Community

This past weekend I attended and presented at the SIGITE Conference located in Midland, Michigan. It was the second weekend in a row that I was going to be gone, and all of that in the middle of the quarter, so I wasn’t as enthusiastic going into it as I normally am about conferences. As it turns out it was the best conference experience I’ve had in a long time!

The sessions at the conference are scheduled so that each talk has a 45-minute slot, with 30 minutes for the presentation and 15 minutes for questions. In most of the sessions I attended, including my own, the questions were in fact intermixed with the presentation. And what a difference it makes to have more time and a more interactive environment. I got excellent feedback on my work and was able to provide a lot more background information than was on my slides because of the questions. The questions themselves were also terrific. I was impressed by the insight that the audience members had into the work. I also got good questions and offers for collaborations after the talk, but it was the interactive presentations that really had me hooked.

On top of that, I met friendly, intelligent, and insightful people during the breaks, meals, and the reception. I had some of the best conference conversations ever, and I’m hoping that I’ll get a chance to stay in touch with the people I met. So overall, I highly recommend SIGITE as a conference. Next year it will be at West Point in New York, and they’ve promised private tours of things that even tourists don’t get to see. That combined with the lively and friendly experience make it don’t miss opportunity.

I attended SIGITE’10 held in midland, MI. I really enjoy every session I attended! The conference presenters at SIGITE’10 provide valuable information about the IT program, curricula, courses, and accreditation. Everything about IT education! In particular, I appreciate the opportunity to network IT educators from around the US, and learn many new ideas for laboratories, and other elements of teaching and pedagogy, at all levels of IT instruction in the areas of cyber security and information networking. I’m certainly looking forward to SIGITE’11.

I am really glad that my paper was accepted and I was able to present at SIGITE 2010 as it gave me a peak into the process of IT education. Often students sometimes think that courses topics and curriculum are picked out of a hat, but the topic I chose exposed me to the same tough problems that the IT community has been dealing with for years.

SIGITE’s growing community of ACM faculty, alumni and students provided me with a strong resource of experts and enthusiasts who champion IT education. What I loved most about SIGITE is that the community and its officers are welcoming and keen on both national, as well as global issues regarding IT education.

Having been a long-time member of ACM, I was curious about SIGITE, so I attended the conference in Midland, Michigan this fall. It was a wonderful experience in three aspects. First, and foremost, the quality of presentations and the professional camaraderie among presenters and members was excellent. Secondly, the keynote speaker, CIO of Dow Chemical, was exceptionally informative, particularly as regards the way Dow recruits and situates its IT new-hires. And finally, I felt quite welcome and quickly accepted as new member of SIGITE, and look forward to becoming more involved in this dynamic and high-quality SIG.