I had the pleasure of meeting with Professor Art Thomas, the Director of the Masters Degree programs in Information Management (IM), Executive Information Management (ExIM), and Telecommunications and Network Management (TNM) in the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University, to talk about Project Management. In order to gain a better understanding of Project Management, I asked Professor Thomas a series of questions including during an interview earlier this month.

Professor Art Thomas also offered invaluable advice about classes and certifications students can take advantage of it they have an interest in Project Management. Here are some of the highlights from out chat.

It is a challenge to stand out in today’s IT market. Whether you are in the middle of building your first start up mobile app, or you are an executive at a large corporation, you need to pay attention to several factors to stay competitive. Continuous innovation is very important to keep you separate from the competitors. But does innovation mean complicated? In his LinkedIn article , Richard Branson mentions that simplicity is one of the key factors for successful innovation. It is so much better to bring values to customers with something simple than coming up with complicated developments that don’t make any sense to consumers. Here are the two main reasons why I believe simplicity in Information Technology is good:

In the era of big data and information technology, data visualization is increasingly acquiring its importance. With the explosion of social media and smart devices, customers are becoming incredibly sophisticated, and empowered. As a result, the dynamics that govern the relationship between brands and customers is evolving. Therefore, user experience is a priority that should, in some way, find a home within the design of any new-media strategy. Hence, user experience professionals are increasingly demanded in the job market.

I had the opportunity to interview Mr. James Torio, Senior User Experience Architect at McKinsey & Company. He has 13 years of industry experience and is a Syracuse University alumnus. He was generous enough to give me a few moments from his hectic schedule to talk about his professional experience. He offers some helpful insight for future information professionals.

Enel Green Power (EGP) produces 100% of its energy from renewable sources like wind, solar, hydroelectric, geothermal, and biomass.  With nearly an 8,000MW capacity from facilities in 16 countries, including the United States, EGP was the final stop for students participating in the Global Enterprise Technology (GET) EuroTech program.  EGP was exceedingly gracious, offering presentations by five different information and communication technology (ICT) managers.

Last week, Interpol hosted GET EuroTech students at the General Secretariat of Interpol in Lyon, France. Interpol, also known as, the International Criminal Police Organization is commonly viewed as an international crime fighting organization. Contrary to popular belief, Interpol is actually a police liaison organization. Comprised of 190 member countries, Interpol prevents and fights crime through enhanced international police cooperation. As the 2nd largest inter-government organization after the United Nations, representatives from Interpol explained how global information systems are employed to combat international crime and facilitate cooperation between nations.

With EuroTech 2012 less than 2 weeks away, students are gearing up for an extensive 15-day tour of Europe. The tour that begins in Amsterdam and goes through Brussels, Paris, Lyon, Geneva, Munich, Venice, and Rome is a unique opportunity for students. What makes EuroTech unique? Students participating in the program get an inside view of the top global corporations across Europe while being immersed in the culture of the most exciting cities of Europe. EuroTech participants will learn how some of the largest global corporations use information to address global technology challenges, and gain an understanding of what it's like to work in a global economy.

In 2009, I attended the Annual American Library Association Conference & Exhibition in Chicago, IL. While at the conference I sought out workshops, presentations, and events that catered to my areas of interest. At the time I was double majoring in Political Theory & Constitutional Democracy and Comparative Cultures & Politics in the James Madison College at Michigan State University. I knew that I wanted to pursue graduate study, but I wasn’t sure which field I would enter. At a career workshop mixer, I met students that were enrolled in information-related graduate programs. By networking at the event, I was able to learn about the evolving field of information science. The students, faculty, and information professionals I connected with helped influence my decision to enter the information science field.

By Dave Dischiave

In this fourth installment in our series, “Cobol is dead…seriously,” we will illustrate with code samples that maintainability is less about language code constructs and more a function of technique. We will illustrate our position with code examples so that you can draw your own conclusion. Our examples consist of two very small programs.

By Jeff Walling

The art of networking, much like the art of selling, requires a few things. One must understand their goals and their audience. One must also understand themselves and their ability to adapt and flow within a given situation or set of circumstances. In short, you have to know what you want and be prepared to ask for it with confidence and sell your ideas with vigor.

