Casablanca

Can Graduate School be Funny?

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 23:19:24 -0500

If you find this funny and can relate, you are definitely a PhD student.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jD3Gzqb8-xs

It is what you chose to make out of it just make sure to keep the humor alive.

How to flourish in graduate school

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 22:29:36 -0500

"Why the hell am I doing this?"

Undertaking the PhD is a long haul journey to a very exciting destination. There is no direct flight and several unexpected stops can on the way. While your nice car is sitting in the garage and brand name clothes on your closet, you may be driving a used vehicle and wearing ragged clothes.

This metaphor may applies to several students giving up high paying jobs with the all the prestige that come with it to embrace a future in academia. Challenges during the PhD are expected, however if one keep questioning their belonging, there might be some truth to it. Academia is a lifestyle choice. If you hate that life in graduate school, you're probably going to hate it long term.

"Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity."
- Louis Pasteur

Graduate school does not mean being genius or succeeding in taking courses. Tenacity is a key word in PhD program and involves "sticking with things even when you get depressed or when things aren't going well". Don't laze around! Keeping a level of discipline will ensure completion of your dissertation.

"Generally speaking, people provide better maintenance for their cars than for their own bodies."
- Scott Adams, The Dilbert Future

How many times I hear and see PhD student "living in their labs". Will they be successful? most likely. Will they happy? Very less likely. Creating a balance by recharging one's battery allow success in the long haul journey. Whether it is a yoga class, hiking, biking, time with family or attending social events, when used in moderation, can only benefit your overall experience.

Minority & Diversity Organizations

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 13:06:14 -0500

Since I joined IST, I attended a couple of events organized by two clubs under the umbrella of minority and diversity. The first event was organized by the office of graduate educational equity programs where minority students from several colleges at Penn State attended. This group plays a critical role in assisting graduate student through their journey by providing resources, support and guidance. Mentoring is provided by senior students as well as minority faculties.

The second event I was invited to, was organized by the Black Graduate Student Association that meets the first Friday of every month to offer opportunities to its members in order to unwind from a tough academic week. Cultural, Educational and professional development services are offered.

Since Our presentation on Monday, I had the opportunities to research several other clubs that I may consider joining such as the Graduate Women in Science, Ballroom Dance Club (Salsa or Tango) and the adult learners of Penn State.

Eminent Scholar in Information Systems

Sun, 26 Oct 2008 00:52:14 -0500

Dr. Jim Courtney received his Ph.D. in Business Administration (Management Science) from the University of Texas at Austin in 1974. Currently, he is a McCallister/Humana Eminent Scholar Chair in Information Systems and Professor of Computer Information Systems at the Department of Management and Information Systems at Louisiana Tech University.

His research interests are knowledge-based decision support systems, knowledge management, inquiring (learning) organizations and sustainable economic systems and most recently Information Assurance.

His academic experience includes faculty positions the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Texas A&M University. Georgia Tech, Texas Tech, Lincoln University in New Zealand and the State University of New York at Buffalo. Other experiences include positions as Database Analyst at MRI Systems Corporation and Visiting Research Scientist at the NASA Johnson Space Center.

Dr Courtney is the co-developer of the Systems Laboratory for Information Management (Business Publications, 1981), a software package to support research and education in decision support systems, co-author of Database Systems for Management (Second Edition, Irwin Publishing Company, 1992), and Decision Support Models and Expert Systems (MacMillan Publishing, 1992).

His papers have appeared in several journals, including Management Science, MIS Quarterly, Communications of the ACM, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, Decision Sciences, Decision Support Systems, the Journal of Management Information Systems, Database, Interfaces, the Journal of Applied Systems Analysis, and the Journal of Experiential Learning and Simulation.

Dr. Courtney was my mentor at the University of Central Florida throughout my master's program and has been a great supporter while I was embracing the thought of the PhD venture. My research interests have been impacted by Dr. Courtney's.

Academic Communities

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 22:29:43 -0500

Last week I introduced some venues that I hope to have my work accepted in. Today I will blog about three academic communities that I might be part of someday. (I should have reversed the order of these 2 blogs!)

