Four students from WMU’s Telecommunications and Information Management (TIM) program were honored as the best undergraduate student team at the International Telecommunications Education and Research Association (ITERA) 2008 National Case Study Competition.

The final-round competition and public presentation was held during ITERA’s national conference in Louisville, Kentucky on March 27-29, 2008. WMU TIM team members (from right to left) are Colin Cady of Rockford, Mich., Justin Knapp (Team Captain) of Royal Oak, Mich., Ryan Lasure of Sterling Heights, Mich., and Ben Krupp of Sparta, Mich.
“Among the three finalists, WMU TIM team was the only undergraduate student team. Our team competed with two graduate student teams from the other two renowned universities in the final round.  We are so proud of our team who promotes the reputation of WMU and represents the quality of our TIM program.  WMU TIM student team was honored as the best undergraduate student team in this year’s ITERA national case competition.” said Dr. Mike Tarn, the team’s advisor and the TIM program coordinator in the Haworth College of Business.

This year’s case study involved designing the “university campus of the future”. The ITERA national case competition invited student teams from throughout the United States to develop comprehensive solutions to applied problems involving network infrastructure, information technology and security management. The ITERA case study challenge was open to both graduate and undergraduate information and communication technology related programs.  “The primary objective of the case project is to enhance campus wide technical communication, security and information management, as well as create a foundation platform that is capable of supporting future growth and expansion.” explained Dr. Richard Gershon, the TIM coordinator in the College of Arts & Sciences.

WMU's interdisciplinary and intercollegiate major in TIM is offered through the Computer Information Systems (CIS) program in the Haworth College of Business and the School of Communication in the College of Arts & Sciences. The TIM program prepares students for the top fastest growing occupations projected by the U.S. Department of Labor. It is designed to train students in a variety of telecommunications, data communication and information technology subdisciplines. The program's mission is to give students a well balanced education in a variety of business and technical management issues.

TIM Majors Shine at ITERA 2007

Four TIM majors, Deanne Folk, Brian Del Vecchio, Justin Knapp and Steven Gole, presented their research on March 24 at the 2007 International Telecommunications Education and Research Association (ITERA) Conference in Louisville, Kentucky.  During the awards reception and dinner, Steven Gole received the Best Student Case Study Award.

“The student papers were competitively selected and featured a series of case study analyses looking at business strategy issues involving media and telecommunication companies as Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Dell,” explained Dr. Richard Gershon, co-director of the program and professor of Telecommunications in the School of Communication.

“We're so proud of all four students for taking the initiative to participate in this event. Their successes, and Steven's top paper, are outstanding for such a young program (TIM). All four students represented the best of WMU with their professionalism, knowledge and experience,” said Dr. Mike Tarn, co-director of the program and professor of Computer Information Systems in the Department of Business Information Systems.

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