BLOOMINGTON, Ind.—Indiana University’s tech division, University Information Technology Services, is one of 10 nominees for the Pandemic Pivot of the Year–More than 200 Employees category of the 2021 TechPoint Mira Awards.
TechPoint is a nonprofit organization representing the state’s technology community whose annual Mira Awards program has been recognizing “The Best of Tech in Indiana” since 2000. Last year, an estimated 5,000+ people watched the first-ever virtual live broadcast of TechPoint’s Mira Awards gala. This year’s winners will be announced Thursday, April 22, during a virtual live broadcast.
As we were facing a situation where so much was going wrong, and we so desperately needed IT to come through, our team pulled off a miraculous year.
Rob Lowden
IU’s nimble shift to online learning in mid-March 2020 was made possible largely due to the expertise and hard work of its UITS team members.
“Admidst the backdrop of a pandemic, as roughly 8,000 IU faculty pivoted to exclusively online teaching, I was and continue to be incredibly thankful to have such dedicated IT professionals working with me,” said Rob Lowden, IU vice president for information technology and CIO. “As we were facing a situation where so much was going wrong, and we so desperately needed IT to come through, our team pulled off a miraculous year. And they did it while juggling their own personal demands of working remotely, helping care for children at home, nursing sick loved ones, and so much more.”
“Whether it was supporting 3.3 million Zoom meetings, creating Wi-Fi parking lots for public use, or using our powerful supercomputers to help with worldwide COVID-19 research, I’m proud to say that UITS showed up last year—in a big way,” said Julie Johnston, IU’s interim associate vice president of Learning Technologies, who submitted the nomination. “I’m honored to be part of this team that continues to help IU fulfill its core missions of teaching, learning, and research during a global pandemic.”
Whether it was supporting 3.3 million Zoom meetings, creating Wi-Fi parking lots for public use, or using our powerful supercomputers to help with worldwide COVID-19 research, I’m proud to say that UITS showed up last year—in a big way.
Julie Johnston
“The Mira Awards perennially celebrate remarkable growth and achievement by Hoosiers across our tech community. This year’s nominee stories also demonstrate inspirational and remarkable creativity, resilience, and persistence amidst the challenges of a pandemic,” said Mike Langellier, president and CEO of TechPoint.
In addition to the Pandemic Pivot of the Year award, honors are given for Tech Product of the Year, Innovation of the year, Service Partner of the year, Investor of the Year, Rising Entrepreneur Award, Tech Education Award, Community Impact Award, Exceptional Employer Award, Startup of the Year, Scale-up of the Year, Large Enterprise of the Year and Pandemic Pivot of the Year.
Nominees were selected by 52 independent judges who evaluated and ranked the applications. In early March, nominees will present their cases and be interviewed by judging panels, after which the judges will select the winners following deliberations. The judges include company founders, CEOs and presidents, CTOs, CIOs, and other community leaders and subject matter experts.
This year’s nominee class is the most diverse in the program’s 22-year history with 36% of all nominees being women, people of color, immigrants, or more than one of these intersectional groups in an owner, founder or CEO/president role.
The nominees include individuals, community organizations, investors, education institutions, cities, and tech employers with remarkable achievements in the prior year. In aggregate, the 53 company nominees that provided data employ more than 18,600 people in the state of Indiana and they represent nearly $8.54 billion in annual revenue. Also represented are newly launched startups and fast-growing scale-ups that achieved three-digit and even four-digit percentage revenue growth in calendar-year 2020.
The 2021 Mira Awards nominee class is the most diverse in the program’s 22-year history with 36% of all nominees (44 entries total) being women, people of color, immigrants, or more than one of these intersectional groups in an owner, founder or CEO/president role.
About University Information Technology Services (UITS)
With more than 1,500 full-time employees, UITS provides services and support for the modern, multifaceted technology environment at IU and works with more than 10,000 constituents in the IU multi-campus university system with locations across the state and the world.
UITS is committed to information security, ongoing exploration of new tools and technologies, and delivering the services and support our constituents need at IU and beyond.
About TechPoint
TechPoint is the nonprofit, industry-led growth initiative for Indiana’s technology companies and overall tech ecosystem. The team is focused on attracting talent, accelerating scale-up companies, activating the community and amplifying stories of success.
