Temple MIS

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Capstone projects focus on analytics, matching, procurement, biometrics, and contact management

Sandbox 2017MIS seniors presented final projects at the Fall 2017 Capstone Project Showcase.  The showcase featured ten teams of seniors who presented projects on everything from automated grocery store checkout to a better way to find events in the area.

The winning team, which was selected by a panel of industry experts and Temple faculty, designed a platform for engineers to procure and track equipment for universities and makerspaces. The platform uses digital forms and cloud technology to procure lab equipment transparently. Mentored by Chris Cera, CEO of Arcweb Technologies, the Sandbox team of Shawn Niederriter, Ed Lahm, Zach Trona, and Ken Fong received a $500 prize. 

The full roster of projects presented at the December 2017 event included:

MIS Achievement Points
An application that analyzes student data, identifies patterns, and provides suggestions for how MIS students can earn MIS Professional Achievement Points to ensure that they graduate on time.
Team: Marc Gold, Adriana Shuster, Josh Veloso, Run Zhu
Mentor: Munir Mandviwalla

Temple Course Scheduling 1
An application that utilizes historical data to provide better academic planning recommendations to academic advisors and course administrators.
Team: John Canavati, Liang Wu, Kevin Zheng, Taiki Sugiyama
Mentor: Sunil Misra

Temple Course Scheduling 2
A platform that helps course administrators and academic advisors better plan for upcoming semesters to ensure the most efficient allocation of resources.
Team: Melina Ghuman, Xueming (Ming) Guo, Kou-Lun Chang.
Mentor: Joe Spagnoletti

RoomMe
An application that provides a centralized platform for college students to identify and connect with potential roommates based on various preferences.
Team: Xiaozhou (Hana) Yu, Matt Oberst, Josh Grover, Kasey Brown
Mentor: Sondra Barbour

Maptivities
A central hub for users to identify events in their area, connect with others attending those events, and arrange for safe transportation to and from the area.
Team: Dan Genuario, Chris Resentreter, Stan Okoro, Serena You
Mentor: Bruce Fadem

Sandbox
A procurement platform for universities and makerspaces who are looking to purchase and track engineering equipment while managing their inventory.
Team: Shawn Niederriter, Ed Lahm, Zach Trona, Ken Fong
Mentor: Chris Cera

TU Study
A way for students at Temple University to identify and reserve common spaces for studying. App will allow for reservations in the TECH Center, Writing Center, and more.
Team: BS Srinath Amruth, Glen M. Diener, Jacky Wong
Mentor: Cindy Leavitt

Impulse
An application that combines real-time biometric data with GPS to allow police offers to more efficiently call for back-up when in pursuit of a suspect.
Team: Tony Nguyen, Weiming He, Yaning Wang, Siling Zhang
Mentor: John Wiggs

Grocery Guru
A mobile application that allows grocery shoppers to scan as they go and manually check out rather than waiting in line at the store.
Team: Tony Wu, Vincent Furlong, Emily Schucker, Jonathan Kerr
Mentor: Sukumar Narayanan

Intro
Rather than using physical business cards, Intro allows users to sync their social media accounts and contact information into one application so that it can be shared with others in an instant.
Team: Ben Bucceri, Martin Esser-Munera,  Oscar Zhang, Matt Maling, Mohammad Alkurdi
Mentor: Niraj Patel

PRO accelerates student professional development

Professional Achievement Dashboard

MIS announces the successful rollout of version 4 of the Community platform professional achievement program. Since 2008, the program continues to break new ground in creating a structured measurable process for student professional development that provides recognition, external and internal branding, and opportunities for high achievers. The program pioneered at Fox MIS has been licensed at other universities, while portions have been copied by others. 

Changes in version 4 include:

  • New e-portfolio design with interactive customizable widgets that highlight professional achievement and a verified badge
  • New Dashboard analytics to manage graduation requirements and comparison with peers
  • New much simpler PRO point submission, review, and management process
  • More PRO point earning opportunities (e.g., study abroad)
  • New calendar to locate PRO point earning opportunities
  • More curriculum checkpoints for on-time graduation
  • New PRO site that integrates all the information related to the program
  • Much better swag
  • New name – PRO!

According to Dr. Munir Mandviwalla who is working on the project with Assistant Director Manoj Chacko and Assistant Professor Laurel Miller: 

PRO provides the structure for professional development. The goal is for students to get good jobs; so the e-portfolio badge summarizes professional achievement, the points widget lists the activities, while the posts show how each activity influences professional development. Finally, PRO points measure activities so that students can get started early and stay on track using analytics available on an integrative Dashboard. 

