Page 48 - Academic Report FINAL VERSION WEB
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PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS
Department of parts that at least one of the students will continue to
Information Technology restore in order to get them into the museum display
rotation.
The Department of Information Technology had
another momentous year full of student and faculty The department hosted visiting professor and
achievements. renowned researcher, Dr. Joanna Paliszkiewicz from
Warsaw University through the Erasmus+ Programme
Undergraduate students Michael Koohang and (EuRopean Community Action Scheme for the Mobil-
Deep Patel won first place in the Collegiate Cup ity of University Students). The following summer, Dr.
Coding competition. Their web app, which they call Yerby had the opportunity to teach in Poland for 10
“Spark,” is a platform designed to empower and con- days and deliver a keynote speech at the 65th Inter-
nect educators by providing them with the tools and national Scientific Conference.
support they need to learn and teach computer sci-
ence. They bested teams representing eight other In February the department presented the third
University System of Georgia schools including Geor- annual Academic Cybersecurity Seminar (ACS)
gia Tech and University of Georgia. Koohang also at which they had over 200 people in attendance
went on to win a scholarship to the Apple Worldwide throughout the day. The theme of the conference was
Developers Conference. cyber forensics and the impressive lineup of speak-
ers included owners of forensics software and investi-
Dr. Yerby and Dr. St. Clair led the work to have the gations, law enforcement, CPAs, federal trainers, and
Bachelor of Science in IT concentration in Cyber Se- more. The IT students also created their own cap-
curity and the Master of Science in IT concentration in ture-the-flag competition to coincide with the ACS.
Cyber Security and Forensics designated as a Nation- Dr. Spangler created the ACS three years ago and the
al Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense school plans on holding the seminar yearly.
(CAE-CDE). Middle Georgia State is the only school
in Georgia to have both graduate and undergraduate Other initiatives in the department include Drs.
designated programs. Spangler, Kwak, St. Clair, and Yerby each working with
students to publish original research. Dr. Girard initiat-
The Cyber Knights Competition Team, led by Ja- ed new retention programs to help students stay en-
cob Corley, had several successes throughout the gaged and graduate on time. Drs. St. Clair and Yerby
year. These included advancing to the regional com- designed an immersive experiential learning oppor-
petition for the National Collegiate Cyber Defense tunity in which they took eleven students to Wash-
Competition, placing in the top three in the Region- ington, D.C. for a week. Students were able to meet
al CyberForce Competition through the Department leaders in cyber security, government, and industry.
of Energy, placing 27th out of thousands of college Dr. Beasley and Dr. Spangler were able to visit over a
competitors, and continuing to receive invitations to dozen schools with whom Middle Georgia State has
exclusive competitions across the nation. articulation agreements. Dr. Lingelbach strengthened
the relationship with Robins AFB to help five stu-
Professor Ashford worked with a group of four en- dents obtain jobs before they have graduated. And
thusiastic students to commission an interactive tech- Dr. Wang and Dr. Kwak secured the largest grant that
nology museum that is located on the second floor of Middle Georgia has seen so far at $480,000 to re-
the Professional Sciences Center. Using four glass dis- search metabolomics.
play cases, the students are displaying vintage com-
puters and parts they have restored to working order Overall, the department has had a phenomenal
and catalogued. An archival room in the School of IT year full of success stories from our students and fac-
contains several more old computers and additional ulty.
44 mga.edu | finding greatness
