Dr. Darrell Burrell recently spoke with students at Illinois Tech on how to navigate and apply using USAJobs, the United States Government’s website for listing civil service job opportunities with federal agencies. Other highlights were navigating the Presidential Management Fellow (PMF) program. Dr. Burrell is the Director, Fort Lee Education Center and Associate Professor of Business, Bisk College of Business at Florida Institute of Technology. You can view Dr. Burrell’s discussion at https://youtu.be/kc4VuwtY-O8.
I’ve shared some wisdom I try to impart to Information Technology and Management students here at Illinois Tech in an article on LinkedIn: Communicating Technology to a Non-Technical Audience.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/communicating-technology-non-technical-audience-ray-trygstad
Illinois Tech ACM-W members at the Anita Borg Conference.
The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is the oldest and broadest professional society for those of us in the computing professions. We just concluded the Annual Conference of the ACM Special Interest Group for Information Technology Education (ACM SIGITE 2020) where ITM faculty and students presented nine papers and posters. Participation in ACM “offers critical benefits that empower computing students who are committed to self-improvement and success in their chosen fields” as well as opportunities to network, learn, and grow. For a limited time, ACM is offering FREE one-year student memberships! (Student membership is usually $19.) Benefits of membership include:
- Communications of the ACM – the trusted source for computing professionals, features emerging technologies, IT trends, news, opinion, research and practical applications
- XRDS – published by and for students – featuring research highlights, opinions, upcoming events, and grant/funding opportunities
- Custom collection of online books, videos and courses by SkillSoft covering the most in-demand skills, software, and technologies for computing professionals
- ACM TechTalks – webinars featuring the most sought-after speakers on today’s hottest computing topics
- ACM ByteCast – podcast conversations with researchers, practitioners, and innovators who are at the intersection of computing research and practice
- And many more
So do it! Join today at https://www.acm.org/studentjoin. It’s free for a year. And while you’re at it, interact with your fellow Illinois Tech ACM members through one of our ACM student chapters: Illinois Tech ACM and Illinois Tech Association for Computing Machinery-Women (ACM-W). For more information on ACM student membership, see their brochure at https://itm.iit.edu/data/ACM-brochure-student.pdf.
What job will studies in information technology and/or cybersecurity equip you for? The Department of Information Technology and Management has posted a fairly comprehensive list of possible job titles for graduates of degrees from our department. It’s also available in PDF form. We hope to link brief pop-up job descriptions to each of these job titles, and if any students would like to help with that we would welcome their assistance. Some of those are already enabled. (Contact Professor Trygstad, trygstad@iit.edu if you want to help.) https://www.itm.iit.edu/data/itjobroles.html.
The Illinois Technology Association (ITA) Talent Portal has great opportunities posted by ITA members – new positions added weekly! Discover your next big opportunity in Chicago. This an be your guide to bold Chicago tech careers. Click the graphic above or for full details go to https://itatalentportal.com/.
The U.S. Department of Defense is offering Cyber Scholarships to U.S. citizens who will be Juniors, Seniors, or graduate students in the fall of 2019 This is a one-year scholarship covering full books, tuition, and a $25,000 stipend for undergraduates or a $30,000 stipend for graduate students. The scholarships are renewable but require a new application each year. After graduation, scholarship recipients will work one year of federal service in a cyber security or digital forensics role for each year of scholarship support, or four years of military service. Applicants must be eligible for a security clearance. Applicants are not limited to students in the Department of Information Technology and Management but may also be students in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Business, but because of the nature of the application, knowledge of and a clear understanding of cyber security is a necessity. Please read the scholarship details document carefully and completely before filling out the application. A printed and signed physical application must be delivered to the ITM Department office, Perlstein Hall suite 223 no later than 8:30am Monday February 18th so we can evaluate and include your scholarship in our funding request, which is due February 28th. The application and full details of the scholarship are included below.
Contact Professor Ray Trygstad for questions: trygstad@iit.edu. Please include “DOD Cyber Scholarship” as the first thing in the subject line of your email.
Student Membership in the Association of Information Technology Professionals (AITP) is now free since their merger with CompTIA. Among the significant benefits provided to student members is 33% to 60% savings on CompTIA exam vouchers & training products, but there are many more including great networking opportunities. Chicago has one of the largest AITP Chapters in the country and is very active. This costs NOTHING and every ITM student should sign up for their free student membership at https://www.aitp.org/join-now/Register/Student/ and then sign onto the Chicago Chapter email list at https://aitpchicago.com/membership/join-aitp-mailing-list-only/.
A major concern in our industry over the last few years has been the declining number of women in the computing fields. IT is not like other industries where there is a “glass ceiling”, a level above which women cannot rise: there are numerous examples of women CIOs in Chicago alone, including the former CIO of Boeing Corporation Kim Hammonds, now Global Chief Operating Officer of Deutsche Bank AG. And of course there’s Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, and Megan Smith, CTO of the United States. But we understand that it is difficult being female in a male-majority industry. Our department is strongly committed to doing everything we can to reduce this gender imbalance and to ensure that every student in our program is successful. Because this is a serious concern, I wanted to take an opportunity to share some resources to support women in IT. And guys: you should at least read the articles so you can begin to understand why this is an issue. Read more…
Fifty for the Future honoree Zeina Abdul Samad
Congratulations to three IIT students who have been selected to receive the 2013 Fifty For The Future® award from the Illinois Technology Foundation, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the development of the technology talent pipeline in the State of Illinois.
First-year ITM undergraduate, Eric Tendian, was nominated by ITM Adjunct Industry Professor, Bill Slater. ITM undergraduate Zeina Abdul Samad was nominated by ITM Industry Professor Ray Trygstad. The third IIT recipient is a Computer Science graduate student, Scott Krieder.
Each student, as well as the faculty member who nominated him/her will receive a $1000 scholarship to Directions Training’s extensive catalog of offerings.
The Fifty For The Future® Celebration is attended by information technology executives, industry leaders, judges, Foundation sponsors and other supporters of the technology industry. The students will receive their awards at the 7th Annual Celebration event November 12 at the Chicago Cultural Center.
ITM Adjunct Industry Professor Bill Slater knows data centers. With years of experience as a data center manager at BP and a stint as the first manager of Microsoft’s Northlake Data Center, which was the world’s largest data center when it opened, Professor Slater now passes along his knowledge and wisdom to graduate students in the ITM graduate specialization in Data Center Operations and Management. He also knows that industry events such as the 2013 Data Center Dynamics Conference are a good place to learn the latest and greatest developments in the field. With his encouragement and assistance, several of his students attended the conference, which was held at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place in Chicago, IL, on October 1, 2013. ITM students Girithar Anthay Suthakavan, Shikha Srivastava, Samah Sallam and Adem Maksuti spent the day at the world’s largest peer-led data center conference & expo attending educational sessions and meeting vendors–and prospective employers! Conferences such as this are common in IT subject areas in Chicago, and we encourage students to attend to learn and network. And thanks go to Professor Slater for making this a great experience for our students.
Adjunct Industry Professor of ITM Bill Slater (center) and ITM students Girithar Anthay Suthakavan, Shikha Srivastava, Samah Sallam and Adem Maksuti (left to right), at the 2013 Data Center Dynamics Conference.
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