As part of the above roll out, the overall MIS Community site was updated with new content, a new mobile responsive look and feel, including the new Community activity widget. The e-portfolios of faculty, staff, and Master’s students also have a new mobile responsive look and feel with capabilities that integrate with the main site (e.g., research news). 

MIS Majors are the highest-paid business school graduates

IS Job IndexStudents who earn degrees in information systems (IS) earn higher starting salaries than fellow business-school counterparts. And they benefit from one of the fastest national placement averages.

These statistics are just some of the findings from the latest edition of the Information Systems Job Index, produced by researchers from Temple University’s Fox School of Business, in partnership with the Association for Information Systems (AIS).

Published and released in January 2018, the third installment of the IS Job Index culled the responses of 2,140 IS graduates of the Class of 2017, from 58 universities nationwide.

Some of the index’s more-interesting findings include:

  • Salaries for IS undergraduates ($62,820) are the highest among students who pursue typical business majors ($52,047).
  • The percentage of women in IS jobs (39%) is more than double that of women in other STEM fields like computer science (18%).
  • Internships double the likelihood of an IS student getting a job offer (39% for those who hold at least one internship vs. 16% for those who do not).

There are more than 3 million IS jobs in the U.S. alone,” said index co-author Dr. Munir Mandviwalla, associate professor of management information systems (MIS) at Temple University’s Fox School of Business. “This data is critical for parents of college-age children, current and prospective students seeking an accurate job outlook, employers, and policymakers—and it cannot be found anywhere else.

Mandviwalla conducted research for the latest installment of the IS Job Index and co-authored it with Dr. Crystal Harold, associate professor of human resource management at Temple’s Fox School of Business, and Maria Boggi, a junior MIS major in the Fox School and Temple University Honor’s programs.

The AIS-Temple Fox School Job Index is the only systematic assessment of the IS job market. It is a joint project, with support from AmerisourceBergen and LiquidHub, to produce reliable national-level data on placement, job type, satisfaction, and related factors like career services, knowledge level, preparedness, and search strategies. 

MIS alum, Gord Burtch receives two international awards

Gordon BurtchGordon Burtch (Ph.D., 2013), Assistant Professor of Information and Decision Sciences and Lawrence Fellow, University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Management received the 2017 Association for Information Systems – AIS Early Career Award. Gord is one of five recipients worldwide. He also received the 2017 Information Systems Society Sandra A. Slaughter Early Career Award of The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). Gord is a Temple MIS alum who was advised by Dr. Sunil Wattal. 

Yusuf G. Mandviwalla endowment

Yusuf G. MandviwallaThe new Yusuf G. Mandviwalla endowed scholarship fund will provide financial support to undergraduate students majoring in MIS who have both financial need and high academic performance. The $50,000 endowment, which includes a match from the Fox School, was created by Munir and Nazneen Mandviwalla in memory of Munir’s father Yusuf G. Mandviwalla.

According to Dr. Mandviwalla “my father was a successful entrepreneur who believed in providing educational opportunity regardless of background or means, and supported many young people during his lifetime in Pakistan.”

“I am pleased to create this scholarship in his memory to give back to the MIS community,” said Mandviwalla, who is the outgoing chair of the Department of Management Information Systems, which he founded in 2000.

In addition, an anonymous donor has made a generous gift to establish an endowed scholarship which, when fully funded, and matched by the Dean’s special matching gift program, will endow another MIS specific scholarship fund of $60,000.

From Bridge Repair to Elderly Patient Care, MIS seniors debut innovative solutions in capstone projects

MIS Capstone Winners 2017After years of hard work and study, MIS seniors always have a lot to show off at the Fox School of Business Management Information Systems Capstone Project Showcase. The most recent Showcase, held at the end of April, was no exception: The 17 teams of seniors that gathered to present their final projects unveiled everything from a medical app designed to help doctors track elderly patients’ health regimens to a personalized news aggregation service to an improved search function on Temple’s course database.

The MIS Showcase is a unique opportunity for students to combine all of what they have learned in class with their own entrepreneurial skills, says Fox IT Advisory Board Chairman Bruce Fadem, who oversees the Mentoring program for IBIT. “This year’s teams showcased a wide range of exciting ideas and demonstrated the value of their education with professional business plans and excellent presentations.”

The winning team, selected by a panel of judges, designed an app that tackles the problem of evaluating the maintenance needs of bridges. “On average,” the team notes, “it takes an expert three to six weeks to properly assess a bridge’s structural needs and report these findings to the local government.” Their solution, the app they call Floating Bridges, combines 3D mapping drones, bridge-assessment algorithms and augmented reality to provide local governments with a more efficient, less expensive way to survey and prioritize problem bridges “on a yearly or even monthly basis.”

