BYU Leads the Way at AIS Competitions

PROVO, Utah – Apr 20, 2016 – Brigham Young University information systems students excelled yet again at the Association for Information Systems Student Chapter Leadership Conference, leading all other universities with three top finishes at the conference’s competitions.

Seven students traveled to the campus of Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind., for the three-day conference to learn more about the field, expand their professional networks and discover the results of their competition submissions. In all, teams from BYU took first place in the video and security competitions and second place in the IBM Bluemix competition.

“These AIS events allow us to showcase the skills and knowledge of our students on an international stage,” says Tom Meservy, associate teaching professor and team adviser. “Once again they have demonstrated that they can compete with the best information systems students in the world. They are simply amazing.”

Kyle Longhurst, a senior from Orem, Utah, and Alexandra Whitesides, a junior from Warrenton, Va., won first place in the video competition for their short video describing the value of AIS student chapters. In BYU’s other top finish, seniors Josh Haws from Alpine, Utah, and Cathy Kennelly from Franklin, Tenn., joined information systems juniors Drake Loud from Liberty, Utah, and Jason Smith from Forest Grove, Ore., to win the security case competition. The team provided the best proposal to help a fictional insurance company keep its mobile client data secure, helping BYU win the security case for the third year in a row.

Additionally, Longhurst, Loud, Kennelly and Whitesides finished second in the IBM BlueMix competition where students were tasked with building an app that could help fix a societal problem. The group decided to develop an app to discourage texting and driving.

“It was great to come away winning a bunch of awards,” Kennelly says. “I think what sets our program apart is that we learn a lot of technologies and the business side at the same time. To be able to understand both worlds and figure out how to bridge them and solve problems is unique.”

The Marriott School is located at Brigham Young University, the largest privately owned, church-sponsored university in the United States. The school has nationally recognized programs in accounting, business management, entrepreneurship, finance, information systems and public management. The school’s mission is to prepare men and women of faith, character and professional ability for positions of leadership throughout the world. Approximately 3,300 students are enrolled in the Marriott School’s graduate and undergraduate programs.