Member

The world – and the world of business – is changing at an ever-faster pace; technological innovations, globalization, increased diversity, and political upheavals require forward-thinking and agile leaders, managers, and thought leaders.

“To be competitive in such a global environment, we have to be on the cutting edge of doing things innovatively,” said Professor of Management Lori Coakley, Ph.D.

The programs complement Bryant’s distinctive concentrations in Human Resource Management and Global Supply Chain Management

Two new management concentrations – Leadership and Innovation, and Team and Project Management — underscore the University’s commitment to preparing students for the changing workplace. The programs, beginning in September, complement Bryant’s distinctive concentrations in Human Resource Management and Global Supply Chain Management.

Bryant’s Management program is highly ranked – No. 5 in the United States by College Factual/USA Today 2017.  The revisions to the program illustrate Bryant’s agility in responding to global dynamism and commitment to continuous improvement.

Leadership and Innovation

“Our new Leadership and Innovation concentration will prepare students to become successful leaders under conditions of ambiguity and uncertainty,” said Management Department Chair and Associate Professor of Management Diya Das, Ph.D. The robust curriculum, she said, includes classes in design thinking and strategic management of technological innovation as well as a distinctive leadership capstone course.

Coakley, a certified design thinking facilitator, believes that the new concentrations highlight what Bryant does so well: anticipating what skill sets will be in demand in the future, and developing academic programs to meet that need.  “We’re unique in getting students to think differently starting from their freshman year with IDEA. We are giving students tools to be uncomfortable and look at the world differently.”

Project and Team Management

Project management’s interdisciplinary nature makes the Project and Team Management concentration valuable for all students, whether they are studying business or liberal arts, noted Associate Professor of Management Angela Wicks, Ph.D. “When Bryant faculty share their business consulting expertise and experiences into the classrooms – as we all do – it’s invaluable for the students’ learning,” she said.

Students enrolled in the Project and Team Management concentration will complete a full-scale consulting project and report for a company with a business dilemma. They also will prepare to sit for the Certified Associate in Project Management exam, given through Bryant’s Executive Development Center. That allows them to graduate not only with a highly relevant degree, but with a prestigious professional certification, as well.

Das noted that research and lengthy discussions with Bryant’s award-winning Amica Center for Career Education staff established that “in the world of work today, everything is run as projects … and everyone is all set up in teams.” Construction companies, health care systems, and every company in Silicon Valley all use project management, she said.  “Project and team management is a set of skills that is emerging as one with the highest demand.”

Roger Williams University’s latest Faculty and Staff Writing Retreat drew record participation on May 23-24, bringing 28 people together at the University Library to devote two full days to uninterrupted writing and editing.

Robert E. Shea, RWU’s Associate Provost for the Advancement of Teaching & Learning, said this marked the fourth retreat in which RWU faculty and staff have worked from early in the morning until late at night on book projects, research papers and other writing projects. The retreats take place in January and May.

In all, participants dedicate more than 20 hours to their writing tasks, benefitting from research assistance by two librarians, taking advantage of feedback from RWU Writing Center writing consultants and pausing to refuel with coffee and food in the Mary Tefft White Cultural Center.

“The things they like the most are the time, the pampering and the consultation on demand,” Shea said.

This time around, the participants included Nicole Dyszlewski, a Research/Access Services Librarian at the RWU School of Law, who was working on a section of a book titled “LGBTQ and the Law: An Annotated Bibliography.”

“It’s nice that the institution supports our scholarly research,” she said.

Deborah Johnson, the law school’s Director of Diversity and Outreach Coordinator of International Programs, sat nearby, working on an article about cybersecurity insurance and the law that she plans to submit to a law journal.

Johnson said she was glad to have time to focus on the project. “On a day-to-day basis, I just don’t have the time,” she said.

Click to read more…

As people increasingly turn to computers and smartphones to run their lives, tech firms and other businesses create a seemingly endless array of tools designed to streamline digital activity. And although we benefit from these innovations, there is much about them that runs counter to the artistic imagination. Recognizing the growing desire of artists and designers to exploit the creative potential of new technologies, this spring RISD launched Computation, Technology and Culture (CTC), an undergraduate concentration that invites students to experiment with digital devices, programs and languages, and integrate them into their diverse studio practices.

Experimental and Foundation Studies (EFS) Programs Head Shawn Greenlee 96 PR, who administers the new concentration, says a central goal is to foster more versatile makers by limiting dependence on proprietary hardware and software. “We want students to resist using technology the way creators think they’re supposed to use it,” the electronic media and sound artist explains. Through the new 15-credit undergraduate concentration (which is like a minor at other colleges), students learn to write code, develop software and build programmable machines while also coming to better understand how these things are transforming art, design and the world at large.

Greenlee began leading efforts to establish a CTC concentration once the interest and need became increasingly apparent in recent years. In co-teaching a course called Experimental Data Visualization, he realized that students were searching for ways “to engage with [digital] code as a medium and material.” Soon he and fellow faculty members Carl Lostritto and Clement Valla MFA 09 DM began applying for various grants and other sources of funding to plan a cutting-edge curriculum suited to the needs of emerging artists and designers.

CTC “creates pathways for students to specialize” in many areas of digital art and technologically-informed making, says Greenlee – from programming for music and sound design to creating virtual-reality and immersive environments. Concentrators can also take related courses in diverse departments – from Sculpture studios on robotics to Liberal Arts courses on the history of technology – to build a highly individualized, interdisciplinary experience. Designed for those at all levels of experience with programming and code, the concentration is expected to attract roughly 50 students a year as it continues to grow.

Initial courses
In addition to the core Introduction to Computation studio, this year’s innovative CTC courses explored various aspects of our increasingly programmed world, from internet-age art and architecture to sonic sculpture and, in a Wintersession travel course to Argentina, the intersection of digital and artisanal cultures. Through spring studios like Ambient Interfaces: Activated Objects, taught by Assistant Professor Alejandro Borsani, students made use of conceptual approaches and learned practical strategies for integrating electronics into their work.

Click to read more…