A panel of six members of the Triangle Technology Executives Council (TTEC) held a wide-ranging discussion with MSA students today focused on professional career development. Panelists include TTEC President and CEO John Crites, as well as members Tony Verdone, vice president of development and operations at MediClick; Sid Mitchener, partner at Vaco Raleigh LLC; Chuck Musciano, CIO of Martin Marietta Materials; and Craig Stone, CEO of HireNetworks. The discussion was moderated by TTEC member Susan Kellogg, CIO and associate dean of IT at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School. The Institute is grateful to the panelists for sharing their knowledge, and to TTEC’s Chuck Piccirillo, who organized the event. Read the rest of this entry »

MSA students have proven themselves as superb team players on the field as they are in the classroom. A team of MSA students have won the flag football championship in the graduate student, faculty and staff division for Fall of 2009.

The team balanced rigorous MSA studies with practice scrimmages and exhilarating flag football games throughout the Fall to arrive at the exciting championship game in November. The winning season culminated in a triumphant 38-21 victory in the championship game. (Pictured from left to right: Dan Bock, Geoff Lewis, Paul Christian, Steven Somers, Scott Burks, Kelly Andrus, Jesse Behrens, Jason Leone, and Marco Mascioli. Teammate Richie Couchon not pictured.)

Thanks to the many students, staff and faculty who participated in the Institute’s annual holiday food drive to benefit the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina. Student organizers this year included Deborah Nicholas, Marco Mascioli, Amy Drew and Charlie Board. The record setting donation totaled 339 pounds of food (up by 73%) and $545 (up by 40%). Using the Food Bank’s formula, the donation translates into 2601 meals. The students have set a high bar for next year’s MSA Class of 2011.

Farhad Islam (MSA candidate, Class of 2010) has been named a SAS Student Ambassador for 2010.  The SAS Student Ambassador Program is a competitive program that recognizes and supports students who use SAS technologies in innovative ways that benefit their respective industries and fields of study. Farhad is one of a small number of students selected for the honor from a global pool of candidates. He will present his award-winning paper entitled “SAS Analytics for Green Enegy Solution in Smart Electric Grid System” at the SAS Global Forum next April in Seattle. Farhad is the second MSA student in three years to be named a SAS Ambassador. Our previous winner was Petr Hústak (MSA Class of 2008).

The Institute is delighted to announce that Dr. Agus Sudjianto, senior vice president and head of Quantitative Risk at Bank of America will deliver our fifth Executive Guest Lecture of 2009 on November 30. Dr. Sudjianto’s talk is titled “Quantitative Risk Management at Bank of America.”

Bank of America is one of the world’s largest financial institutions, serving individual consumers, small and middle market businesses, as well as large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset management and capital market. Data-driven business analytics and quantitative models are ubiquitous in all these business activities. The ability to handle very large data sets and transform them into insightful and forward-looking information is crucial to provide the best service to customers/clients as well as to maximize shareholder values. Read the rest of this entry »

We are delighted to announce that Tim Gabel, vice president for Survey and Computing Sciences at RTI International will deliver our fourth Executive Guest Lecture of 2009 on November 13. Mr. Gabel’s talk, titled ”The Data-driven Decision Maker,” will examine the challenge facing business today in solving complex problems with a vast amount of data. The Institute gratefully acknowledges the generous support of SAS as sponsor of the guest lecture series.

As VP of Survey and Computing, Mr. Gabel has responsibility for RTI’s largest research unit with $160M in revenue and 435 permanent staff across four separate divisions: Survey Research Division, Research Computing Division, Education Studies Division, and Division for Research Services. He has work for RTI for the past decade and previously served as director of the Research Computing Division. Read the rest of this entry »

Dr. Michael Rappa will moderate a panel discussion on Analytics at the 2nd Annual Internet Summit to be held on November 4-5 at the Raleigh Convention Center. The Summit is a showcase for forward thinking and thought leadership on topics related to the Internet economy and Web-oriented technologies such as social media, real-time, cloud, online advertising, search, blogs, mobile, e-commerce, usability, video, design and other best practices. Read the rest of this entry »

The Institute welcomes once again noted entrepreneur Atul Jain for a special guest lecture. Mr. Jain’s talk, entitled “The Road to Success,” will focus on his experience over two decades starting-up companies on both coasts. The talk will be held on Friday, October 23 from 2:00-5:00 PM in Engineering Building I, Room 1005 on NC State University’s Centennial Campus (space is limited; please RSVP at 513-1613).

Mr. Jain founded TEOCO (The Employee Owned Company) in 1994 with a dream of building a successful business model, not just a successful business. His goal was to build a company that did not compromise its values.  TEOCO’s corporate culture is its biggest asset.  Mr. Jain has created numerous mechanisms for employee-owners of TEOCO to participate in the decision-making process, encouraging and coaching them to act as owners along the way. Read the rest of this entry »

The Analytics Practicum is a core component of the MSA curriculum that gives students an opportunity to work in teams on challenging projects with real-world data sponsored by industry. The Institute is pleased to announce our project sponsors for 2009-10 include:

• Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina — is a leader in delivering innovative health care products, services and information to more than 3.7 million members.
• CA — is a $4 billion provider of enterprise IT management based in Islandia, New York.
• Constellation Energy — is a $20 billion supplier of energy products and services to electric and natural gas customers and headquartered in Baltimore.
• Deluxe Corporation — based in Minnesota, Deluxe is a $1.5 billion financial products and services company that serves 4 million small businesses and financial institutions.
• Hallmark Cards — a privately held greetings card company based in Kansas City, Missouri, with revenues of $4.4 billion and 16,000 employees worldwide.
• IBM Corporation — the global leader in computer systems and services with $98.8 billion in revenue and 386,000 employees worldwide.
• Lulu Enterprises — an entrepreneurial Raleigh-based company that enables authors to publish works and connect with readers.
• Railinc — is the largest source of real-time railroad data, headquartered in Cary, NC, and a wholly owned, for-profit subsidiary of the Association of American Railroads.

The practicum runs throughout the fall and spring semesters and serves as an integrative experience for the entire MSA curriculum. The practicum includes specialized instructional elements to develop teamwork, project management, data cleaning and handling, communication, and presentation skills. The practicum culminates each year in April with a written report and presentations to the sponsors.

The Organizing Committee of the Nineteenth International World Wide Web Conference (WWW2010) welcomes the participation of researchers from around the world to submit original and pioneering research related to the Web for presentation and discussion next April in Raleigh, North Carolina. Read the rest of this entry »