News

CIS Students Win in Freddie Mac "Battle of the Builds"

Battle of the BuildsCongratulations to the Fall 2009 Battle of the Builds Competition winners. 1st place: Team Bridgeforth Taylor Callsen(CIS) Andrew Kelly (ECON & Finance) Daniel Lacasse (CIS) Zachary Schultz (CIS & Management) Ryan Brady (CIS & Finance) 2nd Place: Team: Can't Break This! Tyler Martin (CIS) Isha Arora (CIS) Justin Carter (CIS) Brandon Bundoc (CIS) Carrie Mulford (CIS) Brittany Hafner (Marketing). On September 23, Freddie Mac presented the fourth annual Battle of the Builds competition. The competition is part of an initiative by Freddie Mac to build stronger relations with the JMU community. By working in teams to create the LEGO structures, students develop their team-building and critical thinking skills. In addition, the competition gives students the chance to network with alumni and Freddie Mac professionals.

Busing, Pal and Reif Receive COB Faculty Awards

On August 21, 2009, Robert Reid, Dean of the JMU College of Business, recognized three members of the Department of CIS & MS with outstanding achievement awards. Dr. Raktim Pal received the 2009 COB Publication Award for Best Practitioner Publication for his paper “Role of Pilot Study in Assessing Viability of New Technology Projects: The Case of RFID in Parking Operations” published in the Communications of the Association for Information Systems (CAIS) in 2008 (with Sengupta, A., and Bose, I.).  Dr. Raktim Pal and Dr. Michael Busing received the 2009 COB Publication Award for Best Educational Publication for their paper “Teaching Operations Management in an Integrated Format: Student Perception and Faculty Experience” published in International Journal of Production Economics (IJPE) in 2008.  Dr. Harry Reif received the 2009 Kenneth R. Bartee Award for Teaching Innovation. Dr. Reif worked with a senior leadership team from ManTech International Corp. to introduce a new type of student-based research project within CIS/CS 320 (Computing and Telecommunications Networks). CIS students successfully presented their results to an executive team from ManTech in the following technical areas:(1) Media Exploitation, (2) A-Space, (3) RFID, (4) Second Life, (5) Force Protection, and (6) IPv6 technologies.

CIS Awards Executive Advisory Board Scholarships

James Madison University’s (JMU) Department of Computer Information Systems & Management Science (CIS & MS) awarded CIS & MS Executive Advisory Board Scholarships to two graduating high school seniors who will enroll at JMU in fall 2009. Rachel Hatanaka of Acton, MA and Jessica Romanelli of Downingtown, Pa were each awarded the CIS Executive Advisory Board Scholarship. The $1,500 award goes to incoming first year students who display academic achievement, leadership and a commitment towards pursuing a career related to business and computing. These scholarships are competitive and merit-based. Members of the CIS & MS Executive Advisory Board are business and government IT leaders whom provide counsel to the CIS & MS faculty on a wide range of issues.

Mitri wins SVTC Innovative Technology Award

Mitri AwardCIS professor Dr. Mike Mitri won the Innovative Technology Award at the 2009 Shenandoah Valley Technology Council's Tech Nite awards banquet on April 16, 2009. The award was granted for Mitri's development of LFSentinel ©, a business intelligence (BI) tool that helps developers, testers, and coordinators understand, analyze, and test IBM mainframe legacy-based systems. LFSentinel is a web application that applies artificial intelligence techniques, including heuristic-driven search algorithms to provide profiling and data flow analysis, and produces a number of views including graphical trees, flowcharts, and statistical summaries, thereby producing real-time documentation of large and complex mainframe systems. Mitri developed this software with his colleague Abie Tannir of Legacy Forward, Inc. More details of this tool can be seen at http://legacyforward.com.

JMU CIS Program - Top 10 in the Nation!

techrepublic logoTechRepublic, an online trade publication and social community for IT professionals owned by CBS Interactive, selected James Madison University's undergraduate Computer Information Systems program as one of the Top Ten Undergraduate Information Technology programs in the United States. The criteria used by TechRepublic included curriculum, cost value analysis, student/faculty ratio, percentage of faculty with Ph.D., placement, internships, computer labs and overall strength of program.

Other schools in the top 10 include: Brigham Young University, Carnegie Mellon, MIT, Penn State University, Temple, University of Arizona, University of Illinois, University of Maryland and Virginia Tech.  Click here for the full TechRepublic report.

CyberCity Wins the ABET President's Award for Diversity

CyberCity logoThe CyberCity Technology Summer Program at James Madison University was awarded the 2008 ABET President's Award for Diversity.  CyberCity, developed by CIS faculty members Dr. Tom Dillon and Dr. Harry Reif together with Business Law faculty member Dr. Daphyne Thomas, was presented the award  for "the development and operation of a successful hands-on, project-based university campus summer program for underrepresented high school students and their teachers that increases awareness of information technology skills and careers and enhances the students' aspirations for a college education." The ABET President’s Award for Diversity is presented to recognize U.S.-based educational units, individuals, associations, and firms for extraordinary success in achieving diversity and inclusiveness or for facilitating diversity and inclusiveness in the technological segments of our society.

Tignor Named Top Infosec Executive 

TignorChris Tignor ('92, computer information systems) received the ISE Executive of the Year Award in the Commercial category. Tignor is vice president and chief information security officer at Capital One. According to a press release published by Executive Alliance, Tignor was selected for his integrated, but separate approach to security and compliance, his technical and people skills, and business savvy in communicating the risks and returns of his work to senior management.

"My interest in information security started in my junior year at JMU in the CIS Information Security course. The broad business knowledge I acquired with my College of Business core courses allowed me to bridge the "great divide" that often exists between information technology and non-information technology areas," Tignor said.  Chris is connected to JMU's College of Business as a member of the Computer Information Systems & Management Science Executive Advisory Board.

Exceptional Careers in Computer Information Systems!

Computer Information Systems is one of the top majors on the James Madison University campus in terms of career potential, job placement and average starting salary. In Spring 2009, starting salaries for CIS graduates averaged $60,000. CIS jobs are among the most lucrative degrees for college grads. A CIS degree often leads to a wide variety of exciting career opportunities. A recent study presented by CIO Insight suggests that the IT profession has consisently outperformed the overall job market and is largely recession proof. In Spring 2008 over twenty-six different firms were on-campus recruiting students majoring in CIS at James Madison University.

JMU CIS Program Highlighted by Sloan Institute

James Madison University's CIS program was featured as one of 21 ABET accredited Information Systems programs in an "Information Systems Overview" from the Sloan Career Cornerstone Center. As part of the resource center, resources have been created to promote a Career in Information Systems.