Management Information Systems

This course introduces the fundamental concepts and functionality of blockchain technology. It explores how that technology records, organizes, and verifies information and how it implements smart contracts. The various financial and non-financial applications of blockchain technology are reviewed. Students will demonstrate their knowledge through exercises, exams, and a final project that designs and develops a basic blockchain application for a business problem. The course concludes by examining the legal and regulatory framework, along with potential risks and hurdles faced by those implementing and using blockchain technologies for financial and other business contexts.

This course focuses on the ways value can be created and captured through innovation. Focusing on the assessment of customers, organizational capabilities, and competition, students will consider a variety of different types of innovations and their associated ethical and financial value propositions. Students will learn analytic tools to successfully assess and commercialize technology, product, and service innovations in a variety of contexts.

This course introduces students to the theory and practice of database management and the application of database software to implement business information systems that support managerial and operational decision-making. Special topics covered include relational data models, query languages, normalization, locking, concurrency control and recovery. The course covers data administration and the design of data tables for computerized databases. Students will use a commercial database package to design and implement a small business database application.

This course studies the problem of making computers act in ways which we call "intelligent". Topics include major theories, tools and applications of artificial intelligence, aspects of knowledge representation, searching and planning, and natural language understanding. Students will be expected to complete projects which express problems that require search in state spaces, and to propose appropriate methods for solving the problems.

This course offers a business focused data analytics introduction. Using cutting-edge tools and approaches to the analysis of data through supervised machine learning, the course teaches how to utilize “big data” for effective decision-making. The course creates data analytics skills through hands-on exposure to data and analytic techniques embedded in Automated Machine Learning tools. Application areas covered include Marketing (pricing and marketing of luxury shoes), Supply Chain (predicting parts backorders), Finance (predicting safe loans), Talent Management (predicting and explaining attrition), Service Delivery (predicting hospital readmissions), as well as student-centric topics (college grades and starting salaries). This course provides foundations required to successfully apply the machine learning approaches to many of the most common business problems.

This course provides an introduction to the technologies and techniques for organizing, analyzing, visualizing, and presenting data about business operations in a way that creates business value, and prepares students to be knowledgeable producers and consumers of business intelligence. During the course, students will study a variety of business decisions that can be improved by analyzing large volumes of data about customers, sales, operations, and business performance. Students will employ commercially available business intelligence software to organize, summarize, visualize, and analyze data sets and make recommendations to decision makers based on the results. The course explores the technical challenges of conducting analytics on various forms of data including social media data and the managerial challenges of creating value from business intelligence expertise deployed in organizations. The course includes business cases, in-class discussion, hands-on analyses of business data, and methods for presenting results to decision makers. It is designed for any student interested in analyzing data to support business decision-making, including students whose primary focus is Management Information Systems, Marketing, Operations and Industrial Engineering, Business, Management Engineering, Data Science, or Computer Science.

This course integrates students’ background in MIS in a one-term project focusing on development of creative solutions to open-ended business and manufacturing problems. The project will utilize systems analysis and design tools such as systems development life cycle, feasibility study, cost-benefit analysis, structured analysis and design. Students will acquire the skills necessary to analyze, develop, implement, and document real-life information systems. Students must be able to organize themselves and the project to complete their work within a seven week term. It is recommended that MIS majors take this course in preparation for their MQP.

This course focuses on the newest developments in the field of user experience (UX) (e.g., the use of physiological measures such as eye tracking in UX design) and provides an introduction to various methods used in cutting-edge research laboratories to study user experience. Both theoretical concepts and practical skills with appropriate development tools will be addressed within the scope of the class through hands-on projects and assignments. Students will develop a plan to innovate with user experience and will implement a simple prototype of their plan.