The Association for Information Systems

Since I talked about AMCIS and ICIS in last blog, it just makes sense to introduce Association for Information Systems (AIS) community that I am already a member of. AIS is a professional organization founded in 1994; its purpose is to serve as the premier global organization for academics specializing in Information Systems. The need for such an organization was first spelled out in an editorial authored by five past Editor's-in-Chief of the Management Information Systems Quarterly in March of 1993. Bill King, of the University of Pittsburgh, was first among many to play key leadership roles in bringing the association into existence. He served as the first president.

Association for computing Machinery

ACM is widely recognized as the premier membership organization for computing professionals, delivering resources that advance computing as a science and a profession; enable professional development; and promote policies and research that benefit society.
ACM hosts the computing industry's leading Digital Library and Guide to Computing Literature, and serves its global members and the computing profession with journals and magazines, conferences, workshops, electronic forums, and Online Books and Courses.

I am considering this community because I have been reading many articles that are relevant to my research area.

IEEE

Finally, I will introduce one more community which is IEEE and more specifically IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on Security and Privacy.

IEEE, an association dedicated to the fostering of technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity, is the world's largest technical professional society. It is designed to serve professionals involved in all aspects of the electrical, electronic and computing fields and related areas of science and technology that underlie modern civilization.

I had dinner with Detmar, The MIS Quarterly Editor-In-Chief !!!!

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 19:24:38 -0500

Regardless of your track, The IS/IT community is so small. While attending the AMCIS conference in Toronto last August, I met and shared dinner/lunch tables with some of the famous people whose research papers I am reading this semester. Being a member of the Association for Information Systems http://home.aisnet.org and also member of The PhD Project Information System Doctoral Students Association I had the pleasure of networking with several members whose words of wisdom are still echoing in my ears.

AMCIS

I will start my academic communities by the Americas' conference on Information Systems (AMCIS) for the simple reason that I attended the 2008 conference before the start of my PhD. The conference was held in beautiful Toronto, Canada.

The annual Americas' Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS) is a conference of the Association for Information Systems (AIS), and is managed by an ever changing group of volunteers. It is associated with the Society for Information Management (SIM) and the International Academy for Information Managment (IAIM).

AMCIS 2009 will be held in San Francisco, CA.

ICIS

International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) is also a conference of AIS with much lower acceptance rate. ICIS was founded in 1980 at UCLA and the first conference was held at the University of Pennsylvania as the " Conference on Information Systems". Next ICIS conference in Held in Paris, France this coming December and my advisor Dr. Chu will be attending.

From Conferences to Journals:

During pre- AMCIS conference in August 08, I had the great pleasure to meet in person the MIS Quarterly Editor-In-Chief Dr Detmar W. Straub and ISR Editor-In-Chief Dr. Vallabh Sambamurthy. They may "butcher" our submission but they are actually pretty nice.

MIS Quarterly

The Management Information Systems Quarterly (MIS Quarterly) is a journal aiming the enhancement and communication of knowledge concerning the development of IT-based services, the management of IT resources, and the use, impact, and economics of IT with managerial, organizational, and societal implications. Professional issues affecting the IS field as a whole are also in the purview of the journal.

ISR http://www.informs.org/site/ISR/

Information system research (ISR) publishes research topics from a wide range of theories including, but not limited to, cognitive psychology, economics, computer science, operations research, design science, organization theory, organization behavior, sociology, and strategic management.

I do not see these conferences/journal as different professional associations but as one IS/IT large community with different levels. As I may be able to publish in AMCIS and hopefully with ICIS during my PhD journey, attaining the level of MIS Q and ISR will realistically require a much longer breath.

