How do you create and generate value through academic-practice connections? Join Norman Lewis, Brian Fitzgerald and Arik Ragowsky with Barbara Wixom moderating, as they discuss how to effectively collaborate with industry practitioners. Learn the Do's and Don'ts of establishing industry partners and nurturing academic/industry relationships.

About the Panelists:

Brian Fitzgerald is Director of Lero – the Irish Software Research Centre where he previously held the role of Chief Scientist. He holds an endowed professorship, the Krehbiel Chair in Innovation in Business & Technology, at the University of Limerick, Ireland, where he also served as Vice President Research. He currently serves as President of the Association for Information Systems, the global body for information systems worldwide. He holds a PhD from the University of London and his research interests lie primarily in software development, encompassing open source and inner source, crowdsourcing software development, agile and lean software development, and global software development. His publications include 17 books, and almost 200 peer-reviewed articles in the leading international journals and conferences in both the Information Systems and Software Engineering fields, including MIS Quarterly (MISQ), Information Systems Research (ISR), IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE) and ACM Transactions on Software Engineering Methodology (TOSEM).. Prior to taking up an academic position, he worked in the software industry for about 12 years, including positions with Citibank in Frankfurt and Brussels.

Norman Lewis is Adjunct Lecturer, Mike Ilitch School of Business at Wayne State University and Manager, at Focus:HOPE, of the IMSE (Information Management & Systems Engineering) project. This IMSE project, a joint partnership of Focus:HOPE, Wayne State University and the Ford Motor Company, was designed to broaden the participation of minorities in Computing (BPC). It was partially National Science Foundation funded. The content was developed to provide “work ready” candidates for industry and business through a combination of academic learning, (BA in Information Systems Technology from Department of Computer Science, WSU) and experiential learning (Ford), supported by active mentoring (Focus:HOPE).

Arik Ragowsky is Associate Professor of MIS and the Director of the Manufacturing Information Systems Center at Wayne State University. He received his MS and PhD in Information Systems from the School of Management, Tel-Aviv University. His experience includes working as a programmer, systems analyst, project manager, and consultant for various companies and as a CIO of a manufacturing company. Arik is a member of SIM (Society for Information Management) and serves on the board of the Detroit chapter. Arik has published in such journals as Journal of Management Information Systems (JMIS), Information Technology & Management, Communications of the ACM, Information & Management, Information Systems Management. His current research interests are in the value of information systems and IS business alignment.

Barbara Wixom joined MIT Sloan in June 2013 to serve as a Principal Research Scientist at the MIT Sloan Center for Information Systems Research (CISR). MIT CISR was established in 1974 as a non-profit research group, and it currently is funded by 90 corporate sponsors and patrons. The center undertakes practical research on how firms generate business value from digitization. Barbara’s work focuses on how organizations effectively deliver value from their data assets. Since the mid–90’s, Barbara has deeply explored data warehousing, business intelligence, analytics, and big data. Her research ranges from executive surveys to award-winning in-depth case studies. Barbara is a leading academic scholar, publishing in such journals as Information Systems Research; MIT Sloan Management Review; MIS Quarterly; and MIS Quarterly Executive. She presents her work globally to academic and business audiences. Barbara leads the MIT CISR Data Research Advisory Board, comprised of data and analytics executives from CISR organizations. The board prioritizes, informs, and participates in data research activities in ways that influence findings and insights at MIT CISR and in the broader global academic community. Prior to joining MIT CISR, Barbara enjoyed a fifteen-year academic career at the University of Virginia.