Introducing: New Information Systems faculty
This month, seven interesting scholars will arrive in Tempe to join the full-time faculty of the Department of Information Systems. Their research probes the advance edges of practice, and their findings will enrich the classroom, further equipping W. P. Carey students to advance the companies that will eventually employ them. Look for these names in future KnowIT stories.
“Information technology is the main driving force of productivity growth in the past two decades and, as we learn in ECON 101, the level of productivity is the single most important determinant of a country's standard of living,” says Professor Bin Gu. “My passion is to find new ways to unlock the value of information technology and preach the gospel of prosperity through using information technology.”
Gu is one of seven joining the faculty of the Department of Information Systems this month. Gu most likely speaks for all of the newcomers when reflecting on the academic life. “A career in higher education is an amazingly rewarding experience. It allows me to constantly look into the future and think of new ideas,” he said. “It also gives me opportunities to nurture future business leaders and help them achieve their dreams.”
”This past year has provided the department with exciting recruiting opportunities. We competed nationally and hired a colleague I can honestly say was the very best candidate on the market: Bin Gu,” said Michael Goul, department chairman. “Bin joins us at an advanced professor rank with tenure, and the research strength he brings to the department will be a key for our future.”
The 2012 class of new hires also adds muscle to the undergraduate faculty, Goul said.
“Daniel Mazzola, Kathleen Moser, Christopher Olsen and Linda Prince each brings significant work experience in the IS field to the classes they will teach, and they enable advancing our objective of ensuring our students can hit the ground running when they graduate,” he commented.
“We were also able to land two recent Ph.D. graduates from top notch universities — Su Dong and Timothy Olsen,” Goul said. “Su worked in the banking industry, and his research success has resulted in publications in two of the department’s top journals. Timothy Olsen brings extensive background and research strength in business process management and shared services. Olsen has also worked as a project manager and network engineer.”
The following is a brief introduction to an interesting group of scholars sure to be featured again in KnowIT.
The Emerald Award
A list of Associate Professor Bin Gu’s research interests reads like a catalogue of the latest trends in IT: social media, user-generated contents, IT business value and IT governance. He is widely published in the top journals, and his work has won several awards from the Information systems discipline.
Just before he arrived in Tempe, he was notified of yet another accolade. His paper, “The dynamics of online word-of-mouth and product sales — an empirical investigation of the movie industry,” published in the Journal of Retailing, has garnered one of the prestigious Emerald Management Reviews Citations of Excellence Awards. The Emerald Award recognizes the 50 most influential articles from the top 300 management journals in the world.
The road started in China, where he ranked in the top 1 percent of his class at Shanghai Jiaotong University while completing bachelor’s degrees in international business and computer science. He went on to the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania where he earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. with a concentration in information management. Most recently he was on the faculty at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin.
Investigating the social networks
Clinical Assistant Professor Su Dong earned a bachelor’s degree in information systems at the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology and a Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. His teaching credentials include various information systems courses at the Belk College of Business at UNC Charlotte and at Wingate University.
Dong’s research is interdisciplinary as he seeks to investigate the dynamics between organizational social networks and IT service provision. His work has been published at top journals in the field.
Fulfilling the demand for IT talent
Clinical Assistant Professor Dan Mazzola is what’s known on campus as an ASU native. He earned his bachelor’s, master’s and Ph.D. degrees at ASU, all of them in computer information systems at the W. P. Carey School of Business. Further, he has been teaching CIS courses as an adjunct professor since 1997.
For the past 17 years, Mazzola has worked in high technology companies. “I had the opportunity to work with a wide array of organizations that use technology as a strategic business tool,” he said. “Of great concern in the IT industry is the creation of a supply of strong IT talent. I am excited about the opportunity to contribute towards the fulfillment of that demand and to bridge academia with the public and private sector. It is with great joy and strong passion to return to W.P. Carey and help build the next generation of high tech workforce.”
Research in IS strategic planning
Clinical Assistant Professor Kathleen Moser is returning to the Department of Information Systems from Iowa State University. A graduate of the W. P. Carey’s doctoral program, Moser already has research roots in the department. She has co-authored research on object oriented modeling and the strategic planning of IS with Associate Professor Uday Kulkarni.
Moser’s area of concentration focuses on database modeling, design and development and project management. She has consulted with various businesses to improve the technical training of their in-house database courses and developed various applications for small companies. More recently, her attention was focused on project management of SaaS/cloud computing and services, overseeing the technical software training of a large number of online clients in the area of asset and calibration management.
