Learn from your colleagues!

The CU I&E Awards Program has been operating remotely -- and successfully! -- during the coronavirus pandemic. We received many terrific submissions, narrowed the award pool to 10 fabulous semifinalists, and are ready to announce the winners. Your University colleagues are doing some amazing things to promote student and employee success, leverage technology to save time and money, and safeguard facilities and the people who use them. Check out the good that happens when individuals take a new look at an old business process.

• Cathalina Fontenelle and Sommer Browning saved time and money, while speeding access to new research materials, with their Auraria Library Linking Form: Streamlining the Purchase of Scholarly Materials.
• Kelley Hixson developed a safety auditing program for all campus buildings to identify issues -- but also to highlight good behaviors. See Building Safety Audits.
• Lexie Kelly, Dan Wilson, Michelle Travis, Krista Leary, Kendall Hotchkiss, and Cal Anderson reduced staff time and risk across all four campuses by developing the CU Online Store, replacing physical handling of cash and checks with virtual processing of credit card payments.
• Joshua Schwab, David Vu, Joseph Daniels, and Alexander Stein developed an online performance evaluation tool to improve personnel management, part of the Department of Neurology | Reimagining HR project. 
• In their EBS Devices project, Sarah Mensch, Greg Williams, and Theresa Josephine took advantage of a previously unused contract benefit to provide departments with significant savings in equipment and data plan costs.
• Lorraine Bell replaced a tedious manual process for ordering laboratory animals with an automated system -- Efficiencies in Animal Receiving -- that’s more accurate, and easier for backup staff to manage.
• Meghan Stidd and ​Mark Paquette reduced risks to students seeking internships and increased local business networking with their Enhanced Employer Vetting solution.
• Dustin Quandt, Kathryn Ramirez-Aguilar, Stacey Smith, Scott Taylor, Deane Bowers, Christopher Lowry, Pei-San Tsai, Corrie Detweiler, Bradley Olwin, and Edward von Bleichert saved researchers time, energy, space, and money by Establishing a Multi-Departmental Shared Instrumentation Program. 
• Jeff McClellan and Nancy Portner developed a PowerApp for reporting safety hazards through their Facilities Safety Hazard App.
• Carl Sorenson, Greg M. Brown, Saskia Sawyer, Liz Adler, and Shannon McBratney gave clarity to gift amounts and purpose by designing a streamlined Gift Fund Tool Suite, benefiting all campuses.
• Bridget Lambert reengineered expense report processing to be more efficient, accurate, and economical in Going Paperless!
• Angelo D’Alessandro, Travis Nemkov, and Kirk Hansen implemented High-Throughput Metabolomics -- a novel analytical technology for the analysis of small molecules – resulting in increased scholarly publications and expanded revenue from sample processing.
• Derek Fong, Holly Goold, Laura Richardson, Daniel Munoz, and Carolyn Russell improved laboratory animal care and decreased staff administrative burden through their Implementation of Electronic Veterinary Medical Records.
• Lori Fuller developed a coding system for creating Journal Entries that helps identify external budget transfers, transfers that involve year-end closing, and initial budget allocations, in the department’s new Journal Entry process.
• Brad Reno, Craig Heiden, Jeff Green, Jonathan Tarr, Keven Wyld, Karen Arp, and Aaron Botello extended management capabilities during upgrades, improving customer service, through OIT's Jamf Pro Expansion.
• Marc Cloninger, Taylor Devlin, Meg Tilton, and Nate Campbell created an online tool so Principal Investigators can better manage their projects and programs through PI Dashboard.
• Normandy Roden and Chris Seek found a way to enhance understanding and compliance among employees with fiscal responsibilities with their Policy Explainer Videos: Getting to “Yes” on Compliance.
• Lauren Habenicht, Holly Goold, Melissa Card, and Genna Nault updated the standard of care and drastically cut costs by switching to generics in Reducing Costs of Effective Antimicrobial Therapy for Research Animals.
• Denise Donnelly and Marisa Scott took a step forward with their Regulated Medical Waste Step-Can Program, making requirements associated with managing medical waste simpler to fulfill.
• And Denise Donnelly and Nancy Hostetler addressed a serious safety and public health issue by developing the Safe Sharps/Needles Disposal Program.
• Jodi Cropper, Leigh Small, Latrice Pettigrew, Salina Evans, Daniel Hussey, Ingrid Eschholz, Rosario Medina, Leli Pedro, Tammy Spencer, and Sandra Tapiceria dramatically increased student/faculty satisfaction and outcomes by Strengthening the Academic Infrastructure for the College of Nursing. 
• Becca Stephens turned big file cabinets of manually reviewed paper files into a document stream that updates itself, facilitating new employee record collection and hiring actions, in Using OnBase Workflow to Automate HR Documentation Collection.
• Alejandro Lleras, Rachael O'Donnell, and Jane Eimers centralized hiring, credentialing, and tracking procedures, increasing accuracy and shrinking timelines for processes, by Utilizing Smartsheet to Improve the Hiring Process of Faculty and Staff. 

Now, find out who won!

Check out the winning projects in the CU I&E 2020 awards video. And consider sharing your own great work during the 2021 awards program submission period, February 1-March 31, 2021.