Advanced IT degrees give job candidates a competitive edge

Grad school is a good option in a struggling economy

Grads are combining IT with green and biotech technologies

By Sue Marquette Poremba
Contributing Editor

Competition for jobs is intensifying as companies feel the pinch of the current economy. With more applicants in the mix, IT hiring managers have found a way to narrow their choices: an advanced degree.

Telle Whitney, CEO of the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (www.anitaborg.org), says that a masters degree is the most cost-effective degree one can get. “It gives you a leg up over an undergraduate,” she says, “but it doesn’t take the time of a PhD.

“A lot of IT jobs require good skills in teamwork and leadership,” she adds. These skills are often honed in grad school and can give candidates a competitive edge.

One of the most exciting trends Whitney has observed is the application of IT to “green” technology, biotech or other disciplines. “Many disciplines require a computational model and applications, so there are a lot of opportunities on that front,” she says. “These new opportunities sit at the boundary of the IT profession and sciences like biology or nanotechnology.”

Tips on getting into grad school
David Novick, acting chair of the CS department at University of Texas-El Paso (UTEP) has some advice for grad school applicants. He says that motivation, communication skills, work habits and accomplishments are strongly considered by admissions personnel. “Be sure these factors are addressed in your letters of recommendation and your statement of purpose,” he advises.

Novick explains that a good letter will include evidence of the applicant’s ability to sustain a steady and focused effort on a broad range of tasks and responsibilities. The letter should also offer examples of the applicant’s analytic capabilities, intellectual curiosity and demonstrated initiative, along with a description of the applicant’s behavior as part of a research or work team.

UTEP offers masters and PhD degrees in computer science, and a masters in information technology. Currently 24 percent of its grad students are women and 41 percent are Hispanic Americans.

“UTEP is the lead university in the Computing Alliance of Hispanic-Serving Institutions,” Novick says. “We partner with other minority institutions to recruit grad students, and work tirelessly to prepare our own students for grad schools.”

Sandra Bonilla: MSCS student at Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico
About three years ago Sandra Bonilla saw an article in a local newspaper announcing Puerto Rico’s first MSCS program, offered at Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico (Hato Rey, PR). She was intrigued by the opportunity for intellectual stimulation and professional advancement.

Bonilla was accepted into the program and chose to specialize in IT management and information assurance (ITMIA) because she felt it would best prepare her for IT leadership. “This field focuses on issues like security and operations,” she explains.

As part of her thesis, she worked for four months toward certification in Information Assurance Courseware Evaluation (IACE). The IACE program is a systematic assessment of the degree to which courseware from commercial, government and academic sources conforms to U.S. standards. Schools that receive IACE certification have demonstrated that they comply with national standards for information assurance education and training.

Bonilla earned her 2005 BSCS at the University of Puerto Rico at Bayamon. An internship at SAP Business One (Guay-nabo, PR) led to the job she holds there today. She also does contract work as an administrator for Windows servers at Puerto Rico Telephone Company.

Bonilla thinks it’s good to work and study at the same time, but it’s one of the hardest things she’s ever done. “It’s all about learning how to properly distribute one’s time,” she says.

Dr Alfredo Cruz, associate director for CS, says that Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico’s MSCS program offers specializations in knowledge discovery and data mining, computer graphics and game technology, and of course ITMIA.

SHPE and SWE both have active chapters on campus, and scholarships are available from NSF, the Council of Higher Education and the grad school itself.

Tamara Clegg: learning sciences and technology at Georgia Tech
Tamara Clegg is a PhD student in computer science at Georgia Tech (Atlanta, GA), concentrating on learning sciences. The program gives her an opportunity to follow her passions for applied math, computer logic and education. “My other passion is cooking,” she says with a smile.

Clegg says learning sciences is a relatively new field that was developed when artificial intelligence researchers, cognitive scientists and education researchers began focusing on learning issues. “It takes into consideration what we know about the way people learn and designs new technologies to help people learn in a new context,” she explains.

Her research focuses on helping learners see themselves as scientific thinkers. She developed an after-school program for kids to learn science through cooking. “We designed the technology to support that learning environment,” she says. “The students learn how to use scientific inquiry just like a scientist.”

A native of North Carolina, Clegg earned her 2002 BSCS at North Carolina State University (Raleigh, NC). A faculty advisor for a summer research program at the University of California-Berkeley helped narrow her interest to Georgia Tech (Atlanta, GA). “This is a school I had never considered and I became very interested in its learning sciences research,” she says.

Before beginning grad school in 2003 Clegg worked at IBM for a summer and the following semester. “The time off gave me a chance to have a break and earn some money,” she says.

Clegg feels that she was prepared academically for the challenges of graduate school, but wishes she’d taken advantage of more research opportunities as an undergrad. In fact, one of her biggest challenges has been the transition from a classroom environment to fulltime research.

Nonetheless, Clegg plans to stay in academia. She expects to finish her PhD work in spring 2009. “I’d like to be a professor and continue researching identity and designing software,” she says.