Data from this blog is extracted from conferences/journals websites

RFID LAB GURUs

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 11:04:01 -0500

MITHU BHATTACHARYA is a 4th year IST student at the RFID lab directed by Dr. Chao-Hsien. She is also co-advised by Dr. Tracy Mullen. Mithu's dissertation topic is titled RFID Implementation Issues in Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) and Pharmaceutical Value Chain. She claims it is only a tentative title at this time but she was very gracious in providing a brief description of her research. " I am using mixed method for my research work. My primary method is Content Analysis where I convert qualitative textual information into quantitative information and perform different statistical tests on the frequency data for drawing inference. For my data I use trade articles (industry press releases and white papers that are published) along with academic (published conference, journals, and academic magazines). So basically I am analyzing RFID Implementation issues for CPG retailers, CPG manufacturers, and Pharmaceutical manufacturers and then comparing across these sectors statistically for different issues"

Mithu has attended and presented in 2 conferences and managed already to publish three conference papers and one journal paper. She has two more journal papers under preparation. "Out of this 1 conference paper and 1 journal paper are not from my dissertation area. Those two papers came out as an outcome from my independent study".

Mithu is planning her proposal defense by the end of the Fall 08 semester or by early spring 2009 at the latest. "IST has given me a very wide perspective about academia and it has been a good journey."

Mithu research interest are very similar to mine as she is embracing a "business" versus a computer science approach to her research. However, I am more interested at the privacy and security aspects of RFID within the healthcare domain.

Mithu's publications based on Wen's blog:

Mary Beth Rosson, Hansa Sinha, Mithu Bhattacharya, Dejin Zhao: Design Planning in End-User Web Development. VL/HCC 2007: 189-196.

Mithu Bhattacharya, Chao-Hsien Chu, Tracy Mullen. RFID Implementation in Retail Industry: Current Status, Issues, and Challenges, Decision Science Institute (DSI) Conference, Phoenix AZ, 2007.

Mithu Bhattacharya, Chao-Hsien Chu, Tracy Mullen. A Comparative Analysis of RFID Adoption in Retail and Manufacturing Sectors. 2008 IEEE International Conference on RFID, Volume 16, Issue 17, April 2008 Page(s):241 - 249.

Dr. Chu' s academic life and career...More than $ 2 Million In research grants

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 23:06:48 -0500

Dr. Chu is a full Professor of Information Sciences and Technology, Affiliate Professor of Management Science and Information Systems at Smeal College of Business as well as the Director of Professional Masters Degrees.

Chu has published more than 100 refereed articles in top-ranking journals and in proceedings such as IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation, Decision Sciences, Decision Support Systems, Electronic Commerce Research, Journal of Operations Management, IIE Transactions, International Journal of Production Research, European Journal of Operational Research, International Industrial Engineering Conference, IEEE International Conference on Fuzzy Systems, IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation, IEEE World Congress on Computational Intelligence, GLOBECOM, ACM Conference on Electronic Commerce, and many other high-quality of outlets. He is coauthor of the book PROSIM: A Production Management Simulation by Harper Collins (second edition) and Irwin/McGraw-Hill (third edition).

Dr. Chu has received more than $ 2 Million In research grants (as PI or co-PI) from various funding sources, including NSF, DoD/NSA, Japan Society for the Promotion of Sciences, National Science Council of Hebei Province (China), Marine Corps Research University (MCRU, Penn State), Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co., Lockheed Martin Corp., Cisco Systems, and others.

Classes taught or developed more than 25 by Dr. Chu between Penn State University , Iowa State University, Hebei University of Technology, and Singapore Management University.

Here is a sample of these classes:

SRA 221 - Overview of Information Security (Committee)

IST 220 - Networking and Telecommunications. URL: http://net1.ist.psu.edu/ist220/

IST 302 - IT Project Management (Committee)

IST 321 - Information Technology and Systems Integration I.

IST 420 - Fundamentals of Systems and Enterprise Integration (Chair).

IST 402 - Wireless Network Design and Security. URL: http://net1.ist.psu.edu/ist402A/

IST 421 - Information Technology and Systems Integration II (Chair).

IST 450 - Information Systems Security. (Committee).

IST 451 - Network Security. (Committee).

IST 454 - Computer and Cyber Forensics. (Committee Chair).

IST 456 - Security and Risk Management. (Committee).

