Business analytics, IT security and supply chain feature prominently in the revised School of Business program

The School of Business is making significant changes to one of its undergraduate courses, modernizing it to focus on data analysis and create a more direct pipeline to employment.

Starting this fall, the Management Information Systems (MIS) program will become Analytics and Information Management (AIM). The new major will offer four majors: Business Intelligence, Application Development, IT Security and Supply Chain Management.

“We’re making the change to better align the major with the changes we’re seeing in industry and society, particularly the importance of analytics,” says Professor Jon Moore, who led the team that revised the curriculum. “These four new majors will allow our students to be more focused on their area of ​​interest and graduate with more specific skills.”

Professor Cuihong Li, Head of the OPIM department, which includes the new major, says the program’s restructuring and upgrade comes at the right time. Advanced technology has made vast amounts of data available, enabled new business models, and encouraged smarter decision-making. At the same time, increasing digital connections between machines, people and devices have made systems more vulnerable to cyberattacks.

“The AIM degree provides students with the coveted knowledge and skills at the forefront of business technologies, analytics and IT security. It will prepare them for a successful career by using technology and information generated by the technology to meet business needs in a secure environment,” she says. “AIM has a thoughtful design that offers not only broad coverage, but also depth in different areas.”

Today, nearly 200 students enroll in the program, and even during the pandemic, program graduates have had 100 percent job placements within three months of starting, Moore says.

Professor Craig Calvert, who also helped redesign the curriculum, says the addition of a supply chain focus and minor is a significant addition to the OPIM curriculum.

“Companies regularly contact me looking for students with supply chain management skills while the students are consistently incorporating supply chain into their career interests,” he says.

One of his former students, now a supply chain coordinator for a small company, took the course on a whim because it sounded interesting and eventually found a career.

A strength of the new UConn supply chain curriculum is its strong emphasis on quantitative analysis and analytics. “This will make our students the most competitive for jobs and allow them to have a strong long-term impact on the companies that hire them,” he says.

Professor Stephen Fitzgerald says the faculty has worked on the redesign over the past year, advising alumni and professionals across industries and examining professional, organizational and regulatory trends.

“It was exciting to revisit our core courses and reinvent our more advanced courses,” he says. “This work allows our students to delve into their areas of interest within the AIM major while also opening doors for non-major students to minors in an area of ​​interest to them. ”

“Students will be able to differentiate themselves by highlighting the area they are interested in and have invested in, which will help them differentiate from applicant pools and in their current positions,” he says.

Students who are now juniors in the program have the option to stay on the MIS track or take on one of the new concentrations. The OPIM department works closely with the Office of Undergraduate Advising to assist students in determining their path.

All MIS courses, names and registration numbers are renamed and new courses are added, including Risk, Trust and Modern Security, Managerial Supply Chain Management and Supply Chain Logistics. The department will provide an equivalence table to help students navigate course and credit requirements.