Smith Ramping up Company Engagement with MSIS Students

The University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business has initiated a push to engage businesses with students in its Master of Science in Information Systems (MSIS) program.

A newly circulating prospectus from Smith to companies opens with: "We invite you to partner with our Master of Science in Information Systems (MSIS) program and engage our skilled student teams to tackle your business challenges using cutting-edge technologies. Together, we can create innovative solutions that benefit your organization while providing valuable experiential learning opportunities for our students, all while nurturing the next generation of IT professionals."

The move will infuse the program’s experiential learning framework. It’s based on the students working with sponsor firms to analyze a business problem, then design and produce a prototype of an IT solution to the problem. An “Industry Seminar” this fall will kickstart initiative with presentations, aligned with above-described framework, by leaders from Nestle, IBM, ServiceNow, Wayfair, Marriott, 3D Houdini and System Pavers. Subsequent collaborations between MSIS students and sponsor companies will run from spring 2024 through fall 2024.

"This is an excellent opportunity for companies to engage with talented, knowledgeable and passionate students to create technology solutions for business problems that require out-of-the-box thinking and at the same time assess student skills for potential hiring," says Smith’s MSIS Academic Director Tej Anand. “Students benefit by working on real-world problems and receiving mentoring from business-technology leaders.”

MSIS students at Smith focus on Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, methods and algorithms that are used to create intelligent systems — in addition to the ethical impacts of AI on society. The program also engages students in designing and managing cloud-based platforms and tech infrastructures and works to develop their expertise on the economics of cloud deployments and in managing the complexities involved in migration initiatives. They also get hands-on experience using cloud-based technology stacks.

“MSIS students also learn the ins and outs of emerging technologies, like in applying Web3, Blockchain, IoT and other technologies to everyday work, and this push to make this happen in real business settings also is an outcome of a broader Smith School commitment to expand experiential learning,” says Associate Clinical Professor of Information Systems John Bono, who, with Anand, has been coordinating the MSIS experiential learning initiative with Paul Shapiro, also an Associate Clinical Professor of Information Systems.

Prospective sponsoring companies can complete the MSIS Industry Experience Prospectus and get more information via the MSIS Industry Capstone homepage.

Also read: Experiential Learning Thriving at Smith: OEL Annual Report.