Symposiums

IBIT’s Digital Innovation Foundry organized a research workshop on “Next Generation Internet: Metaverses, AR, VR, MR, and Digital Twins” on April 28, 2023, in Philadelphia to investigate use cases, design, and enterprise goals. The workshop, which included a carefully selected mix of accomplished academics and practitioners, generated a nuanced view of immersive spaces that goes beyond headsets to consider spatial strategy.

The participants discussed and debated the following key questions in the context of spatial strategy:

• How can organizations envision appropriate opportunities?
• How will organizations source capabilities?
• How will organizations measure the impact of engagement and experience?
• What are the implications for current and new business models?

As a result, the workshop generated new ideas and insights on topics such as:

Talent: How will we train entrepreneurs, designers, and programmers to think in more than 2 dimensions and imagine new realities where appropriate? 

Tools: What tools are needed to create content for multidimensional worlds? How will we embed programming inside objects?

Ecosystems and models: Will we need new markets and associated platforms to source objects? What kinds of standards are needed?

Management: What are the appropriate governance mechanisms? What are the sharing and licensing mechanisms?

The workshop followed a highly participative model including short presentations followed by collaborative feedback sessions involving all the participants.

Academic participants included: Simon Cho (Temple), Philip Dames (Temple), Yogesh Dwivedi (Swansea University), Blake Ives (College of Charleston), Sirkka Jarvenpaa (University of Texas, Austin), Munir Mandviwalla (co-chair, Temple), Solon Moreira (Temple), Pavankumar Mulgund (University of Memphis), Ilias Pappas (co-chair, University of Agder), Sofia Papavlasopoulou (Norwegian University of Science & Technology), Matti Rossi (Aalto University), David Schuff (Temple), Ozgur Turetken (Ryerson University), and Yajiong (Lucky) Xue (East Carolina University).  

Industry participants included: Himesh Bhise (LLR Partners), Vince Ford (Curtis Institute of Music), Pablo Mora (AmerisourceBergen), Yehonatan Tamir (Meta), Brian Tebin (Corning, Inc.), Raghushri Sankaran (Scholastic, Inc.), and David Woodson (KPMG).

Thanks to Curtis Institute of Music and Scholastic, Inc. for sponsoring the workshop.

The digital transformation of workforce development summit on March 25, 2022, at Temple University was a major success!

The summit featured Dinesh Desai, Executive Chairman and Founder, Emtec, Inc., Ben-Saba Hasan, SVP, Chief Culture Diversity Equity & Inclusion Officer, Walmart, Inc., Jenn Nyiri, VP, Comcast NBC Universal, Niraj Patel, CIO, Greystone, Mark Spykerman, CIO, AmerisourceBergen, and Jenn Warne, EVP, Chief People Officer, Lincoln Financial Group as keynote panelists. The event was sponsored by Emtec Inc.

Given the change in work, there is now renewed interest in reimagining workforce development, especially the role of on-the-job training, professional development, and the workforce development ecosystem. The event focused on development and engagement, inclusion, measures, best practices, and how employee / employer relationships will get transformed through digitization. The summit focused on digital solutions to develop the workforce and on measuring success.

Provost Gregory Mandel and Dean Ronald Anderson kicked off the event, which was moderated by Leora Eisenstadt, Munir Mandviwalla, and TL Hill.

The Institute for Business and Information Technology (IBIT), Center for Ethics, Diversity and Workplace Culture (CEDWC), and the Translational Research Center (TRC) organized and hosted the summit.  

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:

• Case studies that showcase best practice examples
• How to manage, organize, and implement pilot projects
• The pros and cons of different implementation and organizational approaches
• The current state-of-the art and a vision for the future

Learn more at: http://ibit.temple.edu/cognitivecomputing/

Last month, Fox School’s Institute for Business and Information Technology (IBIT) welcomed some of the world’s foremost cyber-security experts for an engaging panel on cyber-security’s role in policies and happenings in the country and the world.

IBIT, which is known for integrating cutting-edge industry perspectives with academic research, brought in renowned international attorney Sean Kanuck, along with the Director of Microsoft’s Government Security Policy and Strategy Team, Angela McKay, and Temple Law’s Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and James E. Beasley Professor of Law, Duncan B. Hollis. The trio of panelists touched on everything from managing federal and state cyber regulations to information-sharing to the newly expanded role of IT in protecting vital infrastructures.

Overall, Hollis says, the event was designed to offer insights as to how ongoing political and legal processes in the international arena will affect cyber-security professionals in their work — “whether it’s Microsoft’s push for a new cyber-security treaty, or efforts at the United Nations to identify a set of norms for responsible nation-state behavior in cyberspace.”

Kanuck served as the first National Intelligence Officer for cyber issues from 2011 to 2016, and currently advises governments, businesses and entrepreneurs on the future of information technology. McKay, meanwhile, focuses on driving strategic change both inside Microsoft and more globally to “advance trust in the computing ecosystem.” (She also serves on the Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee, which advises the President of the United States). Hollis specializes in issues of authority in international and foreign law, and has researched international law’s role in regulating cyber threats. He is currently part of an inter-disciplinary team headed by MIT research scientists to study norms and governance in cyberspace.

“It was a privilege for IBIT to host such a distinguished panel of speakers,” says Munir Mandviwalla, IBIT’s Executive Director. “Their ‘from-the-field’ insights will enhance the professional development of Fox School cyber-security students and faculty.”

It’s true, agrees Jason Lindsley, a student in the Fox School’s IT Audit and Cyber-Security Specialized Masters Program. “I really enjoyed the discussion between the panelists and also speaking with them during the social period,” he says. “The most interesting part of the panel to me was the discussion on the Geneva Convention and how it established humanitarian protections for civilians in a war zone. The panelists emphasized that cyber warfare makes it very difficult to enforce these protections because the Internet is completely open to everyone. I thought this was fascinating, and it really emphasized the need for more current international policy.”