BYU Info Systems Students Place at National Conference

PROVO, Utah — May 06, 2005 — Marriott School information systems students received top marks during the National Collegiate Conference in Atlanta April 7-9. BYU students placed first and second in a database design contest and received honorable mentions for system analysis and design. About 800 students representing 88 schools across the nation attended this year’s conference.

Robert Turner of Lehi, Utah, and Slawomir Bialkiewicz of Slaskie, Poland, took first place, and Kurt Kirkham of Pittsburg, Texas, and Carl Anderson of Corinne, Utah, received second in database design. Bialkiewicz, Kirkham, Turner, and Taylor Wells of Gig Harbor, Wash., also received honorable mentions for system analysis and design.

“We selected the team a month beforehand and met once a week going over old problems from previous years as preparation for the competition,” says Gary Hansen, associate professor of information systems and faculty adviser for the conference.

During the three-day conference, events were scheduled from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Each competition lasted three to four hours and focused on database design and systems analysis and design, Web design, Java programming, network design, and visual studio. When not competing, students interacted with peers, attended seminars by information technology professionals, and networked with recruiters from companies nationwide.

“Teams are given a problem and during the next three hours they come up with a solution and implement the solution in either web design, database design or Java programming,” explained Robert Jackson, assistant professor of information systems.

The conference, sponsored by the Association for Information Technology Professionals, highlighting specific skills such as Java programming and Web page design. During the conference a career fair offered students numerous job interviews, internships and job opportunities with leading industry organizations. BYU teams have competed at the NCC since 2003.

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, public management, information systems, organizational behavior and entrepreneurship. The school’s mission is to prepare men and women of faith, character and professional ability for positions of leadership throughout the world. Approximately 3,000 students are enrolled in the Marriott School’s graduate and undergraduate programs.