ITM Club takes home top prize in international competition

Competing against 77 AIS student chapters from 13 countries, members of University of Michigan-Dearborn’s Information Technology Management (ITM) Club proved they were ready for the global stage.

Group members earned first place in social media optimization, second place in video, third place in Windows mobile app development and reached the finals in IT risk management.

“I’m extremely proud of this group of students,” said faculty adviser Lise Urbaczewski. “Many of our members pulled all-nighters at the conference to make sure our final submissions were up to the students’ standards of excellence.”

The road to Utah began last fall when students competed in an initial virtual component. Each competition track named three to seven finalist groups to compete at Brigham Young University, and UM-Dearborn was the only chapter to qualify for the finals in each of the four competition tracks.

Other qualifying universities included Brigham Young, Illinois State University, Temple University, University of Memphis, Villanova University, Carnegie Mellon University-Qatar and University of Technology-Jamaica.

Six ITM Club members – Austin Abair, Paul Blackford, Kyle Bridges, Heather McNabb, Lauren Toccalino and Greg Walker – traveled to Provo for the competition and leadership conference. In addition to competing, students networked with professionals and other chapter members, attended sessions and participated in social activities.

“What you don’t see in the awards listing is the overall experience our student had at the conference,” said Urbaczewski. “Our club received so much recognition and respect from others. We were sought out by the corporate sponsors, faculty advisers, conference planners and other MIS/ITM students. UM-Dearborn is on the map when it comes to ITM.”