The team, which included Alexandra Iacovetti, Nicholas Rivera, Bridget Silk and Benjamin Sulaiman, won $500 for coming in first place — though the entire Capstone process has been rewarding in itself, Silk says. “We really benefited from bouncing ideas off each other,” she adds. “It was an awesome experience to end the year with.”

The Capstone projects are often cited by students as one of the highlights of the MIS experience. The opportunity to put so many skills and practices to the test (not to mention the chance to flex their creative muscles) in a competitive setting is both fun and helpful in terms of prepping for life outside of the Fox School.

“The project created an opportunity to fully develop and pitch a real, live platform that addresses a problem,” says Kate Morrison, whose team, District One Sports, created a one-stop digital resource for high school sports stats. “Going through this process end to end created more passion, teamwork and ownership than any other group project I’ve worked on, and it was a beneficial transition from the teaching/learning environment into the professional workplace.”

The full roster of projects presented at the April event included:

Solutions to Medical Non-Adherence
A digital solution for health-care providers, pharmacies and patients to insure that patients are taking their medication consistently and following correct procedures after leaving the hospital.
Team: Michael Ingram, Heather Makwinski, Joshua Michalik, Samantha Talarico
Mentor: Dale Danilewitz

Documed: Improving Patient Engagement
Real-time access for doctors to patients’ medical records to help improve diagnosis and treatment.
Team: Johnathan Holland, Jeremy A. John, Alan Kim, George Raymond
Mentor: Matt Winter

WorkFit
An application designed to motivate people to make exercise a priority, using social tools, games, geolocation and goal suggestions.
Team: John Kerin, Matthew Leaver, Sara Monahan, Thompson Nguyen
Mentor: Ben Hasan

CaParkLee
An application that measures the core body temperatures and heart rates of elderly patients, aiming to help doctors track their patients’ regimens.
Team: Leor Capunitan, Thomas Lee, Chris Park
Mentor: Jeff Hamilton

Social Academic Studying Solution
A web-based solution for connecting students who have similar courses and curriculums, aimed at enabling collaborative studying, as well as helping students manage deadlines and study hours.
Team: Evan Chiao, Kin Lee, Connor Gawlik, Mike Dennis
Mentor: Satbir Bedi

District One Sports: Simplifying High School Sports Statistics
A one-stop digital resource for reporting and viewing high school sports scores and statistics.
Team: Rob Higgins, Kate Morrison, Rhea Prabhu, Ben Shaffer
Mentor: Sondra Barbour

Airline Entertainment
A digital platform providing airline passengers with in-air and terminal entertainment and gaming options.
Team: Stephanie Cheng, Tyler Gaber, Kevin Santoni, Dario Trabucco
Mentor: Sunil Misra

Vulpine Analytics
An analytics tool to help provide employees with information and insights about the connection between their wellness and their productivity, helping them balance health habits with performance at work.
Team: Derek Gibbs, Eric Koeck, Erika Nixon, David Yastremsky
Mentor: Paul Amorello

VisRecs
A visual-recognition application that harnesses unstructured data hidden within images, videos. and gifs uploaded onto social media and/or the Internet, and helps structure it into meaningful ideas.
Team: Dominick Falco, Alex Korjeski, Alex Meyer, Louisa Carleton
Mentor: Niraj Patel

SpotaGuide
A platform that connects travelers with personalized, low-cost tour itineraries.
Team: Phil Tocci, Kevin Vong, Anthony Vu, Brian Wallace
Mentor: Bruce Fadem

Floating Bridges
An application that combines 3D mapping drones, bridge-assessment algorithms and augmented reality to give experts a cost-effective way to assess a bridge’s structural needs.
Team: Alexandra Iacovetti, Nicholas Rivera, Bridget Silk, Benjamin Sulaiman
Mentor: Joe Spagnoletti

Newsence
A system for aggregating multiple news sources and customizing them in a fashion that fits into each user’s lifestyle and preferences.
Team: William Agentowicz, Brandan Mackowsky, Eugene Tartaglione, Adama Traore
Mentor: Sukumar Narayanan

Gamer Connect
An application that allows gamers across all platforms (Xbox, Playstation and PC) to find one another and form teams based upon their respective skill levels.
Team: Andrew Fiss, Tyler Urquhart, Elijah Jamison, Kyle Domsohn
Mentor: Shariq Khan

