IS&T GRADUATE FALL RECEPTION The College of IS&T will host its annual Graduate Fall Reception on Thursday, August 22, from 4 pm until 6 pm, on the patio behind the PKI building. All new and current graduate students are invited, as well as all graduate faculty members.

If you plan to attend, please RSVP to Carla Frakes at cfrakes@unomaha.edu by August 15. [June 7, 2013]

ISQA CHAIR TO STEP DOWN ISQA Chair Dr. Ilze Zigurs will retire from her full-time position at UNO at the end of the spring semester. Fortunately for us, Dr. Zigurs will continue to teach some online courses for ISQA. Dr. Zigurs' accomplishments and future plans were appropriately celebrated this past weekend at the home of Dr. Khazanchi. All of us in ISQA thank Dr. Zigurs for her leadership and hard work and wish her nothing but the very best as she enjoys some well-deserved time off on the beautiful Whidbey Island. [April 29, 2013]

ISQA FACULTY MEMBER WINS PRESTIGIOUS TEACHING AWARD Dr. Peter Wolcott has been awarded the 2013 UNO Outstanding Teaching and Instructional Creativity Award (OTICA). This award recognizes individual faculty members who have demonstrated meritorious and sustained records of excellence and creativity in teaching. Dr. Wolcott already is an award-winning professor, having received UNO’s Excellence in Teaching Award and the Outstanding Service-Learning Faculty Award in 2011. In evaluations, students consistently praise his mastery of course content and his ability to communicate it effectively. Dr. Wolcott also is committed to service learning, regularly making connections with microenterprises in Omaha and supervising groups of students who work with those businesses to provide solutions, coaching, skill-building and planning for their technology needs. “The help and empowerment these students provide makes a real difference, and Peter provides the leadership to make that happen,” Dr. Wolcott’s department chair, Ilze Zigurs, wrote in his nomination letter. Wolcott also has been a leader in distance learning, making educational opportunities available to many more students. The award will be officially presented during a luncheon in April. Congratulations to Dr. Wolcott for this well-deserved award! [April 20, 2013]

ISQA ROCKS UNO FUNDRAISER The Chancellor's Commission on the Status of Women sponsored a raffle and campus-wide change campaign to raise money for the UNO Employee Loan Fund. This fund allows UNO employees to apply for an interest free loan if they encounter a financial hardship. Through both the raffle and change campaign, over $1,600 was raised to help UNO employees during a difficult time in their lives. Congratulations to the Information Systems & Quantitative Analysis department which will receive a cookie party and visit from Chancellor Christiansen after raising over 27 pounds of change through the CCSW Change Campaign. The Biology department and Information Services, Student Affairs, and Enrollment Management group were the second and third place winners, respectively. A special thanks to all that participated and donated through these events. [April 16, 2013]

NEW ISQA FACULTY MEMBER WINS BEST PUBLICATION AWARD New ISQA faculty member Matt Germonprez - along with co-authors Dirk Hovorka and Uri Gal - have been awarded the Best Publication of 2011 Award by the Association for Information Systems. They received this honor for the paper titled "Secondary Design: A Case of Behavioral Design Science Research," which was published in the Journal of the Association for Information Systems. Congratulations to Matt and his co-authors for this important award! (Click the picture at left for a larger version.) [January 4, 2013]

GRADUATE CAPSTONE PROJECT HIGHLIGHTED A recent article in the Omaha World Herald highlighted the Fall 2012 graduate capstone project. [December 19, 2012]

GRADUATE STUDENTS PRESENT CAPSTONE PROJECT The second Spring 2012 MS in MIS Capstone group at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, was tasked to build a prototype tool that an investor could employ to assist them in choosing the optimized combination of option contract trades which would provide an optimum return on investment. Designed to use available open programming interfaces from many major brokerage firms, the team developed a web-based, analytical tool that will choose the optimal option contracts to purchase. This puts enormous power into an investors hands. The set of tools will allow a customer to interact with their brokerage accounts, and choose various investment strategies that conform to their individual investment styles. Through a direct connection from the analysis tool, clients are able to purchase all option contracts directly from their brokerage account. Additionally, clients are able to leverage their history on future investments. [May 6, 2012]

DR. ZIGURS HONORED WITH CCSW AWARD The UNO Chancellor’s Commission on the Status of Women (CCSW) has selected Dr. Ilze Zigurs as the winner of this year’s CCSW Outstanding Achievement Award. The selection committee made their decision based on her significant contributions toward addressing and improving the status of women and gender issues at UNO in their academic work or activities. Dr. Zigurs was presented with this award on Wednesday, March 28, 2012. (Click the picture at left for a larger version.)

The ISQA department congratulates our Chair, Dr. Zigurs, on this well-deserved award! [April 12, 2012]

ISQA HONORED WITH UNIVERSITY-WIDE DEPARTMENTAL TEACHING AWARD The ISQA department has been awarded the University of Nebraska 2011 University-Wide Departmental Teaching Award. University President, Dr. James Milliken mentions that the ISQA department "has distinguished itself through excellence in a wide range of accomplishments and initiatives. It demonstrates commitment to the finest in teaching, as well as a commitment to serving the Omaha community, the state of Nebraska, and the profession. Members of the department have shown exceptional dedication to the education of students by successfully incorporating new technologies into the curriculum and providing students with extensive opportunities for valuable training and hands-on experience." The award was presented to the department by University of Nebraska President James B. Milliken at a ceremony at the Scott Conference Center on Friday, April 1. [April 4, 2011]