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April 2010: Shaping the Future of IT Welcome to the MIS Bulletin, sharing highlights of news, events, people, and partners of the Department of Management Information Systems at The University of Arizona. Enterprise Security Courses Start May 17,2010 - NEW Non-Credit Student Status Available
The MISonline Enterprise Security Certificate program addresses the growing demand for professionals seeking information security awareness within industry and government. The courses focus on the need to identify, assess and remediate information security risks while increasing the assurance of information, privacy and security overall. Students can earn the MISonline Enterprise Security Certificate in less than a year—completely online. Each course is ten weeks in length and students will earn CNSS certificates for successful course completions.
Courses within the program are ideal for technical and non-technical business managers. Individuals with a technical background will broaden and deepen their understanding of information assurance skills, tools and techniques. Individuals with a managerial perspective will gain a better understanding of the current security landscape, its issues and approaches. Both will learn how to effectively address information security risk in the Enterprise 2.0 environment. NEW this coming semester – non-credit student status. This status is ideal for students who do not want to earn credits towards a graduate degree! [more] Department Receives PMI Approval Thanks to a great effort throughout a very thorough and lengthy process led by Professor Roberto Mejias, the MIS department is now an official Project Management Institute (PMI ®) REP (Registered Education Provider).
This PMI® certification allows our Department to offer our Project Management courses (e.g. MBA, MIS Masters, Undergraduate and Distance Learning courses from MISonline) for PDU (professional development units) credit. PDUs are required for the PMP® (Project Mgmt Professional) certification, the top credential offered by the PMI®, the premier Project Management organization in the world. In addition, this certification now allows the awarding of PDUs (professional development units) for these Project Management courses.
MIS 35th Anniversary Highlighted in ellerbuzz "Back in 1974, when Regents Professor Jay Nunamaker established the Department of Management Information Systems (MIS) at the University of Arizona, the first home computer had yet to hit the market. Now corporations rely on MIS professionals to align IT decision making and implementation with strategic goals, and the Eller College is still a leader in educating managers who do just that — this year, the department was ranked #1 among public programs in the country by U.S. News and World Report". "The strength of the program’s reputation is driven by its exceptional faculty, many of whom were engaged in planning the annual International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), held in December 2009 in Phoenix. The conference convenes top researchers in information systems to present papers and share the latest in the dynamic industry". "During the conference, the MIS department hosted a 35th anniversary reception for over 300 faculty, students, alumni, and friends of the department". [more]
Behavioral and Quantitative Game Theory Conference, May 14-16, 2010 in Newport Beach, CA
The Behavioral and Quantitative Game Theory: Conference on Future Directions is designed to provide cross-pollination of ideas from game theory in operations management and logistics, behavioral game theory, and algorithmic game theory. Since these streams are quite new there is a very strong impetus for learning and exchange from one arena to another. Moshe Dror (MIS Department, The University of Arizona) and Greys Sosic, (Marshall School of Business, The University of Southern California) are organizing this conference. Registration is currently open for this conference. [more]
We’re Expanding into Chandler AZ
Paulo Goes, MIS Department Head and Salter Distinguished Professor in Technology and Management, was quoted on February 12, 2010 in an Arizona Daily Star newspaper article regarding the department's involvement in the upcoming Chandler, AZ expansion. "The UA will offer graduate classes at a distance-education hub on the former Motorola campus on Price Road". "The UA is evaluating student demand to finalize exactly what classes will be offered. Classes could begin in fall or in fall of next year". "Paulo Goes said he's eager to start collaborating with high-tech firms whose employees could benefit from new graduate certificates. Graduate certificates are specialized programs for professionals. Credits can be applied to a master's degree program". "He said he was impressed with the facility and thinks it will be easy for employees to take classes after work." [more]
Welcome Walt Zipperman, New MIS Board of Advisors
Walt Zipperman, President, DAZ Systems Inc. joined the MIS Board of Advisors in February 2010. His company specializes in Oracle's E-Business Suite that leverages industry experience to provide mission-critical business solutions to small and medium sized enterprises. Walt sponsors our Zipperman Program which gives freshman and sophomore pre-business majors additional exposure to MIS and job opportunities in the field. The Zipperman's participate in activities and events throughout the semester that raise awareness of MIS as a field and attracts new undergraduate majors. We look forward to Walt's energy and business acumen as he joins our Board.
