OSU-Okmulgee IT students win at regional conference

Friday, November 3, 2006

Three students from Oklahoma State University-Okmulgee’s Information Technologies Division captured first-place awards at the Association of Information Technology Professionals regional contest recently held at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas.

Stacy Tipton of Henryetta, Oklahoma, won first place in the Office Integration category. Jason Alvarado of Yukon, Oklahoma, and Jason Hart of Muskogee, Oklahoma, teamed up to win first place in Network Design and third place in Web Design.

AITP’s Region 3 Fall Conference and Contest drew university students from Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. Competitions included Database Development, JAVA, Network Design, Office Integration, PC Troubleshooting, Systems Analysis, Visual Studio and Web Design.

“These contests allow students who have worked hard to develop their skills and knowledge to demonstrate and be recognized for those abilities,” said Scott Newman, Information Technologies division chair at OSU-Okmulgee. “Such competitions also provide students with opportunities to gauge their skills with those of their peers.”

Tipton said she was surprised more young women were not in the competition. 

“This is a great career field, and girls need to know they can be successful in it," Tipton said.

The Office Integration competitors were assigned a fictional company for which they had to generate various business solutions using Microsoft Office.

“We had to create a database to monitor the progress of a corporate project and then develop an Excel spreadsheet to track earnings and expenses,” Tipton said. “Next, we had to prepare a PowerPoint presentation for upper management with dynamic links to our data.  Finally, we drafted a memo to lower management updating them on the project. Halfway through the contest, my computer died, and I had to begin all over again. I thought, ‘Now I can't win.’ I was really pleased that I could meet the challenge of having to restart and still win first place!"

Alvarado and Hart spent the entire day on two contests.

“For the Web design competition, we had to re-create the AITP Web site,” Alvarado said. “In the Network Design contest, we were given a fictional company as our client. They were acquiring another company; we were asked to develop a migration plan, network design as well as network diagrams — everything that would effectively integrate systems from two different organizations. It took us over five hours to complete both the Web Design and Network Design challenges.”

Hart said the experience aligned closely with his coursework at OSU-Okmulgee.

“We go to class every day, work on a variety of projects and learn new things, but we sometimes wonder how we'll be able to apply our skills and knowledge in the field," Hart said. "The competitions provided us with opportunity to put what we’ve learned into action.”

OSU-Okmulgee is known for its hands-on technical education, world-class equipment and active partnerships with industry. Degree programs are developed according to emerging educational and labor market needs. Seventeen programs of study lead to Associate in Applied Science degrees, three programs of study lead to Associate in Science transfer degrees, and three to Bachelor of Technology degrees — Information Assurance and Forensics, Instrumentation Engineering Technology and Civil Engineering Technology.

Through frequent advisory board meetings, corporate partners make significant contributions to curriculum, faculty improvement, equipment acquisition, internship experiences for students and employment opportunities for graduates. OSU-Okmulgee also promotes economic development among small Oklahoma firms by providing training and assistance with technology deployment, financing, bidding and purchasing procedures.