ITM Adjunct Industry Professor Bill Slater realized some of the students in his ITM 576 Data Center Management class were struggling with the complexity of writing their first graduate research paper, so he offered to hold extra Saturday-morning tutorials on writing research papers. Bill followed up the first session by treating the students to lunch in celebration of the 5th anniversary of earning his Project Management Professional certification.

IIT’s Beta Chapter of Gamma Nu Eta, the National Information Technology Honor Society, inducted fifteen new members on Friday, October 21st. Membership is open to both undergraduate and graduate students who are invited to pledge based on their academic record and commitment to their studies and the profession.

New members inducted include Mervyn Anthony, Mohamed Bouraze, Shivakumar Dorai, Maya Embar, Terence Fernandes, Stephen E. Felix, Joshua Hensley, Isioma Ijeh, Terrance Komperda, Ganesh Magal, Kostantinos Sekalias, Erfan Setork, Jason Shy, Michal Siuty, and William Wesselman. See the Gamma Nu Eta Beta Chapter website for more details.

Spring 2012 advising notes for ITM undergraduates are now available at http://trygstad.rice.iit.edu/Spring2012ITMUndergraduateAdvisingNotes.pdf

The IIT Spring 2012 schedule will be viewable online on Monday, October 24, 2011.

Robert Half Technology has put out their 2012 Salary Guide; this a great source to see the state of the industry and what folks are getting paid. Remember though, these are average starting salaries so half the offers you get might be lower; also note that there are adjustments for location. It also has a very complete glossary of job descriptions for a broad range of IT jobs. Robert Half is a leading provider of IT professionals on a project and full-time basis, and has been a consistent sponsor of conferences here at the School of Applied Technology. Download their guide at .

I get asked this question a lot. In fact, since this will be read by a lot of students and faculty, I will share some advice I gave someone about three weeks ago. This person, who actually has an M.S. in Information Technology, was proposing that IT certifications alone would suffice to help a person get the IT job of their dreams.

I am with one of the world’s best companies at the moment, and I am very happy with my job and the people I work with, so I am planning on staying here as long as possible.

But I laugh at the people that think they can move ahead in the IT field without a degree or multiple degrees in this field. They do not realize that despite what they sincerely believe about saving money and getting a few certifications, and skipping the formal education, they are doing themselves considerable career harm in the long run, because they cannot get back the years they wasted believing that poppycock. And actually, it’s good because it helps decrease the competition for guys like you and me. Also, they don’t realize that despite what they believe about being successful without formal education, they have peers and people younger than them who will get a clue and realize what it takes to succeed, and set their course and do it. Read more…

So anyone want to guess at how many different programming languages exist? And have been used at least a couple of times? I discovered the following interesting URL: http://rosettacode.org/wiki/Category:Programming_Tasks. Basically it lists a large number (>100) of different programming tasks and algorithms . You pick your algorithm, then they show you contributions coded in different programming languages. Granted there are occasionally holes in the matrix, yet it is amazing how much programming languages are similar and yet different.

Alternately you can go to the language tab on the left and look at all the algorithms contributed in that language.

Hopefully you find it useful.  —John Emrich

Marc Andreesen, creator of Netscape, discusses in the Wall Street Journal why he believes that the business giants of the future will be whoever has the best software; it’s well worth a read… Marc Andreessen on Why Software Is Eating the World – WSJ.com.

Summer 2012 will see the following courses offered by by the Information Technology and Management degree programs at IIT:

The specific summer sessions during which each course will be offered have not been determined, and we expect that there will be additional courses offered.

Recent graduates of IIT’s Master of Information Technology and Management degree have created a raft of start-ups:

• Shuttlecloud – Eduardo Fernandez, Founder
• Tourist Eye – Javier Fernãndez Escribano, Founder
• Netgamix – Ramon Recuero Moreno, Founder and CEO
       Raul San Narciso, Cofounder and COO
       Eduardo Gibaja, Cofounder and Chief of Communication
       Javier Anaya Martinez, Cofounder
• Urki.me – Victor Sanchez Belmar, Cofounder and CEO
       Ramon Recuero Moreno, Cofounder
       Raul San Narciso, Cofounder