Maritza Johnson: PhD candidate at Columbia University
The growing number of phishing schemes and virus-infected websites makes it easy to understand why good computer security is vital. But the typical user often doesn’t understand how to use the security tools available. Maritza Johnson, a PhD candidate at Columbia University (New York, NY), wants to change that.

She notes that security research has been around as long as computers, but only recently has the focus been on users. “I’m looking at how to make the security technologies we have more effective and more user friendly,” Johnson says.

She decided to go in this direction because it’s an area people outside IT fields can relate to. One of her first projects at Columbia was on phishing schemes, a problem, she notes, that anyone with an e-mail address is familiar with.

Johnson grew up in Southern California with a strong interest in math. The math program at University of San Diego requires two programming classes. “After one semester of programming, I decided that it was a lot more fun than Calc 3,” she says. She switched majors and earned her 2005 BA in CS with a minor in math.

Just as her choice of major took an unexpected turn, so did her decision about furthering her education. “I was lucky enough to have a great professor who had just finished her PhD and was encouraging others to try undergrad research and grad school,” she says.

Johnson explains that applicants to Columbia’s grad school typically apply to work in a specific research area, so her field of study was set before she arrived on campus. She anticipates finishing her PhD in 2011. Coming from a school with a very small CS program, Johnson felt she lacked the breadth of curriculum of her peers. She’s now enjoying the freedom to explore numerous areas. And she’s gaining new experiences during summer internships.

Johnson has yet to decide what she’ll do after earning her PhD. “I do know that I’d like to help others interested in computer science learn that there are a lot of options beyond programming,” she says.

The computer science department at Columbia University offers a broad range of disciplines for both MS and PhD degrees, including computational biology, computer security, network systems and vision and graphics. “Students can also pursue a personalized masters program,” notes Tiffany Simon, assistant dean of the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science.

Simon says that minority students make up 7 percent of the enrollment while women make up 17 percent. To attract more women and minorities, the School of Engineering and Applied Science is a member of the national GEM consortium (www.gemfellowship.org). Applicants are actively recruited at grad student events hosted by NSBE, SWE, SHPE, MAES and AISES. In addition to campus chapters of these groups, the department sponsors its own Women in Computer Science and Engineering student organization.

Irene Polycarpou: FIU PhD grad
When she finished her 2002 BSCS at Florida International University (FIU, Miami, FL), Irene Polycarpou realized she wasn’t ready to compete for the kind of job she wanted. “I was a woman in a male-dominated field and my competition had masters degrees,” she notes.

But when Polycarpou got her 2004 masters at FIU she realized that wasn’t enough either. “I didn’t want to be a programmer my whole life,” she says. She decided to go on to a PhD, which she completed in 2008.

Polycarpou grew up in Cyprus, an island in the Mediterranean. As a little girl, she loved working with PCs. She discovered her passion for teaching as an undergrad. “I was always trying to develop ways to help fellow students who were struggling with their courses,” she says. Polycarpou is now an assistant professor of mathematical and computer sciences at the Colorado School of Mines (Golden, CO). Her research is on educational technologies and instructional software for improving computer science education.

Polycarpou says that although more women are entering the field, they’re still in the minority. She believes it’s helpful for women in IT to build a strong support network and join professional IT organizations. “The support system won’t find you,” she says. “You need to build your own relationships with classmates, faculty, co-workers and others in your field.”

David James is in a masters program at Syracuse University
After earning his 2006 BS in computer and systems engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI, Troy, NY), David James joined Lehman Brothers as a technology analyst. His job was to ensure that the software used in “buy and sell” transactions was functioning properly.

He soon found that despite having strong programming and IT skills, he was struggling to prove himself. So after a year and a half he decided to pursue grad school. “I wanted to solidify my foundation in IT tools and principles,” he says.

James is on track to earn his MS in information management in the summer of 2009 from the Syracuse University School of Information Studies (iSchool, Syracuse, NY). “This discipline teaches the theory behind managing information and the people who develop information systems,” he notes.

He’s conducting research on an NSF-funded project for New York schools participating in the Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP). AGEP is a network of universities dedicated to increasing the number of underrepresented minorities obtaining grad degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

James explains that the AGEP universities are facing funding restraints that limit the ability for participants to travel and work together. “Our job is to study how technology can be used as a communications tool and to assess the impact,” he says.

James became interested in computers as a high school student in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. “Someone introduced me to HTML and I found it creative and technical,” he says.

Even though he was an engineering major at RPI James still found time to volunteer. He was part of a team that created an IT infrastructure for NSBE’s career fair. “I honed my IT skills on projects like that,” he says.

As a grad student James has had to change the way he looks at work and school. He explains that a programmer tends to see the world as black and white, but a grad student has to function more like an entrepreneur. “You have to know where the funding is coming from and how to extend it as you develop a theory behind what you’re doing,” he says.

Susan B. Corieri, director of enrollment management in the iSchool, says that Syracuse has a strong support network for female students and students of color through its peer mentoring programs, and through organizations like Women in Information Technology and Black and Latino Information Studies Support.

