Author: Michael Rappa

Diplomas were awarded to thirty-nine candidates for the MSA degree at the spring commencement exercise today. Students celebrated their achievement with two hundred family and friends at the Institute’s ceremony held at the Raleigh Convention Center. The Class of 2010 is the third cohort of students to graduate from the MSA program since its establishment in 2007. The MSA alumni society now stands at 97 members strong and growing.

The Institute’s director, Dr. Michael Rappa, and his colleague Paul Jones of UNC-Chapel Hill, chaired the 19th International World Wide Web Conference at the beautiful Raleigh Convention Center. The conference brought together 1,000 researchers from around the world to discuss the challenges facing the Web community and the latest research on the technologies that make it possible. The week-long conference included 200 technical papers and posters as well as numerous keynotes, panel discussions, workshops, tutorials, demos, and other elements to the program. Local arrangements for the conference were coordinated by Kathy Green, who managed the three-year project from beginning to end to a successful completion under budget. The conference received universal praise from attendees as a resounding success.

Charlie Chase, author of Demand-Driven Forecasting, gave a hands-on workshop to students in the Master of Science in Analytics today. Chase is Business Enablement Manager for Manufacturing and Supply Chain Global Practice at SAS. He is the principal architect and strategist for delivering demand planning and forecasting solutions to improve supply chain efficiencies for SAS customers. He has more than twenty-six years of experience in the consumer packaged goods industry and is an expert in sales forecasting, market response modeling, econometrics, and supply chain management.

For the third straight year employer demand for MSA graduates remains strong despite the global economic recession. Job placement for the Class of 2010, which began in mid-January, is off to a record-setting pace. The number of companies scheduling campus interviews has already exceeded the number in prior years. Before the semester ends in April, the Institute will have arranged interviews with as many as twenty-five companies for the cohort of 39 students. The average number of interviews per student also will reach a new high. Half of the companies scheduled to interview visited in 2008 or 2009, as well, and about half are located outside of North Carolina. Several employers are seeking to hire more than one student.

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. Continue reading “Students Gain Career Insights” →

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.