1 of 35

Sunapsis

ITS Services | June 27th, 2025, Presented by Dana Hurwitz

An Indiana University Innovation

2 of 35

Agenda

1

Sunapsis Introduction

2

3

5

4

Background

Sunapsis Project Outlines

Challenges

Accomplishments

ITS Services

2

6

7

DEMO

Roadmap

Questions

8

3 of 35

What is Sunapsis?

  • Sunapsis is an immigration case management software platform designed to support international offices at universities in managing visa and immigration compliance for international students, scholars, and employees.
  • Sunapsis was initially developed by a former employee from Indiana University to meet the institution’s own complex immigration compliance needs. Recognizing its broader potential, IU invested in further developing the system, leading to its official launch in 2005
  • It has more than 130 clients nationwide
  • It provides the functions that allow the ISEO (International Service Engagement Office) to manage the international student’s and scholar’s information efficiently

ITS Services

3

4 of 35

ISEO office

  • ISEO stands for the International Service Engagement Office. It originally consisted of three components: the offices for international students, international scholars, and study abroad programs. As of last year, the international student and scholar offices have been merged into a single unit.
  • Over the past decade, the number of international students at UC San Diego has increased dramatically. In 2015, there were approximately 3,000 international students. Today, that number has grown to over 8,000.
  • Back in 2015, ISEO had 6 advisors and 4 intake advisors. Today, the team has expanded only slightly, with 8 advisors and 4 intake advisors. Despite this modest growth in staffing, the office is responsible for supporting thousands of international students and scholars on a daily basis—placing a significant strain on limited resources.

ITS Services

4

5 of 35

  • Sunapsis provides a desktop application for admin users
  • It provides the tool (RTI Embedded Browser) to sync the data with SEVIS (Student & Exchange Visitor Information System, which is a U.S. government system for tracking international students. )

ITS Services

5

6 of 35

Sunapsis also provide a web interface for international students, scholars and advisors to access and manage their requests

ITS Services

6

7 of 35

Background

This project is truly a teamwork collaboration

  • ITS team collaboration
    • Development team
    • AP team, DIS team, Production Control team, Security team
  • UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz
  • IU vender and IOC consulting Inc.
  • ISEO team

​

ITS Services

7

8 of 35

Why do we need to implement Sunapsis?

  • Previous state:
    • ISSM (International Student and Scholar Management)
    • ISD (Ellucian International Scholar Dossier)
    • iPortal (.Net in house application)
    • IP Access ( DES )
  • Current state:
    • Sunapsis (International Scholar)
    • iPortal (View Only)

​

ITS Services

8

9 of 35

Background Introduction

  • Previous state:
    • ISSM (International Student and Scholar Management)

​

ITS Services

9

10 of 35

Background Introduction

  • Previous state:
    • iPortal (.Net in house application)

​

ITS Services

10

11 of 35

Background Introduction

Why do we need to implement Sunapsis?

  • The international students have increased dramatically in last 10 years
  • ISEO has limited staff which overload
  • Increase efficiency

​

​

ITS Services

11

12 of 35

Background Introduction

Why do we need to implement Sunapsis?

  • Reduce manual process
  • Eliminate duplicate data entry
  • Increase efficiency

​

​

ITS Services

12

13 of 35

Previous State

ITS Services

13

14 of 35

Current State

ITS Services

14

15 of 35

Background Introduction

  • Current state:
    • Retire ISSM
    • Use Sunapsis for Internation scholars and Newly Admitted students (Summer 2025 and Fall 2025)
    • Completed scholar and student E-Form configuration in Sunapsis
    • Target iPortal to retire in winter 2025

​

ITS Services

15

16 of 35

Sunapsis Project Outline

  • Sunapsis configuration
    • General configuration
    • E-Form configuration
    • Alerts configuration
  • Sunapsis data feed
    • Use Nifi to compose xml data file from SAH/EAH
    • Student data feed
    • Scholar data feed

​

ITS Services

16

17 of 35

Sunapsis Project Outline

What is Nifi (Apache NiFi)?

    • Apache NiFi is a software project from the Apache Software Foundation designed to automate the flow of data between different systems
    • It's a flow-based data integration platform that enables users to design, manage, and monitor data pipelines with a user-friendly web interface.
    • NiFi excels at handling large volumes of data and provides features like data provenance, security, and scalability. 

ITS Services

17

18 of 35

Challenges

ITS Service

18

19 of 35

Challenge

  • Data Mapping from SAH/EAH to Sunapsis
    • Country code (citizenship, permanent resident, foreign address)
    • Visa code
    • Applicant status (Sunapsis program status)
    • College, school, division (EVC role system)
  • NiFi
    • Student with multiple majors
    • Scholar with multiple positions
    • Group student course information
    • Group scholar employee and paycheck information

ITS Service

19

20 of 35

Challenges

  • Data Mapping from SAH/EAH to Sunapsis

​

ITS Service

20

21 of 35

Challenges

  • Country code mapping

ITS Service

21

22 of 35

Challenges

  • Visa Type Code mapping

​

ITS Service

22

23 of 35

Challenges

    • NiFi challenge

​

ITS Service

23

24 of 35

Challenges

  • Applicant status (Sunapsis program status) Data Mapping from SAH/EAH to Sunapsis
    • A lot of discussion with Admission, Registrar office and Graduate Admission office

ITS Service

24

25 of 35

Challenges

    • Department, College, school, division (EVC role system)
      • Student department is different from scholar’s, we use department digit code for student department code and character code for scholar department code from the EVC role system

​

ITS Service

25

26 of 35

Challenges

    • Department, College, school, division (EVC role system)
      • In Sunapsis, we use the Academic and Administrative attribute to identify the division between Student and Scholar

ITS Service

26

27 of 35

Challenges

    • Department, College, school, division (EVC role system)
      • Use EVC school list for the scholar division, group multiple department codes into one school/division in NiFi

​

ITS Service

27

28 of 35

Challenges

    • Department, College, school, division (EVC role system)
      • Use EVC school list for the scholar division, group multiple department codes into one school/division in NiFi

​

ITS Service

28

29 of 35

Challenge

    • NiFi challenge
      • Student with multiple majors
      • Scholar with multiple positions
      • Group student course information
      • Group scholar employee and paycheck information
    • Solution
      • Create XSLT style sheet to customize the logic in order to handle primary/secondary major mapping
      • Use Grouping in the query to select distinct record with multiple scholar positions information

​

ITS Service

29

30 of 35

Accomplishments

ITS Service

30

31 of 35

Accomplishments

  • Student Data feed is running in Production on March 2024
  • Sunset ISSM and imported historic scholar data from ISSM to Sunapsis
  • Archive ISD
  • Sunapsis Scholar E-Form published in Production
  • Sunapsis Scholar data feed is running in Production in October 2024

​

ITS Service

31

32 of 35

  • iPortal is retiring in DEC 2025
  • Import Sunapsis into EAH (TBD)

Roadmap

Blue and Gold Template

32

33 of 35

  • iPortal student profile
  • ISSM student profile
  • NiFi data feed
  • Sunapsis international profile

Demo

Blue and Gold Template

33

34 of 35

Questions?

ITS Services

34

35 of 35

Thank you!