IT Program Steering Committee Meeting
December, 19, 2017- FAC Room 445, 12:00- 2:00pm
Present:
Patricia GalvisAssmus,Barbara Roche, Traci Hess, Jerry Schoen , Carol Will, Beth Henneman, Nikki Stoia, Janine soldberg, Rick Adrion, Tyler Vouros.
1)Welcome and Update on IT Program- Patricia – Our current Advisor, Graham Gal, has had an injury and can not be with us. We all wish him a thorough recovery. The hiring of the new Advisor is complete and she begins January 2nd. Her office will be in The L.G.R.C. lowrise in the C.I.C.S. Advising Center. Our offices will eventually relocate to the C.I.C.S. Advising center, but as the transition is planned the new Advisor will spend some time in our offices in F.A.C., she will crosstrain with Greg Boisseau for other C.I.C.S. needs and be 50% IT Program Advisor.
2)Discussion and votes on courses- *RES-ECON 312- Approved. Present 10, In Favor 6, Opposed 2, Abstained 0. * ECON 397
3)Curriculum- Tabled for next agenda due to the absence of Advisor, Graham Gal.
4)ICT Summit 2018 Planning- March 23rd 2018 confirmed.
a)Patricia explained the concept of "CICS + X" and her hopes of collaborative support of those efforts as a theme running within The ICT Summit. Example of incorporating crossover fields into presentations, etc.
b)Discussion ensued. Committee Members agreed that the "+X" concept supports the Technology for All and the IT Program's overall long running theme goals of technology across disciplines, culturally and historically.
c)Patricia points out that this concept will be relevant when requesting the presentation format questions and perspective points to potential speakers. Ex. Creative crossover and the effects within a field. This ties into the overall idea previously discussed of how technology is impacting society in general and how that impacts humanity.
d)Continued discussion-
i)Global impacts/negative and positive and intended and unintended uses and consequences- secondary use problems w/ climate and society/ what is translated into policy.
ii)Technology aspects- Ex. Google launched emergency weather balloons to restore cell coverage in Puerto Rico...solving social problems/ what makes effective use of past knowledge economically, effectively in emergency situations.
iii)There may be course syllabi currently being written and proposed that are very timely and relevant. Ex. A Spanish course involving and the impact of food on culture in "Technology Scarce" areas.
iv)Ex. Satellite images of Sonoma wild fire damage to assess number of buildings damaged...drones, as well.
v)Article in Atlantic about cell phones "ruining a generation".
vi)Career night- success and ideas. Involve Todd Butinski (Todd is now Assoc. Dir. For Professional and Alumni Volunteer Services, the new interim Director of Career Services is CandiceSarafino), Traci will moderate! Invite same alum and companies, but add more targeting top graduate hire employers. Student success w/ 3D scanner made from simple objects.
vii)Students will like to see people like them who have started something from "nothing and an idea". * Amherst Works- Innovation/ incubate/ venture Capital Partners. Laura Haas will be presenting there.
viii)Student example- Eric Watterson design for "Singers for Survivors".
ix)Next Steps- Perhaps Laura Haas as Speaker- interpretation of CS crossing boundaries / "Freshman Year" perspective talk on intended hopes.
x)Most popular last year was Grad Student/UGrad Presentations and posters. Would students like to present? The benefit of having student presenters is that it draws other students in.
xi)Fri. 3-5 for Student Poster/Presentations- Earlier part of the day faculty/professional talks, 10-12. Students more likely to be engaged in afternoon.
xii)Possibility of asking DT to speak again, he is excellent/affable/engaging.
xiii)Jerry may be willing to contribute efforts to planning and would be open to further discussion if roles and expectations are clearly defined. May have other obligations.
xiv)Get representatives from Social Media outlets- ex. FB/Twitter/Instagram. Big companies may draw students due to interests in job prospects. Academic curiosity ask of student perception of social media feeds/ they care less than expected- primarily communicate via text. Funny memes are popular/ but don't shape strongly shape opinions- Generational perception of tech savviness is exaggerated on a whole.
xv)Patricia would like to incorporate CCC into Summit in some creative interactive way.
xvi)PGYA- Where do we go from here? General concept agreed upon.
xvii)Need catchy slogan..."Connected yet Disconnected"?
xviii)Jerry- Have we agreed upon "Dark Side & Negative" angle?
xix)PGYA- Engage the students/ idea of good/bad/ugly/ but something fun too.
xx)Relevance of technologies from different disciplines...Government soldier 3D rendering technology is now utilized into video games and downloadable free apps.
xxi)Summit image ideas- Crossover "X" (like TED-X), over layering of relevant words- Connect/Disconnect Unintended/Unplug/ Innovation. Image Tyler displayed previous meeting of "Tech/Human Evolution".
xxii)PGYA- Workshops? 3D Labs@ Mt. Holyoke- show crossover relevance from 4/5 different fields.
xxiii)Traci- Posters/Demos/ Cool Stuff Factor +food drinks. Keep organizational challenges simple/low- w/ timing. Keynote (Laura Haas?).programming/presentations/posters displayed.
xxiv)Tyler- People got tired by afternoon.
xxv)Goal- Appeal to different audiences @ different times.
Adjourned 12:40.
Respectfully Submitted,
Patience A.M. Hartley
Administrative Assistant, IT Program