IBIT
Engages with industry to develop digital knowledge and talent
Dear colleagues,
It is my pleasure to present the 2016-17 annual report of the Institute for Business and Information Technology (IBIT) of the Fox School of Business, Temple University.
The IBIT partnership with nationally recognized member firms and the Fox IT advisory board is quickly becoming the standard for industry-academic engagement. Please read the report to learn more.
Sincerely,
Munir Mandviwalla
Executive Director
Analytics is now mainstream, Predictive Analytics and Machine Learning are already delivering value, and to some, Cognitive Computing and Artificial Intelligence are the next big thing.
The Institute for Business and Information Technology is pleased to announce an exclusive symposium which will present specific business applications and use cases from industry leaders moderated by academic experts. Specific topics include:
Learn more at: http://ibit.temple.edu/cognitivecomputing/
The Institute for Business and Information Technology announces The 5th Annual Temple University QVC Analytics Challenge. The competition opens on October 1st, 2017 with the judging and awards presentation on November 13, 2017.
The challenge is open to all Temple University students and features problems and data sets from QVC, Pfizer, and NBCUniversal. Students can win prizes of $2,500 out of a total pool of $12,000.
The challenge is offered in cooperation with Office of Senior Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies and the General Education program.
Learn more at http://analyticschallenge.temple.edu
Scholastic Corporation, which was founded in 1920 just outside of Pittsburgh, PA, is the newest member of the Fox School’s Institute for Business and Information Technology (IBIT). A multinational publishing, education, and media company, Scholastic reported revenue of $672.8 million in 2016, and employs ~ 10,000 people.
Satbir Bedi, Chief Technology Officer and a Temple alum, will represent Scholastic in Fox IBIT activities.
In 2016-2017, dozens of experienced IT executives served as sounding boards and advisors for MIS capstone projects. IBIT matched 36 industry executives to MIS student projects.
The goal of the IBIT Mentoring Program is to match experienced executives with student projects. The senior executives are usually members of the Fox IT advisory board or employees of IBIT member firms. The role of the mentor is to work with a team of students and provide ideas, feedback, and act as a sounding board for challenges and problems. The mentors also serve as judges for the final project competition, where students semester-long projects are evaluated during final presentations.
The benefit for mentors is the opportunity to engage with outstanding students; the benefit for students is the chance to leverage the experience of senior executives. The IBIT mentoring program is chaired by Bruce Fadem, Chair of the Fox IT advisory board.
In spring 2017, the winning team was “Floating Bridges”, an application that combines 3-D mapping drones, bridge-assessment algorithms and augmented reality to give experts a cost-effective way to assess a bridge’s structural needs. Team members Alexandra Iacovetti, Nicholas Rivera, Bridget Silk and Benjamin Sulaiman were mentored by Fox IT advisory board member Joe Spagnoletti.
The fall 2017 winner was My.Di, a tool for monitoring digital identity. The team, composed of Kimberly Eastlake, Mia Jardine, Noah Mercado, Ryan Pace and Nodir Zakhidov, was mentored by Sondra Barbou, the inaugural recipient of the Fox IT Award for Distinguished Alumni.
