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Fox IT awards 2016

Fox IT awards 2016

513 attendees are expected at 16th annual Fox IT awards on Tuesday April 16, 2016, beating the 2015 record of 435. The awards will recognize Linda Dillman, CIO, QVC, Robert Moore, Co-founder, RJMetrics, and Rich Brennen, Partner, Spencer Stuart. In addition, the most accomplished members of the 1000+ MIS community of 900+ students, 22 full-time faculty and administrators, 33 adjuncts, 14 Fox IT advisory board, 13 ITACS and 15 DIM advisory council members will be honored:

  • Student Leadership Award: Ciara Murphy
  • Professional and Academic Achievement Award (Senior): Artemid Leskaj, Julia Knable
  • Professional and Academic Achievement Award (Junior): Samantha Talarico, David Yastremsky
  • Professional and Academic Achievement Award (Sophomore): Matt Oberst, Ari Abramson
  • Professional and Academic Achievement Award (Freshman): Drew Holt, Kellen O’Connor
  • AIS Outstanding Officer: Rhea Prabhu
  • AIS Outstanding Member: Bridget Silk
  • Faculty Teaching Award (full-time): David Schuff
  • Faculty Teaching Award (part-time): Wade Mackey
  • MIS Researcher of the Year: Brad Greenwood
  • Faculty Leadership Award: Jeremy Shafer
  • Administrative Leadership Award: Jackie Van Orden

Click here to learn how the awardees are selected. The following scholarships are to be awarded:

  • Niraj And Cara Patel Scholarship: Jacquelyn Kausch
  • IBIT Alexion Scholarship: Ian Usher
  • IBIT AmerisourceBergen Scholarship: Nicole Bilder
  • IBIT Campbell Soup Company Scholarship: Zoe Weiner
  • IBIT Emtec Scholarship: Prince Patel
  • IBIT LiquidHub Scholarship: Ngoc -Tran Tran
  • IBIT Lockheed Martin Scholarship: Kyle Haberman
  • IBIT Merck Scholarship: Ngoc Pham
  • IBIT NBCUniversal Scholarship: Matthew Funk
  • IBIT Pfizer Scholarship: Gabrielle Finley
  • IBIT QVC Scholarship: Kasey Brown
  • IBIT Walmart Scholarship: Emily Jaques
  • Fox IT Advisory Board Scholarship: Quyt to Thi Van

The $100,000 James and Andrea Stewart scholarship will be announced. Endowed by Andrea Stewart, retired CIO, Cigna, and 2003 Fox IT award leader, and member of the Fox IT advisory board. Alexion, AmerisourceBergen, Emtec, and Pfizer will be welcomed as new IBIT members.

Murphy garners 2016 MIS Student Leadership Award

ciara murphyCiara Murphy doesn’t give up easily — especially when it comes to helping others.

As she wound her way through five different majors — education, then special education, journalism, photojournalism, and marketing — finally landing in MIS, she knew she wanted that perfect fit that combined her desire to help people with an intellectually stimulating career.

It’s this stick-to-itveness, and the success that has followed, that helped garner Murphy, the vice president of operations for Association for Information Systems, the 2016 MIS Student Leadership Award.

“It’s an extremely competitive group of students this year due to the quality of the candidates,” said Jeremy Shafer, assistant professor of Management Information Systems. “However, Ciara is well deserving of the award, since she has demonstrated a willingness to take on challenging tasks, such as Hootathon and other successful fundraising efforts.”

In fact, Murphy’s determination shone throughout her efforts for Hootathon, a fundraising event for the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, as she led her team in a series of diverse fundraising efforts, such as canning at football games and running a kickball tournament. Ultimately, her team raised the most funds of any group at Temple University, to the tune of more than $7,600.

What drives Murphy through all of this is a desire to give back and help others, since she sees herself as the beneficiary of that type of generosity growing up in Boston, Mass.

“I was practically raised in the Boys and Girls Club, from my school work to my swim team,” Murphy said. “It has always been really important to me to give back to people, because they’ve given to me.”

