Q: You have a new role as “Infrastructure Manager”. Tell us a little about the work you do.
My role involves a lot of coordination and collaboration with various groups across LSA and the university to figure out how to provide services that meet the needs of faculty, staff, and students. An example of a project we’re working on currently is 10G networking. Technological infrastructure is so spread out, that even if there is 10G in a building, it doesn’t mean there will be access to the 10G network wherever someone is located within that building. So we’re working with researchers, ITCom, and hardware vendors to get the best possible bandwidth solution for our researchers to make tasks like data transfer significantly faster.
Infrastructure as a whole supports a lot of the key components on which other services are built. For the key components that we don’t run, we’ll often coordinate with other IT groups on campus or external partners to provide the service. We also provide IT security services for LSA that keep us secure from IT threats.
Q. Tell us about your career path during your time at U-M. Do you have any advice for people who want to transition into management roles?
I got my start at LSA with the Customer Experience Team (CET) when it was in its infancy, then moved to the Infrastructure team where I worked as a Systems Administrator before applying for the Infrastructure Manager position. I had done some Systems Administration work at my previous job which made the transition to the Infrastructure team easier. I’ve been fortunate to work on large-scale initiatives and this role provides more opportunities to inform future strategies, which is something I enjoy. As for role-transitioning advice, I think it's important to keep an open mind about the work that we do. LSA and the university at large have a lot of history and culture involved in our work that is important to respect, without letting it be the sole driving force forward. It’s also important to learn what’s important to others to understand how to interact with and motivate them. We’re all here to do a great job and sometimes we see different paths as the best way forward. Being able to take these different inputs and get a solution that people are on board with is a great skill to have when moving into a management role.
Q: What do you enjoy most about your position and team?
I get to do a lot of cool stuff and work with some amazing people. LSA has challenges that you don’t often find in other places that create interesting problems to solve. And these challenges aren’t just about making another widget but are about how we educate students and advance the research that goes on here. I appreciate that I work with some extremely intelligent people who find novel solutions to issues and are dedicated to improving LSA Technology Services.
Q: What are some goals for your professional life in 2020? For your team?
For me, to continue looking for opportunities to grow my management experience. There are some Learning and Professional Development (LPD) classes I’m taking and I’ll continue the peer mentoring partnership I started about a year ago. I’m also hoping we can complete the campus-wide Adobe agreement, not only for the benefits for our college but also for my sanity. For my team, I’m excited about offering and expanding our container services. It will allow people to run their various unique applications in an environment that’s not dependant on somebody else’s environment. For example, some applications don’t play well with each other and containers will help limit those issues. We are also working on new ways of deploying and managing Windows, Mac, and Linux in order to simplify, speed up, and improve the process. The new University Information Security Standard Practice Guide (SPG) is also a pretty big focus for the team.
Q: How do you keep up with new technologies and trends in and outside the workplace?
Keeping in touch with colleagues helps to curate and advocate for what’s relevant. Besides that there are a variety of sources like conferences, webinars, and traditional website feeds such as Reddit and ARS Technica.
Q: I hear you’re a global traveler. Where have some of your top adventures taken place? What makes them stand out to you?
The world is a beautiful place with a lot of fantastic people in it so I could go on about this one for a long time, but I’ll try to keep the length reasonable. Our African safari where the lions were close enough I could have opened the car door to pet them is up there at the top. So is New Zealand which has an incredible array of things to do and also checks off my adrenaline junkie side along with the long quiet hikes through nature. There are a lot of unexpected adventures on the list too. Like the late April trip to Germany where a sudden blizzard almost had us stranded on a road in the Alps with no cell signal while all the sensible people were at home. Or a road so rough in New Zealand that it rattled parts of our car off and I had to wade through muddy holes in the road in my sandals to see if they were shallow enough for the car to pass.
Q: Tell us a little bit about your life outside of work, what do you like to do for fun?
I think travel is the obvious one that people probably know about, but aside from that, I am a little bit of an adrenaline junkie. I’ve been skydiving in Michigan several times, hang gliding in New Zealand, flown a T-6 Texan airplane through combat maneuvers, and I love roller coasters. I have my Open Water scuba certification and I’ve been scuba diving in Lake Michigan, Hawaii, and the Great Barrier Reef. Conversely, I also like long quiet hikes through nature.
Q: If you had to recommend one vacation destination, where would it be and why?
Everyone has different interests so it can really vary from person to person. That said, I think the British Isles could be a good place to start. Personally, I’m partial to Ireland, but there’s a lot to see and do in any of the locations. It’s fairly easy to get to which (when combined with a mostly shared language) can make things less stressful for when things go wrong. There are large cities, dramatic cliffs, and rolling countryside to explore. Plenty for a history buff to dig into and the food isn’t as bad as you might think. If you’re into beach vacations you might be disappointed though. A couple of my other favorite trips were New Zealand and Belgium. New Zealand because so much of it is untouched by mankind—beautiful fjords, glaciers, brilliant blue lakes, beaches, mountains, thermal parks, and incredible landscapes that aren’t crowded with people. Another favorite is Belgium—they have waffles, Belgian fries (which are the best kind of fries), chocolate, the best fish and chips, and the beer is amazing and cheap!
Q: What would people be surprised to learn about you?
My first name is actually Robert and I go by my middle name. This has caused a few interesting and frequently humorous mishaps over the years. Within the university, I didn’t realize the health system often only saw your preferred name and I’ve always responded to Robert when going to a doctor’s appointment. It was just myself and another gentleman in the waiting room when the nurse came out and called for “Robert”. We both got up so she listed the last name, which wasn’t mine so the other Robert headed back. The next time she came out, she called out “Matt” and had a really confused look on her face as I got up. I explained that I did actually know my name and explained what happened. We shared a chuckle about the situation.
