News: Graduation caps a successful year

The W. P. Carey convocation was last week, and CIS was represented by the department's Outstanding Graduating Senior, Joshua McCoy, who carried our banner. In the weeks leading up to this happy event, the academic community focuses intensely on pulling the threads together. At the same time, the place is abuzz with special events and recognition ceremonies. Today we bring you a sample of the fun — and the success.

The W. P. Carey convocation was last week, and CIS was represented by the department's Outstanding Graduating Senior, Joshua McCoy, who carried our banner. In the weeks leading up to this happy event, the academic community focuses intensely on pulling the threads together: study groups begin to prepare for finals, papers are due, students turn up in business suits ready to present in class. At the same time, the place is abuzz with special events and recognition ceremonies. Today we bring you a sample of the fun — and the success.

Magic in the classroom Information Systems was well-represented at faculty awards ceremonies this spring. Assistant Professor Gregory Dawson (right, with Heidi Teets) received the John W. Teets Outstanding Teaching Award, and Professor Raghu Santanam received the MBA/Masters Teaching Award. The following is from the description of the Teets Award, but is equally true for the MBA/Masters Teaching Award: “The winners possess a contagious love of knowledge that spreads to their students; they create magic inside the classroom and are known for responding to students' mentoring needs outside the classroom.” Congratulations to Greg and Raghu!

Spring fever Here’s a sample of the activities that occupied our students this spring:

• Aaron Grove brought pride to the department when his team won the Kevin’s High Tech Home Makeover in the Avnet Tech Games. At right, Aaron is congratulated by Steve Phillips, Avnet’s senior vice president and chief information officer.
• On April 19 about 400 students turned out to hear a panel of professionals talk about careers in tech management. The message: CIS can be built into your undergraduate schedule, as a major, a dual major or a minor.
• DISC wrapped up the year with a three-course dinner designed to prepare students for those business dining experiences that come with a professional career. Etiquette expert Carol Bory walked the group through how to handle business meals.
• That same night, the current DISC leadership presented the annual awards: Community Service Awards went to Rick A. Stinogel, Ruiqing Liu and Jake Elledge; the DISC Attendance Award was presented to Kenneth Abrams; and special thanks awards went to department staffer Emily Galindo-Elvira for her service and support and Greg Dawson, for his work as faculty adviser. The evening closed with the DISC Outstanding Service Award, presented to Afifa Tawil. Afifa served as an officer in all three CIS clubs: DISC, WIT, and CIS Ambassadors.
• Last of all, the annual students versus faculty volleyball game was a victory for youth!

Students leading students Student-led organizations play a big role in preparing their members for careers. DISC (Department of Information Systems Club) brings in corporate speakers, facilitates service projects and hosts social events. New officers were elected this spring. In the photo at the left are: (sitting, from left) Rob Boring, T.J. Wey (president), Courtney Witt and Branden Lau; (standing) Meredith Pilcher, Diego Ortiz-Monasterio, Chas Tinker and Alex Clark. WIT (Women in Technology) is open to all students and focuses on exploring opportunities for women in technology. New officers are Cristina Swaziek and Rosaria Alvarez.

And the winner is … The heart of Professor Asim Roy’s CIS 430 class is the Salesforce team project. Students spend the semester using Force.com — a development platform offered by salesforce.com — to develop marketable applications in the cloud. During spring semester, 18 teams competed for prize money and a chance to take their product to market. Judges were Brad Phillips and Mark Christiani of Salesforce, and Neetu Rao, from ASU’s Office of Knowledge Enterprise Development. Rao is also one of the judges that award the Edson Student Entrepreneurship grants; five teams from CIS430 class applied for the Edson grants this year.

Here are the Salesforce winners:

• First prize went to Orli Katcherginsky, Colin Pelosu, Robert Vargas, Curtis Lozes, for ASUParkit, an application designed to make parking at ASU and possibly other campuses easier and more efficient — for the parking administrators as well as drivers.
• Second prize was awarded to Jason Fritsch, Nicholas DiMarco, Taylor Duarte, David Ellsworth for iButtle, an app that offers merchants and easy, comprehensive, cost effective marketing and advertising system.
• Steven Layborne, Todd VanDuzer, Kyle Woody, Eric Frese collected third prize for Joined Forces, an application that provides tutors, teachers and parents a means of sharing information about a student.