UAIR Represents at HEDW 2026
Several UAIR staff members recently travelled to Austin, Texas to present at the 2026 Higher Education Data World. Although unprepared for the humidity, the team connected with institutions from all over the country. They shared insights from U of A’s world-class data ecosystem, learned about emerging issues in our field, and came away inspired with new ideas to support data-informed decision-making on campus.
Representing UAIR’s Systems & Architecture and Data Engineering teams, Casey Miller (Middleware Analyst) and Devesh Waingankar (ETL Developer) showcased the university’s data architecture in their presentation Modernizing Institutional Data Through a Cloud-Based Data Lake. They covered improvements to our data pipeline by standardizing incoming data, reducing load times, and increasing system efficiency. This session was one of the most popular, with standing room only left for interested attendees.
Christopher Cherry (IT Training & Support Specialist), representing the UAIR Customer Experience team, participated in a panel alongside colleagues from the University of Illinois System and Hamilton College. The conversation covered each institution’s approach to data literacy and the work that goes into providing data resources and training to campus. Attendees learned about the UAccess Analytics Certification, the necessity of outreach, and the importance of pairing data with the support and resources to back it up.
Bringing the conference to a close, the UAIR Student Data team’s Rico Silva (Program Manager) and Daisy Esquivel (Data Analyst) presented 1-Day Student Census Turnaround: Revolutionizing Reporting at the University of Arizona. Every September, UAIR captures a snapshot of student data three weeks into the semester, an essential milestone for reporting and analysis. UAIR’s continuing data refinement and strict project management have allowed the team to deliver census data within a single day, significantly faster than many peer institutions.
Every opportunity to attend and present at conferences is a chance to not just showcase what UAIR and the U of A are working on but also to stay engaged with the evolving landscape of data in higher education. Such events reenergize and inspire the team to find new ways to make data more accessible and approachable to our campus community and the team thanks the university for the opportunity.