Smith Technology Fellows

Smith Technology Fellows perform a variety of duties, which may include serving as teaching assistants with technology-intensive classes, or as research assistants, executing targeted technology development projects for use in instruction or research, assisting faculty and others with targeted projects involving software such as Oracle or .NET. Some project assignments will require experience using specific software platforms and will provide technical support for courses, assist faculty with tutorials and demonstrations, and assist student teams in projects. Students working on projects which require specific technology skills will be eligible to attend vendor hands-on training sessions. Projects will generally be defined as one semester in duration but could extend over the academic year. Compensation for work on projects is $10/hour, with projects ranging from 200-400 hours, which can be spread over a semester or a year. Projects may be renewable for additional semesters.

Holly Mann is the Champion for this program and will manage all STFellows work schedules on behalf of faculty project directors. Click here to view her bio.

Fellows Application Eligibility

• Must be a Business Major
• Rising Junior preferred, 2nd term freshmen may apply
• 3.2 minimum cum GPA—appeals considered for outstanding applicants below 3.2
• superior writing and communication skills

Application & Selection Process

• The application for the Fall 2009 cohort will reopen in Spring 2009.
• You can work on your application in any order you choose.
• You can save your application as a draft (before making a final submission). Your saved application is located in your "Profile" under "My Applications" in UNet. Please remember not to submit your application until you have finished entering all parts of your application . You will only be able to submit this application once and are then unable to return to make edits.
• When you are working on your application and you save it as a draft you will have the opportunity to add the recommenders name and email address. UNet will then email your recommender and provide them then link to upload their letter.

Testimony

• Michela Wariebi

STF Fellows Projects

Updated research projects are listed below.

Dean Cleveland, Mary Harms, and John Ruppert - Design & Innovation in Marketing

The Design Fellows program will provide instruction on principles of design in marketing, as well as a hands-on skills-based laboratory course—ARTT354—which covers the Adobe Creative Suite 3. The class will work in a Macintosh environment in a newly-designed computer laboratory in Van Munching Hall to develop their skills in applying design and marketing concepts to actual projects as part of the Design Fellows program.

Responsibilities: Technical and design support for the faculty instructor and for Design Fellows students enrolled in ARTT 354. The STI Fellow will serve as a dedicated teaching assistant for ARTT 354, attending 6 hours in class/week. Additionally, the STI Fellow will be assigned to provide support for students working on their projects in the lab, which will be dedicated two evenings/week for a total of 6 hours/week. The STI Fellow will be a part of the larger STI Media Team, which will also provide support and additional training opportunities, and will be expected to participate in weekly meetings—approximately 3 hours/week.

Eligibility: Completion of ARTT 354 with “B” grade or better, or demonstrated proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite 3, Full-time UMD-College Park student in good standing, Willingness and ability to learn new techniques, software applications etc.

Dean Cleveland & Holly Mann - UNet Digital Yearbook

The Smith Undergraduate Program sponsors the Digital Yearbook Committee, which compiles photographs and other documents throughout the year and produces an electronic yearbook for all graduating seniors. This committee needs greater technical and design support to produce a high-quality product, and can benefit by being assigned a dedicated STI Fellow to support the work of the committee and to interface with the undergraduate fellows program, which is also compiling photographs, videos and other documents for marketing and promotions of the programs as well as for the digital yearbook.

Responsibilities: The STI Fellow would be part of the STI Media Team, working with the digital yearbook committee to set standards and protocols in receiving and compiling documents. Responsibilities include weekly team meetings with the media team and with the digital yearbook committee. Provide technical support for production of the digital yearbook, with OIT Work with the STI Fellow assigned to the Design Fellows program, to provide system support for ARTT 354. Would be required to contribute 1 evening/week in the dedicated design lab assigned to ARTT354

Eligibility: Information systems or BMGT + Computer Science major preferred, Proficiency with both Mac and PC environment preferred, Experience working in OIT or other computer environment preferred.

David L. Major & Ken G. Smith - Competitive Dynamics

This project would be to build a relational database with a front-end, multi-user interface that will support the entry of large volumes of content-analyzed data. The database will support research in the area of Competitive Dynamics. Competitive dynamics studies require the thorough analysis of ten of thousands of archived news articles (typically generating a data file of five to ten thousand entry items). Ultimately the coded content allows for the testing of hypotheses that relate to a full spectrum of competitive behaviors among firms. It yields the truest measure of competition among business rivals.

Historically, scholarly research in competitive dynamics has been compiled within the hard bounds of spreadsheet applications. Instead, I would expect this project to yield a durable/malleable database tool that can be populated by our team of coders, operating remotely. Ideally the database tool produced in this project may become the gold standard for ongoing competitive dynamics research.

The database must have at least three overarching capabilities: 1) Expedites data entry (Generate dynamic user forms with features such as drop-down boxes; pre-populating fields; calculating fields; etc). 2) Enables the manipulation and reporting of multiple levels of inter-relationships/cross-tabulation among actions, actors, and surrounding characteristics (Reports building capability). And, 3) Readily allows for the statistical testing of subsets of the raw data (Data output files compatible with statistical software packages such as STATA and SPSS).

This project requires an individual with knowledge of database applications. It is probably best suited for an advanced student. In the Fall and Spring, the Fellow would work closely with the team first in the development of the database, and then in ongoing enhancements.

It may appeal to a student that has previously built at least some rudimentary database with user interface and is now interested in greatly expanding his/her abilities and contribution.

Susan Taylor & Paul Tesluk (in capacity at Co-Directors of HCIT) - Development of HCIT On-Line Capabilities and Website Diversity

We are requesting Smith Technology Integration Fellow to work in the capacity of assisting HCIT with the development an its on line survey process and survey feedback process as well as the diversity of technologies incorporated into its website posting. The Smith Technology Integration Fellow will assist with developing a methodology for on-line administration and on-line database management, along with analysis and feedback system to participants. The purpose of the tool will be to support several On-going HCIT research efforts in leadership assessment and development, coaching, adoption to information technology, and a cross-cultural examination of differences in the innovation process. In addition, the Fellow will assist HCIT by developing a methodology for integrating a broader diversity of technology into its website content, e.g. podcasts, edited short videos in real player or other formats from its conference content and recommending a maintenance process that will enable the Center to move forward with the maintenance of a current and attractive presentation of its website content.

Because of the comprehensiveness of the project, we are requesting to have a Smith Technology Integration Fellow be assigned to this project for the full 08-089AY. The idea candidate would have skills in database management, web programming (HTML, etc), knowledge of video compression formats like Windows Media, MPEG Real Media, QuickTime & Macromedia Flash Experience with Video streaming and Video/Audio Podcasting. and knowledge of leadership development, the information technology adoption process as well as the process of organizational innovation.