelerating security threats such as phishing and automated attacks, and where AI can also strengthen defensive capabilities, for example in filtering, anomaly detection, and training. The talk also discussed three ways to manage AI in practice: setting boundaries, assigning accountability, and enabling oversight. The session concluded discussing AI’s dual nature, information exposure, and the importance of ethics.
View presentation (requires CWL to access)
Congratulations to all presenters who represented UBC IT!
Cyber Scenarios Challenge - Capture the Flag Winner
This year's BCNET CONNECT Cyber Scenarios Challenge - Capture the Flag brought together post-secondary institutions from across Canada in a 60-hour, four-scenario cybersecurity challenge. Participants were tasked with challenges that tested real-world incident response skills on a live national leaderboard. The 2026 winner was UBC IT staff member Simon Hua, a system analyst for UBC IT @ Faculty of Dentistry who began his work at UBC in Desktop Services Architecture and Development and has also worked with the CISO and IAM teams. Reflecting on the win, Hua shared, “I am so happy to do that for UBC”.
Congratulations Simon Hua!
We extend another thank you to everyone who contributed to BCNET CONNECT 2026. Your efforts and meaningful contributions reflect the strength of our community and UBC IT’s ongoing commitment to innovation in higher education and research.







