Attendees of the October 15 Emerging Tech Dialogues: Navigating Change event can join several breakout sessions, with topics ranging from the Cornell Experience Modernization Initiative (CEMI) project to change management to AI. These sessions were handpicked to facilitate discussions about how we, as a community, evolve in concert with the new technologies and strategies. Working together we can spend less time being held back by outdated or redundant tools and have more resources to support the university’s mission.

One of the event's breakout session leaders, Philip Robinson, Director of Software Development at Cornell University Library, brings over two decades of experience in the IT field to participants in his breakout session “Avoiding App-ocalypse: Strategies for Application Change Management at Cornell.” 

Robinson has led teams that were responsible for over 100 web applications and websites in service to the Cornell Library's patrons, academic, and administrative personnel. He knows quite a bit about navigating change to avoid an "app-ocalypse."

"My philosophy is to try to stay ahead of the curve and to not be surprised when a major paradigm shift happens!" Robinson shared. "As I see it, the most significant changes over the past decade have been cloudification, DevOps, and generative AI. And of course, I remember way back when the sudden popularity of the World Wide Web itself was a complete game-changer. It was a really exciting time!"

While the university hasn't seen a technology upheaval as massive as the inception of the internet, we've all been affected by the rigorous installations, updates, and enhancements to our technological environments.

"I hope that the audience will come away with a good understanding of what it really takes to smoothly manage the lifecycles of mission-critical applications such as finance and HR/payroll. Systems must change and be upgraded and improved regularly,” said Robinson. “We all want to prevent an app-ocalypse!" 

To catch Phil's session, register for the Emerging Tech Dialogues: Navigating Change event today.