Monday Update | College of Business, Economics, and Computing Update

Published: October 5, 2020
By: UW-Parkside Marketing & Communications

CBEC Monday Update

CBEC Monday Update Video

Dear Colleagues,

The College of Business, Economics, and Computing (CBEC) engages students, faculty, staff and community in innovative ways to make a positive impact on the region, our disciplines, global community, and, most importantly, our student’s lives.

In 2019-2020, 320 students graduated with a bachelor’s or master’s degree in CBEC programs. This number includes graduates of our newest programs:

  • Online MBA (MBAO) – 28 graduates
  • Online Business Degree Completion program (BUSO) – 16 graduates
  • University of Wisconsin Flexible Option Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (Flex BSBA) - 4 graduates.

Each of these programs are designed with substantial community involvement in order to serve the needs of this region. BUSO and Flex BSBA are specifically designed to help students with work and family obligations complete their bachelor’s degrees. Flex BSBA is the only Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) accredited competency-based business program in the world.

As highlighted in the following graphs, MBAO, BUSO, and Flex BSBA have seen significant growth:

CBEC Monday Update Graph 1

CBEC Monday Update Graph 2

Flex BSBA

CBEC Monday Update Graph 3

While developing talent is the college’s greatest impact, CBEC strives to provide a positive impact in other ways. The Small Business Development Center (SBDC) welcomes Mary Fischer-Tracy as the Interim Director in replacement of retired director, Jim McPhaul. The SBDC has helped 40 small business owners in Kenosha in 28 different industries in response to the Covid-19 recession. In addition, they have worked with 10 Kenosha downtown business owners who have been affected by the riots.

The Ralph Jaeschke Solutions for Economic Growth Center (SEG Center) worked on 78 community projects involving 347 students in 2019-2020. In addition, the App Factory worked on 14 projects last year including a project for UW System that was recognized by UW System President and former Governor Thompson. The system is a SharePoint site that helps UW System answer public records requests.

The App Factory has finally moved from a garage motif to a more modern workplace. Salina Servantez, a recent graduate in Computer Science and Psychology, led the remodeling effort (App Factory 2.0) and coined the motto, “A woman-friendly design with everyone in mind.”

CBEC Monday Update Graph 4

The faculty in CBEC continue to publish. The faculty published 75 journal articles in the last five years and these articles have generated over 400 citations by their peers. A few recent highlights include:

  • Bingqing (Claire) Wu won best conference paper at the Southern Management Association Conference for her paper, “A Power-with versus Power-over Framework of Leadership Behaviors and Creativity.”
  • Sahar Bahmani’s paper, “On the Mechanics of Economic Growth in Middle-Income Countries: The Role of ICT Infrastructure Development, Taxation and Other Macroeconomic Policies" was accepted for publication in The Singapore Economic Review.
  • Robert Fok’s article “Do cross-border mergers and acquisitions affect acquirers’ trade credit? Evidence from an emerging market,” was published in International Review of Economics and Finance.
  • Terry McGovern’s paper on using academic digital badges in modular information systems courses was accepted by the Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS). Unfortunately for Terry, HICSS is a virtual conference this year.

CBEC is delighted to welcome five new faculty and staff to the college:

  • Adeel Faheem is an Assistant Professor of Economics. He received a Master of Science degree in Economics from Toulouse School of Economics, Toulouse, France, and Ph.D. in Economics from Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas. Adeel’s recent research empirically investigates the competitive effects of vertical restraints and mergers in the US Beer market. His broader research interests lie at the intersections of Industrial Organization and Econometrics.
  • Dr. Vijayalakshmi (Viji) Ramasamy joined UW Parkside with extensive academic and research experience of over 24 years. She has taught and developed multiple Data Science, Computer Science, and Software Engineering courses at Anna University, India, and Miami University, Ohio. Her research leverages graph data analytics as a multidisciplinary domain comprising work from various fields such as Data Mining, Machine Learning, Pattern Recognition, and Graph Theory. It capitalizes on a broad range of expertise drawn from different disciplines, including cognitive neuroscience, computer, biological, social networks, and, most recently, undergraduate STEM Education (educational data mining and learning analytics). Dr. Viji has also held an adjunct position at the University of South Australia, established a Computational Neuroscience Laboratory at Anna University, India, and has worked on an NSF research grant in collaboration with Florida International University to assist her MS and Ph.D. students.
  • Kelli Stein is a new Lecturer and Instructional Specialist for the Department of Business. Her past professional experience is in MIS and project management in both corporate and consulting settings, as well as nonprofit management. She has a Bachelor of Business from UW-Whitewater and a Master of Science in Organizational Change Leadership and Project Management from UW-Platteville. She is married and has a 10-year old son. Her husband, Richard, is also an adjunct professor for UWP. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling, spending time with family and friends, and volunteering with local non-profit organizations, including co-chairing the annual Rotary Post Prom in Racine, WI.
  • Jennifer Wright Tsegai is a new Lecturer and Instructional Specialist for the Department of Business. Jennifer earned a B.S. in Public Affairs at Indiana University and an MBA from University of Utah. She has experience with data analytics and marketing for banks and has held Executive Director positions for nonprofit organizations.
  • Barbara Fischer-Galley is an Outreach Specialist for the SBDC. She is the owner-operator of Piccadilly Antiques. She has also worked at the Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative Corporation. Barbara has an AAS degree in Marketing from Gateway Technical College, B.S. in General Business from UW-Stout, and an MBA from Capella University.

Finally, I would like to draw your attention to two programs. The UW-Parkside Big Idea Innovation Challenge will be launching soon. Students competing in this idea competition have an opportunity to win up to $2500 to advance their idea and are eligible to compete in the Wisconsin Big Idea Tournament.

Students competing in this event may also want to take advantage of a similar event. Tech-Prize, in Racine, consists of multiple events including idea, app development, and esports competitions. The App Development competition concludes this semester. The idea competition includes mentoring for those who submit ideas and concludes with a two-week event in summer 2021. Throughout the year, Tech-Prize will hold a series of virtual Saturday morning workshops (titled Biz-shops). You are encouraged to participate in the live workshop but these are also recorded and will eventually be placed online. The workshops will take place through April 2021. Workshops include developing an idea, intellectual property, design thinking, and fundraising. You can find more information about Biz-Shops at: https://www.tech-prize.org/events/.

I wish you good health and good luck during this academic year.

Dirk Baldwin, Ph.D.
Dean, College of Business, Economics, and Computing

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