Solutions For Economic Growth (SEG) Center
The Ralph Jaeschke Solutions for Economic Growth Center (SEG Center) is a premier vehicle for project based learning at UW-Parkside. SEG center brings together the local community, businesses with the students and faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside as depicted in the figure below.
The SEG Center at UW-Parkside provides an opportunity for students to gain hands-on experience working with companies and organizations to solve business problems. Student teams are assigned to the selected projects and are run using a strict project management approach. All teams also have a faculty member with whom they work throughout the duration of the project. Continuous interaction with the client is essential for the project teams to ensure that they are delivering a final solution that is in-line with the overall problem and needs of the client.
What do both parties gain from the projects? The students receive an opportunity to find solutions to real problems affecting real companies. They learn to identify the issue and work to find a realistic solution given the environments within which they are working. They also learn project management and the importance of being able to deliver a final solution or product on-time and within budget. These projects expose students to real business issues, and provide them with hands-on work experience in finding solutions to business problems.
The companies and organizations gain new perspectives from individuals not closely aligned with their business. This provides the company with unbiased and honest feedback for the problem at hand. There is no financial burden on the organization for the services that are provided. While they would be paying large sums of money for consultants to come in and provide this service, UW-Parkside does not require the clients to pay consulting fees for the services provided by the SEG center. In addition, companies get a "preview" of students whom they are may hire in future. Often, by working closely with a company on a project, students implicitly get trained in the standards, processes and procedures of that company. If the company hires a SEG student, it may be able to save time and initial training costs for the new-hire.
SEG center is comprised of several specialty centers which focus on specific areas of business. The information technology practice center (ITPC) works on IT projects, while the marketing specialty center (MSC) works on marketing projects. While ITPC and MSC are fully operational, other centers such as operations management specialty center, and accounting and finance specialty center are in their formative stages.
Some examples of SEG projects have included development and implementation of business and marketing plans, design and implementation of data networks, web applications and database applications.
For more information on SEG please feel free to contact:
Thomas Witt, Director
(262) 595-2719
witt@uwp.edu