DDesignate
A ride-sharing application in the vein of Uber/Lyft that helps users avoid driving while intoxicated, while providing a way for the user to get his or her car home safely.
Team: Rob Lesnik, Kyle Matusik, Jonathan Plugaru, Casid Sohou
Mentor: Andrew Porter

Esperanza Database Consolidation
A database-consolidation tool for merging and centralizing data from the non-profit Esperanza to allow for better and more streamlined marketing and communication efforts.
Team: Danielle Buerger, Kevin Hamilton, Leeya Ressom
Mentor: Jon Scott

BookLit
An application aimed at third-grade students within the School District of Philadelphia, focused on improving reading skills via online competition, incentives and reading comprehension quizzes. Teachers are able to track students’ improvements.
Team: Andi Agolli, Jeffrey Craskey, Mohit Patel, Urvesh Patel
Mentor: Andrea Anania

Course Search
A search function that allows Temple students to look for any class in the Temple database based on keywords/categories that pertain to class topics or subtopics.
Team: Quy Le, Kevin Diem, Darpan Patel, Michael Black
Mentor: Chris Cera

Alumnus, industry leader to steer ITACS graduate program

The Master of Science in IT AuditingKapish Vanvaria and Cyber-Security (MS-ITACS) program at Temple University’s Fox School of Business provides students with the latest practices in the field with the help of an advisory council composed of industry leaders.

The Fox School strengthened that mission with its recent appointment of Kapish Vanvaria, management consultant with Ernst & Young LLP, as the program’s advisory council chair. A Temple alumnus who studied Accounting and Management Information Systems at the Fox School, Vanvaria first established a commitment to the program when he became a member of the ITACS advisory council two years ago. In accepting the chair position, Vanvaria’s role will include leading the program’s strategic growth and curriculum development, and ensuring a strong student placement within the technology and cyber industry.

I’m passionate about education. It’s one of the few things in life that has no expiration or devaluation, and therefore is one of the best self-investments,” said Vanvaria. “With a strong agenda and vision, we can make ITACS a global program that will elevate the Fox School’s brand and allow others to see Temple as a talent factory for technology and cyber security resources for many of the leading organizations of the world.”

ITACS program director David Lanter, an Assistant Professor of Management Information Systems at the Fox School, sought an advisory council chair with significant industry background who would be able to draw from his or her personal networks and utilize corporate resources. Lanter found that in Vanvaria.

“Kapish has been an enthusiastic and valued contributor to the start of the ITACS program (in 2011) and a key player in the current successes,” said Lanter. “We are optimistic he will do as much and even more to help guide the future evolution and success of the program.”

In addition to ensuring that Fox School students have a seat at the table in the development of the program, Vanvaria said he hopes to reach out to different organizations for insight on what they are looking for in future employees.

I want to go to these companies and governmental organizations and ask, ‘Does our curriculum match what you’re looking for, and if not, what can we do?’” he said. “We already do that within the advisory council because we have good representation of startup through Fortune 50 companies, but I know we can do more. I’m looking forward to that.”

In light of all the excitement around his appointment, Vanvaria said he wants to make one thing clear: the success of the council boils down to collaboration. “In becoming the chair, this is not going to change our advisory council from the standpoint of it truly being a team sport,” he said. “The program’s success is dependent on all of us joining together to consistently elevate the brand. Two years from now, I want to look back and say, ‘We made a difference.’

Alumnus exceling in digital marketing industry

Lauren MorenoLauren Moreno’s undergraduate education spanned fine arts, journalism, and art history. In search of a graduate program that would enhance her sales and marketing career, Moreno chose Temple University’s Fox School of Business.

In February, Moreno earned a Master of Science degree in Digital Innovation in Marketing (DIM), as part of the online program’s first graduating class. “I wanted a graduate program that offered the business school background that I didn’t get from my undergraduate degree, while complimenting my work experience,” said the 31-year-old Moreno. “I decided the DIM program was what I was really passionate about and thought that should be where I’d put my energy.”

Moreno co-founded Team 624 Communications, a digital branding, social media, and content marketing firm for which she serves as creative director. The Digital Innovation in Marketing program, which can be completed in 16 months, enables students like Moreno to flourish in a collaborative environment that fosters an understanding of the digital marketing industry.

It’s always changing,” said Moreno. “As professionals, we need to keep learning and challenge the practices we’re using. If you’re not paying attention to where your engagement is coming from and what type of content is working, it won’t take long before marketing efforts are diminished.”

With the help of an advisory council comprised of digital innovators who are currently in the industry, students in the DIM program are offered a curriculum that coincides with what is part of the professional landscape.

