Information Technology Management and Leadership

This keynote presentation will discuss the current IT environment at NASA and the IT challenges that the agency faces as it moves into a new era of space exploration. The CIO from the Kennedy Space Center will discuss new strategic directions and supporting initiatives being implemented across the agency to enable future mission success.

Understanding communications and developing good communication skills are critical to effective leadership and success across organizations. What styles of interaction are most comfortable for you? How can you adapt them to be effective with others? The keys to good communication are understanding how communication happens, accounting for individual communication styles, learning to diagnose the communication needs of others, and mastering the art of communicating with others in a way that takes into account their communication needs. This interactive seminar will focus on these key elements of communication with opportunities for self-discovery and discussions on adapting your styles to be effective with others.

The environment is the largest enterprise system of all, and one that is impacted by information technology. As "green" initiatives and sustainability become a greater part of our consciousness, "green computing" will receive increasing focus in higher education. This presentation will explore sustainability, energy use, and "reduce, reuse, and recycle" programs.

Campuses today face a growing number of clashing cultures. Faculty struggle with traditional methods of teaching in an environment where demands for flexibility and convenience are rising. Learners increasingly treat a college degree like a commodity. Battles rage over resources allocation. Politicians are exerting influence on campus operations and outcomes. This session will address these issues and the role IT departments need to play to help higher education not just survive, but thrive.

Successful IT infrastructures and architectures are expected to nimbly provide the context for protecting and sharing information and identities. In today's world, new legislation, expectations from faculty and students, and managing risk several times a second are all threats to keeping current services relevant and time to market for new services reasonable. Understanding the importance and nature of the intersection created by security, identity, and policy is vital to planning the future of our infrastructures and architectures.

Several levels of information are required to run a healthy institution. Executives need to gauge progress on strategic objectives. Midlevel managers need to develop tactics. Many people require daily transactional information. We will address both the organizational and technical requirements needed to partner with each level of decision makers.

University at Buffalo has formed a new unit within our central IT organization with a focus on research coordination and advocacy. This talk describes our motivation, progress, challenges, and next steps as we continue to develop the unit and address multidisciplinary research needs.

Why is technology often blamed when bad behavioral things happen? This session will address how higher education provides American society with leadership on how to understand the role that technology plays, not only in our classrooms but also in our homes and families, as a conduit for the creation of culture and as a medium for individual development and identity formation of youth.