It’s no secret that all organizations are bombarded by the sweeping, ever-changing advancements in technology. Such buzzwords as Bitcoin, Cloud Computing, Bots, Machine Learning, and Cognitive Computing”inundate the airwaves, often shrouded by mystery and hype.  Companies have to navigate through all of this excitement to ensure they don’t miss the boat on the next wave, while at the same time ensure that the technology they invest in will succeed.  Managers are being asked to look through the confusion and create strategies and policies to address the impact of these changes in technology.

More often than not, the policies and strategies are implemented after a crisis when it’s already too late.  Technology management, in part, is not something that is being considered.  The trick is identifying what is important and when it should be implemented.

The Certificate in Management of Emerging Technologies at FMU addresses the problem of Hype vs. Reality.  With our diverse panel of experts, we offer you an opportunity to learn about different trends in technology, understand what they are, and build policies and strategies to manage the impact.

Tuition for the 5-month course is $1200. Use the button below to register one or more students for the course. Payment options are also available. For more information on the program, contact the FMU School of Business at 843-661-1419.

August 20 // Demystifying the New Trends in Technology with Susan Winter

September 10 // The Truth about Blockchain with John Leslie King

October 8 // Unpacking the Cloud with Ed Mahon

November 12 // Cybersecurity from Different Angles with Susan Campbell

December 10 // Conversation with Bots with Carolina Salge

Demystifying the New Trends in Technology

Recent technological advances are raising the prospect of radical innovations. Self-driving cars could reduce congestion, improve land use, and expand mobility or, alternatively, endanger other traffic, create widespread unemployment, and open new avenues for crime. Participants will learn how to identify and assess emerging technologies to better manage their business effects.

The Truth about Blockchain

Blockchain. You have been introduced to the hype.  The trick is to get past it.  This is easier than it looks – you already know how.  Someone tells you they can see the future.  You can tell if they are wealthy.  If they are not, then they probably cannot see the future. We build on that, applying the same strategy to the future of emerging technology.  You never get it 100% right, but you want to be better than 50/50.

Unpacking the Cloud

C-Level executives and those responsible for managing Information Technology release the Cloud as a superior service delivery model than current privately owned & managed data center. However, transitioning to the cloud is a difficult task and often includes increasing risk, cost and complexity. The need for a clear plan is critical. A cloud transition plan should include an assessment of your current environment, the cloud value proposition, and a transition plan.

Cybersecurity from Different Angles

Cybersecurity is as much a problem for people and organizations as it is for technology. Though technical systems are complex, most threats, vulnerabilities, and consequences stem from human actions, including the estimated 80% of attacks that involve a social engineering component. Viewing cybersecurity issues through different lenses can lead to a more robust understanding of the nature of threats and opportunities. In this session, you will leverage what you already know about managing people and systems to understand the challenges of managing cybersecurity resources.

Conversation with Bots

Public interest in social bots has exploded in the last few years, as evidenced by the recent use of algorithms to manipulate political processes around the world. In this session, you will learn the ethics of social bots, the opportunities (and challenges!) associated with their use in organizations, and how to design social bots for value creation.

Dr. Susan Winter, Associate Dean for Research at UMD

Dr. Winter has over 30 years of experience in teaching, researching, and consulting on the role of technology in the changing nature of work and how businesses can enhance the benefits of emerging innovations. She is currently working on initiatives in smart cities and in data science, and was previously at the National Science Foundation. She has developed and delivered many workshops for businesses, the government, and for NSF, and serves on the editorial boards of academic and practitioner journals focused on technology, information, and organizations.

Dr. John Leslie King is W.W. Bishop Collegiate Professor at UMich

Dr. King was a dean at UC Irvine and the University of Michigan, and Vice Provost at the University of Michigan before returning to faculty in 2011.  He has been on National Science Foundation advisory committees for Cyberinfrastructure, Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences, and Computer and Information Science and Engineering. He is an elected Fellow of the Association for IS and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  He is on the editorial boards of Communications of the ACM and IEEE Computer.  His research is on the relationship between social and technical change in highly institutionalized production sectors, such as finance.

Dr. Ed Mahon is the owner of Cloudworks Publishing

Dr. Mahon has been the Vice President and Chief Information Officer for 20 years and managed information technology at progressive management levels for an additional 15 years. He has published numerous practitioner articles regarding the management of Information Technology. He is also the author of an Amazon #1 new release on cloud computing, “Transitioning the Enterprise to the Cloud: A Business Approach”. Dr. Mahon has conducted dozens of information technology strategy sessions, keynote speaker engagements, and cloud workshops for universities and corporations.

Dr. Susan Campbell, instructor and researcher in cybersecurity at UMD

Dr. Campbell holds a joint appointment across the University of Maryland’s iSchool and Applied Research Lab for Intelligence and Security. Her research looks at the structure of cybersecurity professions and how cybersecurity workers’ cognitive abilities contribute to their performance. She develops and teaches courses in human-centered cybersecurity, contextualizing the technological problems of cybersecurity in the situations and organizations where they occur.

Dr. Carolina Salge Assistant Professor of MIS at WFU. 

Dr. Salge’s research is at the intersection of technology, social networks, and ethics. She is an expert on bots and the ethics surrounding their use. Bots are automated accounts in online social networks such as Twitter and Facebook and they can be used in a variety of ways, as for example, to explore the dark web and to disseminate live news about earthquakes. Dr. Salge is the author of Bot Ethics, a procedure the general social media community can use to decide whether the actions of bots are unethical.