This pay-it-forward commitment is reflected not only in her role as a TA for the introductory course for MIS majors, where she guides many students through the intellectual and emotional challenges of navigating their way to a major, but also in her role with AIS, where she coordinated fundraising events, such as the aforementioned Hootathon, and social events for the group.

Murphy sees the social events for AIS as more than just a time to have fun and bond; in her mind, these events are helping her fellow MIS students gain important soft skills, such as empathy and networking, that are crucial for future success.

“I think it’s important to create that sense of community within an organization,” said Murphy, noting that the organization’s members typically only meet twice a week to hear invited speakers. “Ten years down the road, we are going to be in positions all over the country, and these social events will catalyze our future network. I think that’s invaluable for your future in this field.”

Murphy, who had an internship at JP Morgan and Chase, plans to continue to focus on ways she can help others with her job at Cigna, where she will help develop ways to use technology to incentivize people to improve their health.

“I really enjoy being able to understand and engage in meaningful ways with both IT and the business side of things,” said Murphy, who feels the MIS program equipped her with the determination and skill set to solve problems creatively and act as an effective liaison. “I guess that’s really just a theme for me.”

The MIS program has left her feeling well prepared for the next step of her journey, as an endpoint asset management analyst for Cigna’s Technology Early Career Development Program, and she even feels she has the foundation to reach for her ultimate goal: CIO.

“Everyone who graduates has big dreams, and I’m just going to keep at it and do my best, and hopefully, I will be granted the opportunity to take on leadership activities in the corporate world” she said. “This program has helped make me feel like that’s a feasible goal, preparing me in ways I didn’t even know were possible — and I’m just very grateful.” 

Read more about Murphy’s future plans here.

Writer: Elizabeth Hillaker Downs

GenEd Data Science Course Scores National Award

David SchuffDavid Schuff’s Data Science course has not only helped students pinpoint prime scoring positions for the Owls basketball team and identify Al Qaeda’s recruitment hot spots, it has also recently garnered national attention at the 4th Annual Business Intelligence Congress. At the conference, Schuff won the Teradata University Network Innovation in Teaching Award for his paper outlining the course, “Data Science for All: A University-Wide Course in Data Literacy,” in recognition for its innovative course design and unique place in Temple’s general education curriculum.

“This award validates the idea that analytics should be taught to a very broad audience,” said Schuff, Ph.D., professor of Management Information Systems.

Offering Data Science as a gen ed is ahead of the curve, Schuff added, as many universities are only beginning to launch graduate programs in data analytics and have no undergraduate courses.

The course equips students to harness the power of big data and to present data-driven arguments in a compelling manner, through a combination of theory and hands-on learning activities, including lessons on widely available software, such as Tableau and Excel. By the end of the course, students should be comfortable working with and presenting data as well as evaluating its trustworthiness.

Data Science Example“We are basically surrounded by data and our lives are infused by it,” Schuff said. “This course can make you more savvy about the way you navigate the world.”

For Alexander Monsell ’15, a recent graduate of Temple’s theater program, the course helped him to articulate arguments with more certainty.

“It’s…helpful in an industry where so much is based on feeling and emotional response to be able to back things up with hard numbers,” Monsell said. “‘The audience seemed to like the piece’ just isn’t as powerful as ‘90 percent of showings had standing ovations.’”

The course has grown in popularity over the years, with 240 students enrolled in spring 2016 compared to 30 students when the course launched in fall 2015.

After enrolling, Charlotte Myer, a Sophomore majoring in Political Science, saw how data science could apply to her undergraduate research.

“It’s an excellent primer for any kind of data-driven field,” she said. “It helps make the quantifiable more understandable.”

