News update: The number 30

This fall, the faculty of the Department of Information Systems grew to 30, a number signifying the growing popularity and relevance of our undergraduate and graduate programs. Meet the doctoral candidates who are beginning their climb to complete the Ph.D. degree, and learn about one of our interesting faculty members.

The road starts here

Three new doctoral students are starting their studies in the Department of Information Systems this fall. Meet the next generation of information systems thought leaders: Ziru Li graduated in July from the Harbin Institute of Technology in China with a master of science in management science and engineering. She’s interested in big data, online collective information, e-health and Internet finance. She has experience in social networks, massive data mining and consumer behavior.

Born in the Shandong province, she likes aerobics and yoga. “For me it’s the best way to express my inner emotions and refresh my mind,” she said. “When I feel pressure or I’m tired, I will do some exercise to change my perspective for a while. The charm of sports is that it makes you feel like you are living positively.” Li applied to the Department of Information Systems because the faculty includes leading researchers and members of the editorial boards of top IS journals. W. P. Carey boasts “abundant research output and excellent Ph.D. student placement.” Chen Liang also recently graduated, from Sun Yat-sen University in China with a masters in information science degree.

Liang decided to pursue a Ph.D after attending seminars and conversing with researchers. “I resolved to apply to doctoral programs and strive toward this around the clock,” she said. Her research interest is the coevolution of information behavior and social network structures in online communities. “I am still in need of a systematic research training, and the W. P. Carey School of Business has always been the college I wanted to study in,” she said. She said she first became interested in the W. P. Carey School because of the quality of the IS faculty, but “the warm weather and brilliant sunshine in Arizona can also help me keep a good mood every day.” Her home, Guangdong, is in the southeast area of China. “It is also a warm place and rich in various kinds of dishes.” Like dim sum! Xueyan Yin summarizes her desire to earn the Ph.D. degree in one word: freedom.

Look to Yin, who describes herself as a nontraditional student, to pursue the newest of ideas. “I won’t be dedicated if the topic does not interest me,” she said. “But if the topic is interesting and challenging enough, I love to dig deeper and deeper. To pursue a Ph.D. is not only self-fulfillment: it is also the way to actually study something that I am interested in all the time.” Those interests include the organization, management and infrastructure (technical and organizational) of social networks. She is an enthusiastic and active social network participant (she has several thousand followers on my Weibo account), and is interested in the possibilities to advance various areas of human activity through technology.

She’s especially interested in social media and marketing. After studying at a small college in New York, she’s happy to be in a large community like the W. P. Carey School. “Besides, the research power of the W. P. Carey School is huge,” she commented. “Lastly, I have been to Sedona during winter when upstate New York is buried in heavy snow. Sedona is just like a heaven to me at that time of year.

Author! Author!

A quick read through our new faculty and doctoral student profiles demonstrates that a good university is a magnet for interesting people — and virtually all of them write. But recently, KnowIT uncovered a fact about someone we thought we knew: Senior Lecturer Alan Simon. In addition to a successful career in industry, consulting and teaching, we were aware that Simon was also an author of titles such as "Data Warehousing For Dummies" and "Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence for e-Commerce." But fiction? Simon says that for many years he’s kept a foot — “actually a manuscript” — in several different areas of writing: technology, business and fiction.

He says that “I enjoy putting a good story in print, even if I've been doing so in widely different genres.” All told he’s penned more than 30 books. His latest, "The First Christmas After the War," became available in July and is part of a series tracing the saga of one family. KnowIT’s editor is currently engrossed in "Gettysburg, 1913: The Complete Novel of the Great Reunion." The Department of Information Systems builds opportunities for students to learn so-called soft skills … including writing. Who better to teach them than faculty who write?

September 28: Fall Career Mixer

The career mixer held in the fall is a perfect opportunity for companies to meet computer information systems and business analytics students to recruit for internships and full time positions. This annual networking event is September 28 from 4:30 to 7 p.m. If you have any questions please contact wpcareyis@asu.edu.