Colorado Mesa University (CMU) offers an excellent Information Systems (IS) program that prepares students for successful careers in the technology field.
The CMU IS program provides students with the knowledge and hands-on experience needed to pursue a wide variety of technology-related jobs. Students learn about topics such as database design, system analysis and design, networking and web development and information security. The program also emphasizes the importance of leadership skills and professional networking.
The Association of Information Technology Professionals (AITP) is an on-campus club dedicated to helping students develop their skills in the IT field. The club recently attended the United States Information Technology Collegiate Conference (USITCC). This competition challenges teams from across the US to complete tasks related to software engineering, information assurance, mobile applications development, computer vision and augmented reality development.
AITP President Chelsie Roth and Vice President Myrisa Mitchell are both seniors in the IS program, and competed in two of the eight events. The team placed first in Microsoft Office Solutions. Senior IS student Alex Murray placed 11th in Cybersecurity and 18th in PC Troubleshooting.
“It was definitely intimidating. That’s the best way to put it. I’d say like when we left that night, we felt confident, but we had no idea that we had placed first. We were sitting across from people and could hear murmurs of what they’re talking about. We were like, ‘oh my gosh, they’re so much smarter than us’ or ‘they’re doing so much better.’ When we got called up at the award ceremony, we both were like ‘honorable mention, like at best, right?’ And then it turned out we actually won. It was a really good feeling,” Roth said.
The teams prepared by looking at the challenges from previous years and studying those. Roth stated that the events this year were either way easier or way harder than the practice sets.
Dr. Johnny Snyder is a professor of IS and the AITP advisor. While he does teach the students how to use these systems and provides guidance, he attributes the success to the students.
“They did it. They generated the fundraising. They had the motivation to put the team together this year and make it happen. These are some of the top seniors in the program. They took the initiative. I was just there to facilitate you know, run any interference that needed to be run and things like that,” Snyder said.
AITP also raises money by offering tech services such as virus removal and hardware upgrades on student’s personal computers or laptops. The “workshop” goes by the name Computer Heroes. This differs from the IT Help Desk because AITP acts as a repair shop and they have the ability to work with personal devices.
While Computer Heroes does offer free services, donations are what keeps the club running and helps students to attend competitions like USITCC. Computer Heroes can be found in Dominguez Hall 202 and questions can be directed to aitp@coloradomesa.edu.
