Academic Technologies
Senior Director for Academic Technologies - Chad J. Kainz
Chad J. Kainz is the Senior Director for Academic Technologies at the University of Chicago. In this role, he reports to the Vice President and Chief Information Officer, and oversees the support of the teaching, research, and learning information technology needs of faculty, students, and researchers at the University.
Academic Technologies' main role is to lead, coordinate, and inform NSIT's activities focused on research and education at the institution and does so through the activities of its family of units, broad range of facilities and services, and breadth of relationships. The units that fall within Academic Technologies include Assistive Technology & Learning Environments (audio visual support, computing labs, classrooms, assistive technologies, media production), Instructional Technology & Design (learning management, course design), and Scholarly Technology & Research Computing (new media, visualization, research support, software development, innovative learning tools). Each of these areas work together within Academic Technologies and across NSIT and the University to support the academic needs of the institution.
Within the University, Kainz serves on the Diversity Leadership Council, Council on Teaching, Sexual Harassment Education committee, NSIT Architecture Group, various NSIT leadership teams, chairs the Forum for Academic Computing & Technology (FACT), and is on the steering committees of the David & Reva Logan Center for the Creative & Performing Arts, College Learning Center, Technology in Medical Education, NSIT Solution Center, iTunesU and the Copyright Information Center. Beyond the boundaries of the institution, Kainz is the co-director of Project Bamboo, an effort funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and jointly led by Chicago and the University of California, Berkeley, to explore the potential of shared technology services to support emerging needs of digital scholarship in the arts and humanities; serves on the EDUCAUSE 2009 planning committee; participates in the Ivy Plus Academic Computing Directors' Group; and is the institutional central IT liaison to the Coalition for Networked Information. He has participated in both learning and research initiatives of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation and the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education (NITLE), and was a member of the IEEE Learning Technology Standards Committee (IEEE 1484) from 1999-2007 where he served as Vice-Chair from 2003-2007.
Kainz joined the University in 1992 as a computer graphics and multimedia specialist within the Visualization Studio, was promoted to Manager of Multimedia Technologies & Services in 1995, became Director of Instructional Technology in 1998, and moved into his current role in 2002.
Assistant: Deborah Buckley | 773-702-2924
Last updated: 3/30/09