The overall mission of our program is to create the next generation of digital marketers,” said Amy Lavin, director of the Digital Innovation in Marketing program. “In today’s digital economy, it’s not enough to just be a marketer. It’s not enough to just be technical on the marketing side. We give the students in our program the ability to understand both sides.”

The MS in Digital Innovation in Marketing is offered jointly by the Fox School’s Management Information Systems (MIS) and Marketing and Supply Chain Management departments. In January, the MIS department’s graduate programs earned a No. 16 ranking in the country from U.S. News & World Report — a feat that Lavin said validated what the program has to offer.

You can complete any kind of Google search right now, and you know this market is hot,” said Lavin. “In this program, we’ll give students the skills they need in order to be successful. As the marketplace opens up and people realize that they need this skill set, we’re going to continue to grow our MS in Digital Innovation in Marketing.”

Currently, Moreno remains focused on utilizing the tools she has taken from the program to grow Team 624, alongside her business partner, Kaitlin Cleary. “We want to meet our next goals by identifying potential revenue streams,” Moreno said. “We’re looking at offering trainings, workshops, online courses, and like we learned in the program, really using technology to our advantage to reach more people.”

Temple Learning Platform at Loyola University and KIPP Charter School

What if there was a tool that created an educational environment that didn’t just teach but engaged students so that learning was communal—an interactive social activity, not a static one-way street of facts and stats flowing from teacher to student?And suppose that same tool allowed high school kids to learn how to manage their digital lives and, as those kids became college students, gave them a chance to build their online professional presence.

That tool exists, and it was built by Fox School’s Management Information Systems department.  This year it was used not just by Fox MIS, but by college students at Loyola University Maryland and by high schoolers at KIPP DuBois Collegiate Academy, in Philadelphia.

The Temple Community Platform is a Web 2.0, cloud-hosted platform based on WordPress. It allows students to create profiles and maintain e-portfolios of their work.  Professors and administrators also have profiles, plus share assignments and course descriptions.  All users comment and share– some blog and post articles.

Plus, it’s gamified.  Students get points for their efforts.

Loyola UniversityAt the Loyola University Maryland’s Sellinger School of Business and Management, Professor and DeFrancis Scholar in Information Systems, Paul Tallon, read about MIS students using e-portfolios at a Fox career fair. Tallon was intrigued.  “It whetted my appetite because we talked about doing something like that,” he said.

Tallon reached out to do some fact gathering, and shortly thereafter found himself running a pilot program at Loyola, with the platform hosted and supported by Temple. The first semester the platform was up and running, Tallon made creating an e-portfolio a class requirement in one of his courses.  Twenty-eight students went step-by-step through the process of creating a deliberate digital identity. 

Tallon said, “I’m convinced this is the way to go.”  By using a platform that works the way Facebook and LinkedIn work, but is specifically for educational and professional purposes, students learn to post and interact in ways that are more polished than on social media sites.

By the end of the year, more than 60 Loyola business school students had created e-portfolios.  Tallon thinks that, moving forward, sophomores should be using the platform as part of their required Intro to Information Systems class. At that point they “should have a resume and be interested in internships.”

With the Temple and Loyola platforms, future employers can search the e-portfolios, looking for specific skill sets and experience and see the resumes and projects that have been posted.  This helps match students with the right internship—and, eventually, the right job.

KIPP PhiladelphiaThe second pilot program took place at KIPP DuBois Collegiate Academy, in Philadelphia (a public charter school in an historically underserved area of the city). Rachel Kyler, a teacher and the Director of College Placement, explained that at the high school level the community platform is closed to outsiders, due to a need for student privacy, but open to the school community.

But, like the business schools, one of the major goals of KIPP is to prepare kids for the working world. To be successful, they need to develop “soft skills (like) networking” and to work at internships, Sarah Gomez, Managing Director of KIPP Through College said.

The platform (note: link leads to password protected site) was rolled out to more than 100 11th graders as part of their Junior College Seminar.  The goal was to give the students a place put their resume, showcase their work and communicate with each other about their internships over the summer.

The feedback from the students is positive, Kyler said. “They’re excited about communicating and connecting—they can share what’s working at their internships.”

The platform helped streamline the internship process for the school staff, and will help with both accountability and helping kids overcome challenges during the summer.

Plus, “It’s good college prep because colleges are moving in this direction.”

The Temple Community Platform was conceived in 2008 for the Fox School’s Department of Management Information Systems and since inception has hosted 7300+ members, 5900+ sites, 1200+ e-portfolios, 17,000+ posts, 48,000+ comments, and 300+ courses. It is being used by Temple’s School of Tourism and the Fox School’s Department of Human Resource Management and talks are underway to expand use at Loyola University.

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