Wrapping things up....

Well, what can I say? It's finally time to start wrapping the semester up. All group projects have been completed and turned in and I only have two finals to take next week! This is of course my final semester and I will be graduating in December. I can't believe this is finally happening. All of the hard work over the past few years are finally going to pay off. I'm extremely excited to end this chapter of my life and begin the next. Thankfully, I already have a job lined up as a IT Consultant at CGI. I start my new job in January! This has been a very challenging, but rewarding semester and I'm glad it has come to an end. Next thing on the list is visiting the family over Christmas break and enjoying a little time off before starting my new career.

Master the Mainframe

Over the course of this semester I have been competing in IBM's Master the Mainframe contest. I must say, this was one of the most challenging, but beneficial competitions I have ever participated in. I am a very hand's on learner and this challenge allowed me to interact with a mainframe and issue commands to the system to accomplish a variety of tasks and challenges. First of all, the contest is broken into three parts. The first part only takes about thirty minutes to complete and consists primarily of setting up the emulator to access the mainframe, logging into your account, and getting use to issuing commands to the system. The second part of the challenge is a lot more difficult and time consuming. I worked this part over the course of two months when I could fit it in between school assignments. In part two, I was able to submit batch files for processing, access the storage management facility, use IBM's OMEGAMON software to check system performance, execute programming code in multiple languages, create data sets and store files, and issue advance system commands. Unfortunately I have ran out of time to complete part three, which takes several months according to the website. The competition ends on December 28th, and all files have to be submitted for verification by that date. This competition was challenging, rewarding, and fun. I feel like I learned more from competing in this than I have learned in some of my college courses. I would definitely recommend this competition to anyone that is interested and doesn't mind getting their hands dirty while spending some serious time learning about Mainframes. By completing part two, I am able to submit my resume to the IBM SystemZ job board. This alone is worth the time and effort if you have any intentions of pursuing a career working with mainframes.

IT-oLogy Gateway Career Fair

IT-oLogy is a non profit collaboration of businesses, academic institutions and organizations dedicated to growing the IT talent pipeline, fostering economic development and advancing the IT profession. This past week, I volunteered to work at a Career Fair that was being hosted by IT-oLogy. The fair brought in multiple IT companies and recruiters that were looking to hire new employees, as well as offer internships. This was a great way for student's to connect with potential employers and learn about IT-oLogy as well. As a volunteer, I assisted with signing in guests and helped vendors set up their booths. I got to speak with a couple of employers as well, including VC3 and Verizon. 

The Future of E-Learning

Mobility and flexibility are the two words that come to mind when I think about e-Learning. The recent advancements in technology has provided a means to learn outside the classroom and an opportunity to engage other learners at any time of the day. Tablets and smartphones are the most prominent technologies that have had the largest impact on e-learning. Each are used by millions of people everyday, giving them access to online content and social media connections. It's hard to predict the future, especially when talking about technology, but if I had to guess I would say that traditional classroom learning will not be phased out anytime soon. Instead, I think that the technology advancements will just enhance the learning methods for students and professionals and will provide support for learning management systems. Other technologies such as HTML 5 will increase the amount of content that can be delivered on a mobile device and further enhance e-Learning's potential.

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2012 IT Graduation Dinner

Last weekend I celebrated my upcoming graduation in December with my fellow IT graduates, faculty, and staff. This dinner was hosted by Dr. Gerdes at his house. This was a great opportunity to catch up with friends and former professors. We got to talk about job opportunities, current semester projects, and future alumni events. It was also nice to hear about each students experiences here at USC as an IT major, and the direction they want to go after school. This was the largest graduation class for IT students at USC, and probably one of the best!

As part of my Capstone course this semester, I joined the Project Management Institute - South Carolina Midlands Chapter. As a member, I have the opportunity to attend local meetings and ceremonies with fellow project management students and professionals. Last week, I attended a PMI lunch at IT-oLogy and was able to work as a volunteer doing registration. I got to meet the president of the local chapter and sit in on the keynote presentation. After I finish my capstone course, I will have the opportunity to take the CAPM (certified associate in project management) test. It is one of the best certifications for a professional in the IT field right now. I think it's great that I can get this kind of exposure as a student. Everybody knows that professional networking is crucial to a successful career and I am getting more networking opportunities as a student in this degree than most people get in a lifetime. I am looking forward to future networking opportunities as I finish my last semester at USC. I'm excited to start a career after I graduate and I'm sure that the contacts I have made thus far will assist me in my future endeavors.

Carolina Tech Conference 2012

I was able to volunteer at the 2012 Carolina Technology Conference and Expo last week. As a volunteer, I assisted with the registration process of attendees, but I also got a chance to view some of the presentations at the Expo. One of the sessions I attended was speech about identity theft and social engineering by Jim Stickley. I have always been interested in security and I learned a lot from this presentation. Overall, I enjoyed the opportunity to be a part of one of the biggest technology conferences the South East. I leave you with this video clipping of an interview with one of the hosts of the conference, John Davis. 

IBM Information Session

I apologize for my absence on this blog. I have been very busy over the past week and I haven't had time to post. With that being said, its time to catch up......

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend an information session hosted by IBM. I got to meet and talk with  two managers, as well as a few new employees that were recent graduates from the iIT program at USC. This was a great way to learn more about the company and hear first hand how our degree is preparing us for the workforce. The new employees were all very thrilled and excited about working for IBM, and all said that the iIT program prepared them well. I got to interview with one of the managers the next day, and I must say, it was probably one of the best interviews I have ever had. The interview went well over the 45 minute time frame because we had so much to talk about. It was a very relaxed, informal interview so I was comfortable and was able to ask a lot of questions. After going on an interview and doing some research on IBM, I'm confident that I would be a great fit in this organization. I would get to travel half the time to big cities across the United States and get trained as an expert on various technologies. All I can do now is sit back and wait on a response.....

