UCSC Genomics Institute Engages Researchers and Scientists Globally with Workshops Powered by Instruqt

Customer Overview

The University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) Genomics Institute combines data sharing, biotechnology, and massive computing power to expand the limits of genomics in medicine and conservation science. Its software and technologies are used by researchers worldwide to push the boundaries of genomic science. 

The UCSC Genomics Institute is one of many partners that develop and maintain Dockstore. This workflow-sharing platform teaches the global science community how to create and share bioinformatics analysis software using Docker, Common Workflow Language (CWL), and Workflow Description Language (WDL).

Challenge

The team organizes workshops and conferences to educate fellow scientists and researchers on new technologies and applications to help further the development of important research. Before Instruqt, UCSC Genomics Institute encountered a few challenges:

• Time-consuming provisioning - The manual process of setting up environments for attendees took too long to do individually and left attendees feeling frustrated.

• Inefficient workshops - Facilitators found it challenging to keep workshops on track because debugging issues across different machines and environments took up valuable time.

• Inability to scale - On-site workshops didn’t scale well because the team was limited by the number of facilitators they could send to conferences.

Solution

After evaluating Instruqt and its competitors, UCSC Genomics Institute selected and implemented Instruqt because of its:

• Browser-based experience - Facilitators could now focus on leading an engaging and valuable workshop experience instead of troubleshooting issues, and attendees could access their lab environment with just the click of a button. 

• Unparalleled customer support - Instruqt’s customer success team helped the team onboard quickly and troubleshoot any issues.

• Flexible environment - Content creators at UCSC Genomics Institute appreciated the ability and flexibility to configure environments to their exact needs with Instruqt.

Results

Using Instruqt, the team made their training more accessible to new users, helping them improve user engagement and information retention. At their first workshop, UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute reached 100+ global scientists and researchers who joined the hands-on workshop virtually, found 60% of attendees planned to use new technologies, and saw 90%+ respondents rated their satisfaction with the workshop at 4+ out of 5.

Editor’s note: This case study was updated and republished in 2024 and reflects UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute’s Instruqt implementation at the time of its original publication.