Dr. Chu has been attending several conferences such as ICIS, the International Conference on Information Warfare and Security, Conference on Information Sciences and others.

Dr. Chu's most up-to-date CV

Who is Dr. Chao-Hsien Chu ?

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 14:17:01 -0500

Who is Dr. Chao-Hsien Chu ?

Born and raised in Taiwan, my advisor Dr. Chu obtained his bachelor degree in Industrial Engineering with Distinction from Chung Yuan University and an MBA from the Graduate School of Management. Taiwan, not to confuse with China, is country on its own and technologically more advanced than China.

In 1980, Dr Chu moved to the United State to pursue a PhD degree from the Smeal College at the Pennsylvania State University with specialization in Operation Management and Management Information System. When I asked Dr. Chu Why this shift in major, he replied it is not so much a shift but a continuation of his background. By specializing in Operation Management, he felt a stronger foundation due to his background in Industrial Engineering and thus contributed more. Dr. Chu Academic journey in academia demonstrates his everlasting curiosity and hunger for more knowledge. He believed in the vision of the i-schools by joining IST at its inception in 1999 and by being the founding executive director of the center for Information Assurance.

Dr. Chu is happily married with two college children. His daughter is pursuing her degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT while his son is pursuing a degree at John Hopkins in Piano.

What surprised me to learn is that Dr. Chu costumed built his house to accommodate the two pianos he have. Humm, I always thought of him as having nothing to do with arts much less 2 pianos!!!

Dr. Chu claims he has no hobbies though I believe he enjoys walking because he walks 20-25 minutes to IST everyday. He confesses that is the best time of his days because he keeps talking about his scenarios/cases/theories and I suspect that is when there inception take place. Despite the fact that he claims that his wife "makes" him take care of the lawn, I again suspect that he enjoys it very much. Oh Boy, I have been reading too much lately that I started to apply everything I read to others' behaviors so I think when it comes to hobbies, Dr Chu says one thing and does another thing: isn't there some analogy to one of the theories covered last week in 531 about individuals' intentions and actual behaviors!!!

Until next blog..... ZaiJian (goodbye)

What is IST?

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 23:20:00 -0500

I never thought of the existence of a college, with more than 30 faculties and several hundred students, not having departments. The first thing that would come to one's mind is luck of structure. Is that a good or a bad thing? But I concur with Heidi' position about human's being used to organization and taxonomies. Within IST there is a subtle structure based on tracks that allows student to "specialize" in certain research area without being "locked" in a particular one. however, just like Miao, I agree that there should be a little more guidance for undergraduate students who are still trying to define where they belong and may get lost in the variety of choices and flexibility.

You can tell that I spend some time reading other's blog and I actually found Nick's blog about the flavor and history of IST very informative. I knew that IST, unlike some other i-school, started from scratch with no influence from the library of science or computer science but I definitely enjoy the background and history surrounding its formation through Nick's Blog. A quick look at the IST website through the matrix research area of our faculty give a comprehensive overview of the interdisciplinary flavor in this school.

With an MIS background, IST seemed to me like to the logical continuation and a step up to more technical need while still keeping my ties to people and organization. I am a member of the security lab where our focus is on e-healthcare issues and RFID. What draws me to this area is my industry experience in healthcare within the department of Defense. My interest is not purely a technical but also with a business and a social aspect that I the center seem embracing.

LET'S DISH ABOUT LOVE, JOBS, AND SHOES. ...Shine from Yahoo

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:43:05 -0500

I logged in to my yahoo account with my sleepy eyes, isn't it the first thing we do in the morning (check out emails!!!). I would have usually deleted this email, but the title was intriguing "Check out Shine, Yahoo's new site for WOMEN". Being a woman, that is definitely attractive but being an IT gal, I started thinking what part of the triangle was it used to put this site together. They definitely have the people aspect in mind (women), the layout and information displayed is personalized with my login name, temperature in Orlando, FL (I need to update my profile) . It is quiet obvious from the later information that they are using the yahoo profile and filtering based on gender and then customizing the login page with ones' location, horospcope and other...any one checked it yet. Will you be tempted to make it your default yahoo page, find it useful...or it is just a gimmick to get us to buy more shoes (not literally, just being sarcastic).... what do you think?