Project Management Coach

One of the projects or activities that I will be participating in this semester is coaching students in the ITEC 560 - Project Management class. This class teaches students all of the processes, knowledge areas, and process groups that are covered in the PMBOK (Project Management Book of Knowledge). When I was in that class last semester, I had the opportunity to compete in the Inter-Collegiate Project Management Triathlon in Pittsburgh. This was a very exciting and engaging competition and I enjoyed my visit to Pittsburgh. The purpose of me coaching the students is to not only help them learn the material, but to also encourage them and excite them about competing in the Triathlon next semester. As a coach, I will be mentoring the students during four quiz bowls this semester, which replicate the competition in the Triathlon. I'm excited about this opportunity and I hope the students are encouraged to participate. 

Science and Engineering Career Fair

Last week, I attended the science and engineering career fair at USC. This event was very important to me because as a December graduate, I am on the hunt for a job. This event gave me the opportunity to talk with recruiters and potential employers, specifically looking for students in my field. Not only was I able to speak with representatives from major companies, but I got to give them my resume and exchange contact information. Some of the companies that I spoke with include Blue Cross Blue Shield of SC, Spawar, CGI, Duke Energy, and Safe Systems. All of these are great companies that I wouldn't mind working for in the future. I am very happy to have had this opportunity and I have already followed up with some of the recruiters. There will be other career fairs hosted this semester, and I encourage any students who are interested in finding a job, or who just want to gain experience and network opportunities to attend. Below is a video from a career fair that was hosted last semester, Spring 2012. As you can see from the positive feedback, students are very excited about the opportunity to meet and talk with employers. 

ITPSC

Last Tuesday, I had the opportunity to attend the Information Technology Professionals of South Carolina  monthly meeting as a guest. They served lunch, and had guest speakers that talked about current trends in the field. The guest speaker at the meeting was from Sims Recycling Solutions. Their business focuses on the recovery and recycling of hardware, including old computers, printers, servers, blades, etc.. I enjoyed the presentation and had the opportunity to meet some new contacts, several of which were interested in me for future employment. The event managers also gave away a laptop via a random drawing of the current attendees. Unfortunately, I did not win, but I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and my time at the event.

Linux System Administration

This past Thursday, I attended a workshop that was hosted by IT-oLogy that focused on teaching the basics of system administration in a Linux environment. Now, I'm not too savvy with Linux due to lack of experience using the OS, but I have had experience with system administration on a MAC and on Windows. Some of the topics covered during this workshop were familiar to me, but others were completely unique to Linux. For example, I learned that on Linux, everything is stored under one file directory, or "root". This means all files, hardware and software can be accessed from this one directory. This is very different from other operating systems like Windows, which uses multiple drives and directories to store data. This method used by Linux is much easier to navigate and locate files and the system allows for built in RAID capabilities. After attending this workshop I feel like I would be comfortable in using the command line in Linux to perform operations and I plan to play around with this new found knowledge on my Ubuntu system at home. For any of you that are interested in learning more about this workshop, I will provide the link to the presentation. Also, feel free to attend any future workshops hosted by IT-oLogy, they are all free and offer excellent information for beginners and experts. I know that I plan to attend many more over the next couple of months. See you there!

Presentation: https://ch1prd0202.outlook.com/owa/redir.aspx?C=ncgdWu9jqEukwSC3-trQR56y3oa9Z88IOcDblk9VzBWCClgUKVLfJ9l0U6tUqKh_MlU1C-iF-qY.&URL=http%3a%2f%2fjrs-s.net%2flinux_sysadmin_101%2flinux_sysadmin_101.odp

Technology Eliminating Privacy?

With the recent advancements in technology, some issues have been discovered by customers who are visiting retail stores that are participating in the use of "soft surveillance" technology. According to a recent blog post on Harvard Business Review, this type of technology allows retailers to obtain information about customers via the use of sensors and cameras that has facial recognition capabilities. Some retailers are even using sensors that can detect what kind of perfume or cologne a customer is wearing when they walk into the store. Obviously, this is used to increase sales by presenting customized adds and sales information for each customer based on their interests and recently purchased items. Some people say that this is an invasion of privacy, others are happy about the use of this technology and claim that it provides a better shopping experience. As technology continues to advance, there has to be a limit as to the extent we are able to use it, as it is already coming dangerously close to "crossing the line." A former hacker from Intellectual Ventures has shown how and RFID reader can obtain information from a credit card while it is still in a customers pocket. If retailers were to use something similar to this to obtain customer information as they entered the store, would that be an invasion of privacy? I'm excited about the advancement of technology and its impact on society, but I think there is a limit as to how far we can go with it. What do you think? Is the use of this type of technology acceptable?

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/08/retailers_turn_to_soft_surveil.html

AITP welcome back event.

Today I attended the AITP (Association of Information Technology Professionals) Student Chapter Welcome Back Event at the University of South Carolina. I was able to speak with fellow IT students, as well as faculty and other IT professionals. This was a great event and I enjoy taking advantage of every networking opportunity that is made available to me. When I arrived at the event, I was able to volunteer to work as a student officer in the local chapter of AITP and also to work at many different technology events in the upcoming months. All of these are great leadership opportunities and a chance to work with other professionals in this field!

Welcome!

Hi, my name is Josh. I'm a senior at the University of South Carolina, majoring in Integrated Information Technology. I have a passion for technology and I'm eager to share my thoughts about new, exciting, emerging technologies and their successes or failures. The topics will vary from post to post, but expect to read about popular topics including cloud computing, open-source technologies, and virtualization. Feel free to comment, give feedback, and share your thoughts and opinions!