Contact:Kathy Walsh, The Eli Broad College of Business, (517) 432-7443; or Russ White, University Relations, (517) 432-0923, whiterus@msu.edu

11/8/2005

EAST LANSING, Mich.  Several teams of Michigan State University undergraduates are ready and waiting to help Mid-Michigan businesses and nonprofit organizations solve their digital problems – for free.

As part of their final course in a relatively new degree specialization, the students will be working in cross-functional teams, on a real-world information technology problem. And they just need a few more volunteer “clients.”

Brian Pentland, professor of accounting and information systems, who is teaching the course at MSU’s Eli Broad College of Business, says the students can take on a wide range of projects because each team includes students with relative strengths in computer science, telecommunications and business. Last year, teams of students taking the same “capstone” class helped:

• Oakland County write a Request for Proposal for a portion of its e-Government initiative on the use of electronic forms, postmark and digital signature technology. 
• A high-tech startup company in Michigan’s Automation Alley develop a web-crawler to extract data on the automotive electronics and controls industry.  
• An East Lansing company create an online Flash tutorial on alcohol and substance abuse.
• The MSU Museum redesign a Web site for its Vertebrate Natural History Division that provided improved access to the museum’s collections. 

Pentland says that the project should be “hands-on,” with a well-defined outcome that can be achieved by three or four students in 12 weeks.

MSU’s specialization in information technology management is available to students enrolled in bachelor’s degree programs in The Eli Broad College of Business, the College of Communication Arts and Sciences, and the College of Engineering.

The Eli Broad College of Business/The Eli Broad Graduate School of Management at MSU is consistently among the top-ranked business schools in the country, with more than 6,000 students currently enrolled in undergraduate, MBA, masters, doctoral and executive development programs.

For information on submitting proposals, visit the Web at www.bus.msu.edu/itmp/capstone/sponsorship.html