Check it out : http://shine.yahoo.com/

Why an I-School?

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 00:44:40 -0500

During my "hunt" for a reputable school and a great program to pursue my PhD, I came across Penn State and Information Sciences and Technology school in particular during a conference exhibition. I gave it good consideration based on the school's reputation and the quality of publications. When I received acceptance from Penn State followed by four other reputable universities (all from the Colleges of Business), My homework to find out more about I-schools and make the right decision started. For three month, I began a journey of collecting, analyzing, comparing and contrasting data from both camps. I approached few friends and University professors who would shed more lights. The findings of my "interviews" were quiet interesting but the most surprising was the support of some of my business professors toward this inevitable and necessary move of collaborations of expertise that constitute the foundation of the I-model.

Information Schools or I-Schools have recently been formed integrating several and diverse fields such as Computer Sciences, Psychology, Law, Library Sciences, MIS, Human computer Interactions and others. While traditional fields and colleges do not communicate and collaborate with each other, I-Schools on the contrary are based on integration and a model of collaboration that is centered on Information, Technology and People. All I-schools embrace different variations of this model nonetheless they all focus on the interdisciplinary nature of their research. Different weights and focuses give each school a unique "flavor". Some I-schools are truly more interdisciplinary such as Penn State, Others have the Library of Science, Computer Science or Education flavor embedded.

After the huge endorsement from my professors and a perfect match of my research aspirations in security and healthcare within IST, the final decision was obvious and inevitable...and that's how I made to Penn State...How I actually made it literally from Florida to State College, PA is another long blog where I got lost in the mountains for two hours with deers staring at me ... Did I forget to say I was using my GPS!!!

Resources:

http://www.ischools.org/oc/index.html

http://www.asis.org/Bulletin/Apr-06/index.html

Zhang, P., Benjamin, R., Understanding Information Related Fields: A Conceptual Framework

Sawyer, S. "I-Schools:Mice Roaring or is the ffuture Now Arriving?"

Languages, Communication and Information

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:12:36 -0500

At early age, I developed a passion for languages. I wanted to understand people from different cultures and read books written in their original languages. By the age of 20 , long time ago :), I managed to speak five languages. Thanks to the impressive developments in information, I shifted my passion toward "Computers", "Information" and how I can communicate effectively using these media.

I try to combine success with my passion and that why I chose to pursue a career in Academia with focus in research with endless learning and communication.

Industry and Academia experience

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:09:04 -0500

I hold a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration from Morocco and a Master's degree in Management Information Systems from the University of Central Florida as well a couple of IT certifications: Oracle Database Administrator certification and Microstrategy certification.

For the last 10 years, I have been working in the industry as well as teaching or taking classes. My industry experience includes a Database Administrator/Developer position with the Department of Defense, an Oracle Systems Analyst position with NBC Universal Studios, Senior System Programmer at UCF and managing the IT department in a telecommunication brokerage firm that I co-owned.

My academia experience revolved around teaching Systems Analysis and Design, Database Design and Development, Networking and Information systems management courses at a couple of local community colleges in Orlando as well at the University of Central Florida.

Check my websites:

[1] http://www.bus.ucf.edu/rparks/

[2] http://www.casacomm.com/

[3]http://faculty.valencia.cc.fl.us/rparks5

[4] http://www2.scc-fl.edu/rparks/

Who am I?

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 00:37:57 -0500

My name is Rachida Parks and I am a PhD student at the Pennsylvania State University majoring in Information Sciences and Technology.

I just moved from Orlando, Florida about a month ago. I know what you gonna say... what was I thinking... I am looking forward to all the winter sports' activities but not so much bundling up in five layers... I love traveling, Sports (Aikido and Yoga) and cooking (when I have time).

I have passion for different cultures and languages and I proudly managed to speak fluently five languages but I am still faithful to my computer languages too J

email me