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Practicing with SQL

On Friday, February 24th, the Operations and Information Management (OPIM) Department’s Gladstein Lab maxed out in attendance for the second technology workshop of the semester, an Introduction to SQL. The workshop is part of a series of technology workshops being put on by the department throughout the semester, as part of the new OPIM Innovate Initiative.

For those who do not know, SQL (Structured Querying Language) is a data-driven application that retrieves information from databases and allows for creating, processing and querying data by retrieving information.

Anna Radziwillowicz, an Instructor in-Residence at the Hartford and West Hartford campuses, taught the workshop with the goal of giving students a basic understanding of SQL and practice writing queries. Radziwillowicz gave a background on databases before moving into creating a data table.

Three students at the workshop claimed to have previous experience using SQL, Radziwillowicz said. Because the majority of the students did not have any or limited experience, she concentrated on giving students a basic overview of the technology, not going too far in depth. She said that a continuation class was a possibility if there was enough interest.

 

The OPIM Department created demo accounts for students to practice with SQL. During the workshop, students practiced retrieving data from a database, creating a data table and entering data to the table.

At the end of the workshop, Radziwillowicz said students could request a personal account to further practice with SQL at the Business Help Desk by mentioning completion of the workshop.

Keep up-to-date with the upcoming workshops and register online ahead of time to reserve your spot at the next workshop.


Cinthia B. Satornino Joins Business Faculty

Cinthia B. Satornino (Nathan Oldham/UConn School of Business)
Cinthia B. Satornino (Nathan Oldham/UConn School of Business)

Professor Contributes to White House Agenda on Fostering Success Among Hispanic College Students

Newly hired UConn professor Cinthia Beccacece Satornino hopes to use her expertise as part of a White House educational initiative to assist Hispanic students in completing their college education. Continue Reading


Over 200 Would-Be Entrepreneurs Seek Mentoring, Business Advice

Freshman Michael Mayo has dreams of building a roller-skating business adjacent to his alma mater, New Britain High School. (Devin Basdekian/UConn School of Business)
Freshman Michael Mayo has dreams of building a roller-skating business adjacent to his alma mater, New Britain High School. (Devin Basdekian/UConn School of Business)

“It’s Not a Passive World”

Freshman Michael Mayo has dreams of building a roller-skating business adjacent to his alma mater, New Britain High School. His goal would be to afford students some much-needed recreation while also offering them classes and hands-on knowledge about how to run a business. Continue Reading



Best Paper Award: Anna Brown

Anna Brown, assistant professor of accounting, earned a Best Paper Award at the American Accounting Association International Section Meeting in Tampa, Florida, in January 2017. She presented her paper, “Did U.S. Firms Experience Positive Information Externalities Associated with Mandatory IFRS Adoption?” which examines whether U.S. firms experience information spillovers or externalities when their global peers adopt more similar financial reporting standards.


Global Business Leadership Series Begins This Week

2017-02-22-meeting-globe

Popular Speaker Series Returns; Students Can Earn Bonus Certificate

The School of Business’ popular Global Business Leadership Seminar Series (GBLSS) begins this week with presentations by successful business executives in diverse industries. All programs are held in the Konover Auditorium at the Dodd Center from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. unless noted otherwise. Continue Reading



About the OPIM Innovate Initiative

OPIM Innovate is the new initiative adopted by the Operations and Information Management (OPIM) Department in the Fall 2016. The initiative was developed to market the Management Information Systems (MIS) major and to bring new emerging technology to students.

Department Head Ram Gopal and Instructor in-Residence Jonathan Moore developed and implemented the initiative by expanding the department’s research lab space, bringing in new emerging technology. The lab is equipped with Virtual Reality (VR), 3D Printing, Internet of Things (IoT), Microcontrollers and data analytics.

Initially, the OPIM Department came up with the initiative because they were finding that MIS students with internships in the field were working in innovation centers with technologies, such as IoT, drones, and VR.

“We realized that many interests lie in technology outside the provided curriculum,” Moore said of the expansion.

Moore said that this idea lead to building a more dedicated space for students and faculty in the department to work on projects and learn about different types of technology outside of the classroom. As a whole, the initiative is meant to help students work through the process of completing a project, while learning new technology in the process.

Beginning in the Fall, Moore organized multiple workshops for students featuring different topics relating to new technology. So far there have been workshops about Linux, 3D Printing, Splunk Analytics, IoT, Tableau, and VR. What started as exclusive to MIS students, workshops are now open to all students.

This spring, with the initiative more developed, OPIM Innovate hired a team of students, trained in the design thinking process to operate the Innovation Space and Research lab. Having these students involved helps guide users of the space and to provide technology demonstrations and follow ups to the formal workshops.

An advisory group, made up of students and faculty, has been formed for the initiative to brainstorm different ideas, provide feedback on the current processes and to build buy-in from different areas. Moore said that they are always looking for students or faculty interested in joining the advisory group to share their ideas for the innovation space, future workshops, and to give him any feedback they may have. Any individuals interested in joining the advisory group should contact Jonathan Moore at jonathan.a.moore@uconn.edu.

In the future, Moore hopes to team up with other groups at UConn and potentially outside companies to advance the space and better the experience for students.