Marriott School of Management information systems students received top marks during the National Collegiate Conference in Atlanta April 7-9.
The Brigham Young University students placed first and second in a database design contest and received honorable mentions for system analysis and design. About 800 students representing 88 schools across the nation attended this year's conference.
Robert Turner of Lehi, Utah, and Slawomir Bialkiewicz of Slaskie, Poland, took first place, and Kurt Kirkham of Pittsburg, Texas, and Carl Anderson of Corinne, Utah, received second in database design. Bialkiewicz, Kirkham, Turner, and Taylor Wells of Gig Harbor, Wash., also received honorable mentions for system analysis and design.
"We selected the team a month beforehand and met once a week going over old problems from previous years as preparation for the competition," says Gary Hansen, associate professor of information systems and faculty adviser for the conference.
During the three-day conference, events were scheduled from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Each competition lasted three to four hours and focused on database design and systems analysis and design, Web design, Java programming, network design and visual studio. When not competing, students interacted with peers, attended seminars by information technology professionals and networked with recruiters from companies nationwide.
"Teams are given a problem and during the next three hours they come up with a solution and implement the solution in either Web design, database design or Java programming," explained Robert Jackson, assistant professor of information systems.
The conference, sponsored by the Association for Information Technology Professionals, highlighted specific skills such as Java programming and Web page design. During the conference a career fair offered students job interviews, internships and job opportunities with leading industry organizations.
BYU teams have competed at the NCC since 2003.
Writer: Don Osmond