“I developed the course and materials for all aspects of classroom instruction and corporate training for both on-site client training and online webinars. In this effort I became the liaison between our development and sales teams and our corporate professionals,” Moser said. “This collaboration with industry professionals not only developed partnerships and improved the relationship with our client base; it promoted our software by incorporating feature enhancements to advance software sales across the U.S., Canada, and abroad.”
Short route from student to lecturer
Lecturer Christopher Olsen is no stranger to KnowIT readers. He was featured earlier this year after he returned to the classroom as an emergency fill in only a few months after graduating from the MSIM program.
http://www.knowwpcarey.com/article.cfm?cid=25&aid=1146
Olsen has nearly 12 years of experience in software development spanning all aspects of the software creation process including requirements creation, software development, and testing. He served as a project lead on multiple projects where he gained experience in managing development teams, planning projects and delivering status reports in both written and verbal format.
Engaged scholarship
Clinical Assistant Professor Timothy Olsen recently received his Ph.D. at the Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University. His master’s degree in information systems with a certificate in global management is from Brigham Young University. His research interests include management of IT and shared services, micro-outsourcing and social business process management.
Olsen’s IT career specialized in network and systems administration, web development, and project management. While a doctoral student, Olsen worked with a large public IT department in the midst of a very interesting change process. “This ‘engaged scholarship’ has yielded fantastic insight into theory and practice,” he said. “I hope to provide IT managers understanding of how a purposeful transformation to Shared Services is realized.”
His second stream of research explores how workflow management technologies can be used to manage asyncronous and geographically dispersed work performed by the ‘human cloud’.
Olsen has developed a new course in implementing IT-enabled business process management with colleagues at the University of Georgia, and received over $8000 in teaching grants from Amazon Web Services, and Georgia State University to enable students to use emerging technology in the classroom.
Teaching honors
Lecturer Linda Prince is also an ASU native, earning a bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, in computer information systems and the W. P. Carey MBA with an emphasis in supply chain management this May. As an undergraduate, she worked as a teaching assistant and was a graduate assistant while an MBA student. This spring she was nominated for a Teaching Excellence Award sponsored by the Graduate and Professional Student Association.
Prince worked for nine years at US Foods, Inc. as a financial analyst with a focus in database administration, asset securitization and high-level financial reporting. “I'm excited about teaching full time at W.P. Carey after having begun this journey with the opportunity to teach as a Graduate Assistant,” she said. “That experience showed me how much I enjoy teaching and I'm looking forward to the chance to interact with the students and the challenges of helping them learn and grow.”
Signing on with the vision
For many of these scholars and teachers, accepting a new position in the Department of Information Systems means changing institutions. Bin Gu explained that part of his decision was an interest in joining the greater mission of the W. P. Carey School and ASU.
“W. P. Carey is remarkably visionary in formulating and delivering the future of business education,” he commented. “While many schools are still debating on what the future of higher education will look like, W. P. Carey has aggressively and successfully established leaderships on two future fronts: online MBA and global MBA programs. It is my great honor to join this visionary team.”
A list of Associate Professor Bin Gu’s research interests reads like a catalogue of the latest trends in IT: social media, user-generated contents, IT business value and IT governance. He is widely published in the top journals, and his work has won several awards from the Information systems discipline.
Just before he arrived in Tempe, he was notified of yet another accolade. His paper, “The dynamics of online word-of-mouth and product sales — an empirical investigation of the movie industry,” published in the Journal of Retailing, has garnered one of the prestigious Emerald Management Reviews Citations of Excellence Awards. The Emerald Award recognizes the 50 most influential articles from the top 300 management journals in the world.
The road started in China, where he ranked in the top 1 percent of his class at Shanghai Jiaotong University while completing bachelor’s degrees in international business and computer science. He went on to the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania where he earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. with a concentration in information management. Most recently he was on the faculty at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin.
Investigating the social networks
Clinical Assistant Professor Su Dong earned a bachelor’s degree in information systems at the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology and a Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. His teaching credentials include various information systems courses at the Belk College of Business at UNC Charlotte and at Wingate University.
Dong’s research is interdisciplinary as he seeks to investigate the dynamics between organizational social networks and IT service provision. His work has been published at top journals in the field.