Learn more at: http://community.mis.temple.edu/datascience/

– Elizabeth Hillaker Downs

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AIS earns HootaThon “Top Student Organization” Recognition

AIS Hootathon 2015

In their first year of participation, Temple AIS was named “Top Student Organization” for their fundraising efforts during HootaThon, Temple’s Miracle Network Dance Marathon held on November 7th, 2015. The AIS team of 65 members raised over $7,600 for the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. This accounted for the 4th largest fundraising effort out of 110 teams and the largest amount among Temple student organizations. 

In addition to personal fundraising, AIS implemented a HootaThon committee to plan fundraising events throughout the month of October. These events included two canning trips at the Temple homecoming and Halloween football games. The committee also worked with the Temple American Marketing Association to hold a kickball and bake sale fundraiser. 

The HootaThon fundraising effort is part of an organizational-wide focus on community service for this school year. Starting this fall, AIS members are required to participate in at least one community service event to earn active membership for the semester. Other fall community service efforts included volunteering at nearby Duckrey Elementary School and sponsoring a “Black Tie” event held to benefit Temple’s Operation Smile Chapter. 

In only its third year, HootaThon raised a total of $280,620.76 to support the Child Life Department at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Those interested in learning more can visit hootathon.org. 

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Professional Achievement V3

Professional Achievement V3Professional achievement is professional development, career knowledge, leadership, networking, and readiness for the workplace. Professional achievement is different from academic achievement, both are important. Employers expect that new hires will have the skills and knowledge to perform their job and the savvy, communication skills, and relevant experiences to hit the ground running.

A high level of professional achievement shows employers that you can apply learning to practice, and that you can work with your peers and accomplish goals. Academic achievement is measured by GPA, professional achievement is measured by professional achievement points.

We have improved the program in fall 2015 as follows:

Points and eportfolio

  • Revised Professional Achievement Point earning model includes new point earning categories and revised point allocations (some allocations went up and some went down).
  • Professional achievement and reward points for certain activities are automatically awarded by the department (e.g., attendance at department events.).
  • Submit requests for activities such as internships by adding a new point request (post) to your e-portfolio. Once awarded, points are automatically displayed on the e-portfolio.
  • The Professional Achievement Widget will now automatically display Professional Achievement Points and badges on student eportfolios.
  • On November 18, all eportfolios will be automatically upgraded to the latest theme which integrates the Professional Achievement Widget. If you are using the latest theme, the change is seamless. Unexpected results may occur if you don’t have “FOXMISeportfolio_V6.” We recommend switching manually now. See: http://community.mis.temple.edu/eportfolios/samples-and-resources/
  • Review and check on points on the Community Dashboard.

Professional and Academic Achievement Recognition and Rewards

  • Earn one ‘Reward Point’ for use in the MIS Store for each earned Professional Achievement Point. Reward points get deducted when they are used – professional achievement points never get deducted. The ‘prices’ in the store are now lower and the minimum is gone so you can get your favorite store item now!
  • Top professional achievement points and academic GPA leaders will earn a Professional and Academic Achievement Award Certificate and $250 Cash award twice a year. The criteria is:
    • Minimum GPA of 3.50
    • The highest total based on cumulative GPA + Professional Achievement Points
  • Top achievers receive new academic and industry engagement opportunities.
  • AIS will receive a cash award each term based on the number of points earned by AIS members. This means that AIS members get to double dip, earn points for yourself and earn points for your organization!

All of the above changes are live, learn more at: http://community.mis.temple.edu/current-students/professionalachievement/

Temple AIS receives 2014-2015 Distinguished Student Chapter award

Philadelphia, PA October 25, 2015 – The Association for Information Systems (AIS) is pleased to recognize Temple University’s student chapter with the Distinguished Chapter Award, one of the association’s annual awards honoring the accomplishments of the best AIS student chapters worldwide. The awards are presented during a ceremony at the International Conference of Information Systems (ICIS), in Ft. Worth, Texas, on Dec. 14, 2015.

The Distinguished Chapter Award recognizes chapters that have excelled in most of the areas of emphasis: professional development, membership, careers in IS, community service, fundraising, and communications.