“Our iSchool prides itself on its strong programs and acclaimed faculty of scholars,” she says. The iSchool offers a number of MS and PhD degrees and graduate certificate programs.

Kyla McMullen: PhD candidate at University of Michigan
As a student at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Kyla McMullen was a Meyerhoff scholar. The Meyerhoff program grooms undergrads in science and technology majors for PhD programs. After earning her 2005 BSCS she headed to the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI) where she anticipates finishing her PhD in 2010.

McMullen decided to go straight through because others had told her that “If you take time off you tend to forget things or you get used to that nice salary.”

She had also seen the advantages of an advanced degree during an internship with a large tech corporation, where she couldn’t get attention for the solutions she proposed. “Ideas and changes came from higher up the corporate ladder, from people with graduate degrees,” she says. “I needed an advanced degree just to have a voice.”

McMullen’s research in artificial intelligence focuses on auditory interfaces that help humans navigate virtual environments. “This area has all sorts of applications,” she says. “We’re trying to utilize all auditory channels, all the things we know about sound and hearing, to make an interface that helps people pick up things more quickly and move around more comfortably in an unfamiliar space,” she explains.

College was a given for McMullen. It was something that her family and other adults in her life expected her to do. But McMullen says she’s the last person anyone would have expected to go into computer science. In her Washington, DC Catholic elementary school, computers were used only by kids who needed extra academic support.

A computer teacher at her science high school served as a role model. “He looked like me and came from the same area as me,” she says. By the time she was ready for college, “I loved computers, so majoring in CS was an obvious choice.”

McMullen’s biggest surprise as a grad student was the pace of the work. She thought that taking three classes instead of five would be easy, but soon found that the work was not only more intense, it moved more quickly. “But I had a grand scheme,” she says with a smile. “I’d skip sleep because I could be using that time to work instead. I don’t advise anyone else to use that strategy, though!” She soon learned how to balance her time more efficiently.

McMullen hopes to go into teaching when she graduates and eventually do industrial research.

Lauren Lui is pursuing bioinformatics at UC Santa Cruz
Growing up in Sacramento, CA Lauren Lui wanted to be an artist, but she was concerned that her skills weren’t good enough. Her mom advised her to pursue a more stable major and suggested math. “My mom assured me that I could always do art on the side,” she says.

Lui was also interested in biology and genetics, especially because she suffers from atopic eczema, a genetic skin problem. She found a program at University of California, Davis where she could combine both interests. She earned her BS in mathematical and scientific computation with an emphasis in biology and a minor in bioinformatics and quantitative biology.

Lui is continuing her studies as a PhD student in bioinformatics at the Jack Baskin School of Engineering at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She hopes to finish in 2012. She thought about taking a year off, but decided not to when she was given the opportunity to take classes she was weak in. “There are times when I worry that I’m going to burn myself out,” she says, “but I want to get my career started as soon as I can.”

Lui explains that bioinformatics uses computer science to analyze biological data. The field helps scientists visualize data and keep it accessible. “We are generating data spanning whole genomes,” she notes. “You need a computer to analyze that much information and to find genome-wide correlations.”

What makes Lui’s program different from other IT-related fields is that she gets to work hands-on in a “wet” lab on biology research. She believes this gives her an advantage. “I’m able to communicate with biologists as I analyze their data,” she says. “And I can also work independently because I don’t need to rely on a biologist to complete my work.”

Since research is the hallmark of graduate school, Lui advises students to be sure to investigate the research being conducted at schools they’re considering. “Don’t rely on the website for the most up-to-date information,” she cautions. “Email the professor and ask.”

Lui would like to be a professor herself someday, mainly because she enjoys research. “I’d like to go into industry too, but I think that might limit what I could study,” she says.

Corey Redden is focusing on ERP at University of Arkansas
Corey Redden entered grad school about a month after his father died. “It was very challenging dealing with my loss while trying to stay focused on my education,” he says.

Redden earned his 2008 BS in information systems at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville and he’s stayed on at the school to earn his MIS. Despite his personal challenges he decided not to take a break before continuing. “My study skills were fresh and I had few obligations,” he notes.

Redden chose info systems because of its focus on enterprise resource planning (ERP). The program partners with SAP, a business software solutions and ERP applications provider headquartered in Waldorf, Germany. “Through this partnership I’m getting hands-on ERP experience,” he says.

In fact he’s currently interning in Rogers, AR, doing business intelligence application development for the Wal-Mart sales team of Colgate-Palmolive (New York, NY). He believes that interning or working while attending school gives the student an opportunity to apply the course knowledge directly. “It gives me the chance to gain a greater understanding of a specific topic,” he says.

Redden is on track to earn his masters in December 2009. He headed directly to grad school because “I wanted to develop my skills and abilities so that I would have an advantage over others in my field,” he says.

“It’s been rewarding to have professors and administrators there to help me do the best I can.”

D/C

Sue Marquette Poremba is an writer in State College, PA.

Back to Top