By Dave Dischiave

In this third installment in our series, “Cobol is dead…seriously,” we will explore the language of COBOL in greater detail, looking at how it was first developed and examining its design goals.

By Dave Dischiave

In this second installment in our series, “Cobol is dead…seriously,” we will help managers understand that there is a major distinction between tools and techniques and that the techniques used in building software may actually be more important to maintainability than the tools used - in this case the programming language. We will continue to use Robert Mitchell's article, “Brain drain: Where Cobol systems go from here”. Mitchell interviewed a number of IT managers and technical architects to get an industry perspective for the reasons some organizations may want to move away from their Cobol investment.

By Dave Dischiave

This is the first of many blogs addressing commonly perpetuated IT myths. As an IT professional and academic for about 40+ years I have heard many myths about the IT industry. When seasoned IT professionals make statements about this industry that are unfounded or lacking in substance, it requires someone to call them on it, that is, to set the record straight. So instead of calling these misconceptions lies which would imply malice; I give the perpetrators the benefit of the doubt and simply coin these often over-hyped, misleading, half-truths or downright incorrect statements - IT myths. But let’s leave the myth business to the ancient Greeks and Romans and all others please just bring the facts.

By Sam Disston

“Upping Your Professional Cred” is a blog series about  why students should participate in work based learning (WBL) like internships and Co-Ops.  This series explores the benefits and advantages to those students who participate in WBL, from the perspective of the student.  For more information and to learn how you can get involved, please visit: http://get.syr.edu/ and follow us on Twitter @GETsyr

“Upping Your Professional Cred” is a blog series about  why students should participate in work based learning (WBL) like internships and Co-Ops.  This series explores the benefits and advantages to those students who participate in WBL, from the perspective of the student.  For more information and to learn how you can get involved, please visit: http://get.syr.edu/

Sam Disston is in his second year of the M.S. Information Management program at the iSchool at Syracuse University.  He works part time for J.P. Morgan Chase and is a graduate assistant for the Global Enterprise Technology program at the iSchool. 

After an intense two weeks of travel, students conclude the trip with a dinner at the historic Hofbräuhaus in Munich.

The Dachau Concentration camp was built in 1933 to hold political prisoners of the Third Reich. Eurotech students visited the site, which is now a memorial to those who lost their lives there.

The high-tech firm is working to develop solutions for the rapidly changing world and shared how they do it with Eurotech students.

The nutrition, health, and wellness giant underwent a major information system overhaul since the year 2000. Leaders of GLOBE at Nestle, the SAP initiative designed to unify and leverage all of the information about Nestle's vast product portfolio, met with students to talk about the challenges and successes of implementing a highly disruptive and transforming information strategy.

Geneva is an incredibly beautiful place- photos hardly do it justice. We enjoyed impecable weather and bathing in Lake Geneva.

CERN collects massive amounts of data in experiments every second- so much that it has to throw most of it away.

Students visited the headquarters of Interpol in Lyon, France to hear presentations about the interpol operations & databases, digital crime, and predicting crime with statistics.

After a week of getting acustomed to Europe and grilling major companies about their approach to global technology, Eurotech students enjoyed a free weekend in the city of lights.

Heineken is one of the most successful Breweries in the world and aims to profit the most per liter, all while staying green (both in bottles and in eco-friendliness) and promoting the enjoyment of beer around the world. Students on EurTech learned about their global IT strategy, toured their state-of-the-art brewery outside of Amsterdam, and sampled some of their finest products.

The United Kingdom, France, Belgium, and the Nethelands... in 14 hours.

Students started their free day in London taking in the major sights the iconic city has to offer.

Students vist JPMorgan Chase & Co. at 125 London Wall to learn about the bank's global technology solutions.

The 31 students in EuroTech came from all over the world to Newark airport on Sunday, August 7th to start the EuroTech adventure overseas. The mood was high as students got to know eachother and discuss what they were most looking forward to on the trip.

Eurotech student Shola Amusa anticipates the weeks to come for Eurotech 2011.