Meet the CIO's Event - April 15, 2010
Meet the CIO's is an opportunity for industry leaders to share their knowledge and insight of the field of IT with MIS students. This interaction will bring a valuable resource to students because it will allow students to learn about the CIO's companies, IS careers, new technologies and learn about opportunities available to them after they graduate. The event will begin with a panel discussion among the CIO's followed by a reception with the students. Each CIO will have their own table at the reception where students can visit them to ask questions and find out more about their company. The MIS department is collaborating with its student run associations (MISA (undergraduates) and MISGA (graduates)) to advertise this event and predicts that there will be over 75 MIS students in attendance. CIO's scheduled to attend include Styne Hill, CIO Raytheon [more]
Sanofi-aventis Supports Master's
This semester Kumar Vakeel (MIS MS - Class of 2010) was chosen to receive this support and we virtually interviewed him to find out more! “I am currently working on cloud computing options that sanofi-aventis could possibly use in their data center. I’m gathering information about cloud architecture and the different kinds of cloud options that are available in the market”. “At the end of the semester I will present my findings and suggest solutions to help meet sanofi-aventis’ needs. I will give a formal presentation to my supervisors (Eric Christensen - Senior IS Specialist - Data Center Operations and Brian Ellerman - Tucson SIS Site Head and MIS Board of Advisor) at the end of the semester”.
Pre-Business Honors Project Showcase Highlights
On December 17, 2009, McClelland Hall’s Estes Atrium played host to the MIS 111 Honors Project Showcase. The event, now in its second year, highlights a semester of work by pre-business honors freshman. “More than an MIS class, MIS 111 Honors is a business course that builds skills and shows students what the Eller College is all about,” explains senior lecturer in MIS William Neumann, who teaches the course and coordinated the event. One of the goals, he says, is to give future business students a preview of what it’s like to be an Eller student, and keep them on track to apply for professional admission". “It’s important for some of the best and brightest to experience Eller early on in their UA experience,” Neumann says. [more]
Students + Competitions = Real World Experiences: Courtesy of Gallo and Google
Sudha Ram is using the Google Online Marketing Challenge in her MIS 587 Business Intelligence course this semester to help students gain a better understanding of the web analytics and marketing issues facing companies today.
Student teams outline a strategy, run an AdWords campaign, assess their results and provide their clients recommendations to further develop their online marketing. Teams submit their reports to their clients and will be judged by an independent panel of judges on April 16, 2010. [more]
On March 5, 2010, representatives of E. & J. Gallo Winery sponsored the first annual Gallo MBA case competition focused on the strategic management of IT. As part of the course requirements for Sue Brown’s MIS 585 Strategic Management of Information Systems class, teams of MBA students worked together to analyze a crisis situation at a small company. The case required the students to analyze the situation and provide recommendations to the company regarding how they should recover (both in the short term and the long term). Gallo was represented by their CIO, Kent Kushar, two UA alumni, Matt Helms and Steve Yob, and a human resources senior manager, Lisa Hess. [more]
The MIS Zipperman Scholars recently visited the Phoenix Suns NBA Basketball organization to find out how the team leverages IT to its fullest potential in the sports industry. A total of 52 Zippermans participated in this day long event. Upon arrival at the Suns, Jeramie McPeek, VP Digital, and William Bolt, V.P. Information Technology, spoke to the group and explained how they built the Suns web pages and how they optimize the site to drive revenue back to the organization. They also talked about their IT department, changes they’ve experienced with technology over the last 15 years and how IT is so important to the Suns from a business perspective. Afterwards the Zippermans were given an “IT related” tour of the U.S. Airways Center. After the tour the Zippermans had a few free hours before attending the Suns evening game. During this time the Zippermans participated in a “Mock Eller College Professional Admittance Experience” planned by the Zipperman management team. [more-MIS article] [more - Ellerbuzz article]
Giving Back - LaSalle-Chen Scholarship Announced
The scholarship’s goal is to encourage and support students with significant academic promise who have overcome personal challenges to obtain advanced standing in MIS. The scholarship’s focus is one of encouragement and allowing students to fulfill their educational promise. It is open to all students who obtain advanced standing in MIS regardless of their current GPA. There will be a total of 5 scholarships awarded per year at $1,000 each. The MIS Department and future student recipients of this scholarship wish to thank Dr.'s Jim LaSalle and Hsinchun Chen for their generous support! [more]
Sudha Ram Receives Press Coverage on Wikipedia Research
The patterns of collaboration between Wikipedia contributors have a direct effect on the data quality of an article, according to a new paper by Dr. Sudha Ram and co-author Jun Liu, both of the MIS Department, Eller College of Management.
