Students

News: Service project makes teachers out of students

Students in the Department of Information Systems shine, in class and out. The DISC club is a valuable community resource, thanks to the dedication of students who teach weekly computing classes at the Tempe Public Library just south of campus. And, this spring a team hit the road to compete against other top schools in the third annual CoMIS competition. The success of these students contributes to the growing respect garnered by the department and its programs, reflected in rising U. S. News & World Report rankings.

2014-07-31

July 31, 2014 - Students in the Department of Information Systems shine, in class and out. The DISC club is a valuable community resource, thanks to the dedication of students who teach weekly computing classes at the Tempe Public Library just south of campus. And, this spring a team hit the road to compete against other top schools in the third annual CoMIS competition. The success of these students contributes to the growing respect garnered by the department and its programs, reflected in rising U. S. News & World Report rankings.

Computing unpacked: Students become teachers through DISC service project

The award-winning DISC club doesn’t take the summer off. Even though many members are away from campus at internships, the club’s long-standing computer skills classes have continued every Wednesday night at the Tempe Public Library. On Saturday, July 26, members manned a booth at the library’s Tech Fair. Library patrons witnessed a computer “autopsy” (left) as DISC members showed them what the inside of a processor looks like. The classes are a substantial commitment and achievement: since 2005, hundreds of Tempe residents have learned basic computing and web browsing from W. P. Carey CIS students. One of the most popular classes recently has been the Windows 8 tutorial.

Field tested

Case competitions are a great opportunity for students to take their knowledge and skills to the field. This spring, clinical assistant professor Altaf Ahmad coached a team for the third annual CoMIS (Competition on Management Information Systems), hosted this year at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. Representing the W. P. Carey School were Laura Gagliano, Saswati Soumya and Lauren Sahakian.

During the case competition each team had 24 hours to read a case and develop a solution. Teams were given 10 minutes to present their recommendations to the CoMIS judging panel, followed by 10 minutes of Q&A. “The competition was stiff, and we didn’t earn the top trophy, but by all accounts we were in a tight race with the others all the way through the competition,” said department Chairman Michael Goul.

The W. P. Carey students competed against some of the top students in the nation from the University of Arizona, University of Connecticut, Emory University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Indiana University, University of Maryland, College Park, Michigan State University, University of Minnesota, University of Texas at Austin and the University of Texas at Dallas. “The competition was a great chance to get to meet smart, driven, technology-minded students around the country,” said Laura Gagliano, who is an intern this summer at KPMG, in IT Attestation.

“It also allowed us to meet with managers and executives of IT in massive industries and learn about their upcoming challenges and how they plan to address them, which I think is invaluable for students about to try to enter the job market.”

Climbing reputation

When U.S. News & World Report released its survey of graduate information systems programs, the Department of Information Systems was ranked #12, up four places from the year before. Our undergraduate program is ranked #17. The graduate ranking reflects the strength of the Master of Science in Information Management (MSIM) program, which is offered on campus in-person or online.

Tailored for experienced professionals, the program has built an alumni community that is closely networked because of the relationships formed in classes. The new Master of Science in Business Analytics (MS-BA), offered in conjunction with the Department of Supply Chain Management, is launching its second cohort in August. An online version of the program starts in January.

Media: IS degrees equal big opportunity

Professionals who are interested in lucrative careers find the payoff they seek if they obtain a master’s degree in information systems. That was the message of a story that received prominent play on the Yahoo home page quoting professor Raghu Santanam.

"Students from these programs fulfill an important role in today's fast-changing landscape. They are able to transform business and lead their organizations in harnessing current and emerging technologies," he said. The need will only grow as organizations invest in mobile, embedded and location-based computing platforms.

"These graduates are in high demand and among the highest paid professionals," he concluded. Catching the Big Data wave can be difficult for companies that do not have the expertise to sift through the volumes of information now being collected. BI Software Insight published a “one-step resource” to the university programs currently offered in the field.

Department chairman Michael Goul contributed this comment to ASU’s entry: “MS-BA students at the W. P. Carey School choose from a 9-month full-time or a 16-month online program, both delivered by Top 20 nationally ranked departments of information systems and supply chain management. The W. P. Carey School’s MS-BA program includes real-world projects, preparing students to be at the forefront of data-driven analysis, strategic decision-making and business-process optimization.”

In a blog on the IBM website, Goul argues that data science within the firm is a team sport: “Many make out the data scientist to be a Renaissance woman or man: a modern-day, corporate-recognized striker who can single-handedly elevate the organization’s analytics savvy,” he writes. But, “success at data science can be a team-level effort with individuals combining their skills, knowledge and experience.”

The challenge for institutions of higher learning is figuring out how to train data scientists for the many roles firms need to fill. “For example, one organization might have its data science team develop a new predictive model, and then throw it over the fence to the IT department to deploy. IT might deploy it by embedding the model into automated business processes. Then, who monitors the predictive model’s performance? Will that be an IT responsibility, or will IT throw it back over the fence to be caught by another player on the data-science side?” Read Goul’s post in full at The Big Data & Analytics Hub.

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