Fulfilling the demand for IT talent
Clinical Assistant Professor Dan Mazzola is what’s known on campus as an ASU native. He earned his bachelor’s, master’s and Ph.D. degrees at ASU, all of them in computer information systems at the W. P. Carey School of Business. Further, he has been teaching CIS courses as an adjunct professor since 1997.
For the past 17 years, Mazzola has worked in high technology companies. “I had the opportunity to work with a wide array of organizations that use technology as a strategic business tool,” he said. “Of great concern in the IT industry is the creation of a supply of strong IT talent. I am excited about the opportunity to contribute towards the fulfillment of that demand and to bridge academia with the public and private sector. It is with great joy and strong passion to return to W.P. Carey and help build the next generation of high tech workforce.”
Research in IS strategic planning
Clinical Assistant Professor Kathleen Moser is returning to the Department of Information Systems from Iowa State University. A graduate of the W. P. Carey’s doctoral program, Moser already has research roots in the department. She has co-authored research on object oriented modeling and the strategic planning of IS with Associate Professor Uday Kulkarni.
Moser’s area of concentration focuses on database modeling, design and development and project management. She has consulted with various businesses to improve the technical training of their in-house database courses and developed various applications for small companies. More recently, her attention was focused on project management of SaaS/cloud computing and services, overseeing the technical software training of a large number of online clients in the area of asset and calibration management.
“I developed the course and materials for all aspects of classroom instruction and corporate training for both on-site client training and online webinars. In this effort I became the liaison between our development and sales teams and our corporate professionals,” Moser said. “This collaboration with industry professionals not only developed partnerships and improved the relationship with our client base; it promoted our software by incorporating feature enhancements to advance software sales across the U.S., Canada, and abroad.”
Short route from student to lecturer
Lecturer Christopher Olsen is no stranger to KnowIT readers. He was featured earlier this year after he returned to the classroom as an emergency fill in only a few months after graduating from the MSIM program.
http://www.knowwpcarey.com/article.cfm?cid=25&aid=1146
Olsen has nearly 12 years of experience in software development spanning all aspects of the software creation process including requirements creation, software development, and testing. He served as a project lead on multiple projects where he gained experience in managing development teams, planning projects and delivering status reports in both written and verbal format.
Engaged scholarship
Clinical Assistant Professor Timothy Olsen recently received his Ph.D. at the Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University. His master’s degree in information systems with a certificate in global management is from Brigham Young University. His research interests include management of IT and shared services, micro-outsourcing and social business process management.
Olsen’s IT career specialized in network and systems administration, web development, and project management. While a doctoral student, Olsen worked with a large public IT department in the midst of a very interesting change process. “This ‘engaged scholarship’ has yielded fantastic insight into theory and practice,” he said. “I hope to provide IT managers understanding of how a purposeful transformation to Shared Services is realized.”
His second stream of research explores how workflow management technologies can be used to manage asyncronous and geographically dispersed work performed by the ‘human cloud’.
Olsen has developed a new course in implementing IT-enabled business process management with colleagues at the University of Georgia, and received over $8000 in teaching grants from Amazon Web Services, and Georgia State University to enable students to use emerging technology in the classroom.
Teaching honors
Lecturer Linda Prince is also an ASU native, earning a bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, in computer information systems and the W. P. Carey MBA with an emphasis in supply chain management this May. As an undergraduate, she worked as a teaching assistant and was a graduate assistant while an MBA student. This spring she was nominated for a Teaching Excellence Award sponsored by the Graduate and Professional Student Association.
Prince worked for nine years at US Foods, Inc. as a financial analyst with a focus in database administration, asset securitization and high-level financial reporting. “I'm excited about teaching full time at W.P. Carey after having begun this journey with the opportunity to teach as a Graduate Assistant,” she said. “That experience showed me how much I enjoy teaching and I'm looking forward to the chance to interact with the students and the challenges of helping them learn and grow.”
Signing on with the vision
For many of these scholars and teachers, accepting a new position in the Department of Information Systems means changing institutions. Bin Gu explained that part of his decision was an interest in joining the greater mission of the W. P. Carey School and ASU.
“W. P. Carey is remarkably visionary in formulating and delivering the future of business education,” he commented. “While many schools are still debating on what the future of higher education will look like, W. P. Carey has aggressively and successfully established leaderships on two future fronts: online MBA and global MBA programs. It is my great honor to join this visionary team.”
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