Management Information Systems

This course introduces fundamental concepts of information systems and develops essential skills and techniques for using information technology (IT). The emphasis is on the role of information systems in today's organizations, including how IT changes individual work, impacts organizational structure and processes, and shapes competition in the business environment. Also, fundamental concepts essential to effective use of information technology are introduced. Specific topics include the system concept, hardware, software, communication tools, database management systems, components of information systems, e-commerce (EC), technologies for developing EC, and systems development approaches. Several software tools are employed to develop students' ability to apply information technology to business problems. Fall, Spring, and Summer.

Marketing now has a stronger use of information technology than ever before. For example, as of 2015, 99% of Google's revenue comes from advertising. The objective of the course is to equip students with foundational knowledge, skills, and techniques of a variety of technologies that have been widely used to build customer-facing applications and devices. Beginning with a short review of the history of the Internet and the Web, the course introduces students to fundamental concepts and the process of developing consumer-centered applications. A variety of tools and techniques for developing such applications are presented, such as the structure of web pages, web page language (XHTML and HTML), Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and script languages. The de facto language of consumer-centered programming language, JavaScript, is adopted as a vehicle to develop aforementioned skills and techniques. Relevant technologies such as Jquery, JSON and popular JavaScript frameworks will be introduced. These skills will provide the technical background necessary for digital marketing efforts.

This course provides a basic introduction and practical experience in developing algorithms and writing computer programs to solve business problems. Students will be required to design solutions as well as to code, test, and debug programs that are soundly structured and easy to maintain. Topics include variables, data types, control structures, input/output control, arrays, method invocation and parameter passing.

The purpose of the course is to equip students with knowledge, skills, techniques and technologies for data analytics in the context of business. Starting with an introduction to the enterprise business intelligence architecture, the course will proceed to introduce and compare/contrast popular data analytics technologies, such as Power BI, R, and Python, in the market. After that, the course will focus on the development of skills using select data analysis technology. Students will learn how to extract data from heterogeneous data sources, how to transform data into a data format ready for analysis and how to analyze and visualize data. The target students of this course are those in the MIS concentration. The teaching objective is to prepare students to pursue a career in data analytics or to play the role of consultant assisting others in making informed data analytics-related decisions.

This course helps students understand, through practice, the concepts of database management. Topics include a broader view in aspects of SQL (Structured Query Language), data modeling, project life cycle, data normalization, data warehousing and data administration. Computer projects are used to give students hands-on experience developing business applications using Oracle in a Client-Server environment.

The objective of the course is to equip students with knowledge, skills and techniques for developing a minimally viable technical product (MVP) (i.e. a mobile/web app) as a pre-cursor to seeking funding to advance the idea further. Following the process of developing such products, students will be introduced to the tech-startup market, tech-startup business models, MVP product development, monetization through advertisements, segmenting customers for startups, and forming startup teams. This class is recommended for students who plan to start web-based businesses, or who want to join start-ups and need to understand the technical aspect of the business in order to communicate with the development team. Students will be expected to have Mac, Windows, or Linux computers that they can complete homework and projects on (detailed instructions on setup will be provided).

The full range of business software development is covered in this course, including concepts, tools and techniques in the analysis and design of business information systems. Students will gain experience working with software tools utilized throughout the Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC). Although the course concentrates on the analysis phase of systems development, topics may include strategic planning, system development methodologies, project management, requirements development, data and process modeling using a software engineering CASE tool, object modeling using UML, application architecture, installation and evaluation techniques.

The analytics practicum provides an opportunity for students to apply what they learn from the classroom to an analytics project in the real-world. Students will gain professional practical experiences by working on an analytics problem significant to a business/organization. The course requires students to integrate multiple technologies and domain knowledge to create and present a solution to the project sponsor. Offered once per year.

Credits by arrangement.

An individually designed course of study appropriate to the student's concentration. Prerequisites: junior or senior year standing, and department's permission. Summer only.