“AIS takes immense pride in recognizing the distinguished scholars who make up our community, and ultimately, contribute to the success of the field,” said AIS Vice President of Student Chapters James Parrish. “As such, I wanted to take this opportunity to congratulate Temple University’s student chapter as well as the student leaders involved.”

AIS Student Chapters began in 2008 with a two-fold mission to support information systems students in attaining their career goals and help universities provide greater visibility to grow the major on campus.  The annual awards recognize the ‘best of the best’ from the nearly 70 chapters worldwide.

Learn more about Temple AIS at http://templeais.org/

Association for Information Systems

The Association for Information Systems, founded in 1994, is a professional organization with the purpose to serve as the premier global organization for academics, students and professionals specializing in Information Systems. For more information about AIS or to become a member, please visit www.aisnet.org.

Four new faculty join the MIS department

The Fox School’s Department of Management Information Systems is pleased to welcome four new full-time faculty members in fall 2015.

Detmar Straub  Detmar Straub is Professor and IBIT Distinguished Visiting Professor of MIS. He recently retired from Georgia State University after 23 years. He is a hiker on trails all over America and turns wood for a hobby. 
 Laurel Miller Laurel Miller, Assistant Professor, received her MS in Education from the Temple University. She also is the Director of the Institute for Business and Information Technology and manages the corporate membership program.
 Jing Gong Jing Gong, Assistant Professor, will soon to receive her doctorate at Carnegie Mellon University. She enjoys studying consumer and firm behavior in technology-mediated markets. Jing likes to cook and go hiking, and is always eager to learn new technologies and methods.
 Amy Lavin Amy Lavin, Assistant Professor, received her MBA from the Fox School of Business, Temple University, where she was most recently responsible for the implementation of Salesforce as the Technical Training Manager. Aside from teaching, her other passions include spending time with family, cooking and reading.

 

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.

Peter Hwang steps up and wins

Peter HwangIt came as a complete surprise to Peter Hwang to learn that he’d won the 2015 Student Leadership Award given by Fox School‘s Management Information Systems Department and Institute for Business and Information Technology.

But win he did, and he, along with several other honorees, received his award at the 15th annual Information Technology Awards event on April 14, 2015.

Hwang is a Junior, majoring in Management Information Systems. The award is given annually to a full time undergraduate, or part or full time graduate student, who’s made a significant contribution to the students and extended community of the MIS department.

It’s unusual for such a young student to get the award, but Hwang has been stepping up as a leader since his sophomore year when he first joined Temple AIS (the founding student chapter of the Association of Information Systems.)

The organization offers students a chance to hone a variety of skills directly and indirectly related to MIS, through workshops, resume critiques and forums with speakers.  It also gives students a chance to promote their current field of study, MIS.

“I tried to be active as possible. I would go to all the events and participate in their mentorship program.” Hwang says about his sophomore year with AIS.

“I applied to be the Director of IT my junior year. After the first semester, the VP of Operations stepped down. I was offered the position and gladly accepted.”  Hwang says he had a strong desire to help out. By taking on the dual role, Hwang was effectively doing twice the standard level of volunteer work, which was seen by fellow students as well as faculty as much more than “helping out.”

Plus, he did it with a positive attitude.

Since arriving at Temple, a choice he made because it was close to home and he was interested in business, Hwang says he’s transformed.  In high school, he was not as involved in academics. Now, he is “able to give back, to give workshops.”

One thing that hasn’t changed during his college career– his love of tennis.  Hwang was the captain of his tennis team at Marple Newtown High School, and continues to play club tennis.  It is, he says, for balance in his life. “It’s important to be physically active.”

Other people honored for making a significant contribution to the students and extended community of the MIS department include:

  • Faculty Leadership Award – James Moustafellos
  • Administrative Leadership Award – Debbie Riley
  • Administrative Achievement Award – Jillian Reilly
  • Faculty Teaching Award (full-time) – David Schuff
  • Faculty Teaching Award (part-time) – Amy Lavin
  • MIS Researcher of the Year – Paul Pavlou
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