“Most of the existing research on Wikipedia is at the aggregate level, looking at total number of edits for an article, for example, or how many unique contributors participated in its creation,” Ram says. “What was missing was an explanation for why some articles are of high quality and others are not. We investigated the relationship between collaboration and data quality.” Wikipedia has an internal quality rating system for entries, with featured articles at the top, followed by A, B, and C-level entries. Ram and Liu randomly collected 400 articles at each quality level and applied a data provenance model they developed in an earlier paper. “We used data mining techniques and identified various patterns of collaboration based on the provenance or, more specifically, who does what to Wikipedia articles,” Ram says. “These collaboration patterns either help increase quality or are detrimental to data quality.” Read Ram's and Liu's research coverage at MSNBC, Discovery News, Slashdot, UA News, UAWildcat, and Eller College.
Alexandra Durcikova and Roberto Mejias Receive Eller Dean’s Undergraduate Teaching Excellence Award
Congratulations to two MIS professors for winning these prestigious awards! Dr. Alexandra Durcikova was selected because of her noteworthy innovations in MIS 307, Business Data Communications and Networking. The judges were impressed with her action learning approach to transform this technical course with activities that promote active learning including learning to make a patch cable, use of Wireshark, Netstumbler, and OPNet network simulation software. They were also impressed with her dedication to learning through the development of exercises that address auditory, tactile and visual learning styles. As stated by one of Alexandra's students, “I was impressed from the start with her teaching style, and the different things she did in order to involve every student in the class. I can honestly say that her class was not only the most enjoyable class to go to, but I learned the most from it”.
Dr. Roberto Mejias was selected for this award because the judges were impressed with his innovations including the development and awarding of the US National Security Agency (NSA) course certificates to Eller students for demonstrating proficiency in the field of information security. As stated by one of Roberto's students “Dr. Roberto was one of the only college professors that truly motivated me. He is so full of knowledge and bright ideas. I always loved going to his class. Being an Eller MIS Preceptor for him was such a blessing for me …as I have never worked for someone who is as passionate about teaching, and cares about his students more than Dr. Roberto". [more]
Meet Sapna Kaul - MS '08, Alumni Profile
We noticed that Sapna Kaul had posted a new job title on LinkedIn so we contacted her and she graciously agreed to be "virtually interviewed". Thank you Sapna for keeping us posted on your career progress! Company: Moody’s Corporation (Moody’s Analytics Division) Title: Associate Analyst, Program Management Where you see yourself in 5 years I see myself 5 years from now at Moody’s leading their Program Management initiative as an Assistant Director Program Manager. What you like best about what you are doing now I enjoy being a part of the Program Management Division. Our team is responsible for driving the development process of our suite of credit risk software products & solutions, from the initial design through all stages of development and stabilization, leading up to the release. It is a great learning experience working in such a dynamic and fast paced environment. In 4 weeks of my joining the team I am already helping coordinate the construction of product roadmaps and getting to work with multiple groups in planning through production and release. I focus on collecting, organizing, and analyzing project-related data, and producing presentations and reports which summarize the above information. [more]
Josh Hottenstein's (MS MIS/MBA '09) New Company Featured in ellerbuzz
Congratulations to Josh Hottenstein's new company, Verdant Earth Technologies, that develops controlled agricultural production systems which allows for growth in non-traditional environments. Since launching, Hottenstein and his partner Myles Lewis (UA Agriculture '09) have made significant progress, acquiring their first customer and planting 50,000 seedlings in a monitored environment using controlled agriculture practices. The company is also partnering with the University of Arizona to provide research feedback through these plantings and greenhouse operations. Verdant Earth is continuing to expand on its initial idea and Hottenstein believes that the profits generated from the first planting will help fund the development of a proof-of-concept system that will scale into the containerized growing system. CONGRATULATIONS Josh and Miles on your first planting! [more]
Rohit Kohli (MS MIS/MBA ’09) Promoted
Congratulations Rohit Kohli on his new position! Rohit is employed with Sunquest Information Systems and was recently promoted to Associate Program Manager. As per Rohit: "The Program Management office at Sunquest is responsible for the management and delivery of high quality medical software products, which not only reduce the cost, but also improve the quality of healthcare provided to the general public. Currently as the program manager, I am interacting with cross functional teams in India, UK and Tucson, and am responsible for risk management and conflict resolution, in addition to managing the resources and tasks that are involved during the different phases of the software development". "This position provides me with a perfect opportunity of interacting with the senior management team, which consists of the VPs and Directors in the different Sunquest offices, and to understand the requirements, which are then communicated to the development teams for the development to take place. Overall my role as a program manager is to coordinate and communicate effectively between the parties involved, so that there are no obstacles within the process. This position allows me to accomplish my goal of becoming a part of the upper management and allows me to work in the healthcare industry which is currently the place to be and is also one of the recession free domains". We wish Rohit the best of luck and again, CONGRATULATIONS!
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