NEW IT Alliance – May Tech Upload

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Welcome New Member, Imaginasium

Imaginasium LogoImaginasium is our newest general level member! Thank you for joining us!

 

Happy May! It’s rather hard to believe that spring is in full swing, and grilling season is upon us. All too soon students will be graduating across the region, including my youngest daughter who will be heading off to UW Stevens Point in the fall. While many think of the summer as a time to take a break from learning, here at the NEW IT Alliance we’re kicking off a number of exciting initiatives this summer!

Before we start looking at where we’re headed, let’s take a quick look at what happened in April. We continue to roll out our “We Are the NEW IT” videos. Our April video featured Emily, a security specialist at Oshkosh Corp. Our May video features Trevor, a Project Manager at Bemis. Both of them share what they love about their jobs and why they like living in Northeastern Wisconsin. Emily was a huge hit on social media, and we’re looking forward to seeing how Trevor does. These videos are targeted to middle and high school students as a way to educate them about IT careers, and provide some young role models they can relate to.

Also in April, we launched our new Member Spotlight feature. Our first featured member was Cellcom. This blog series is designed to help our readers learn about the variety of companies in Northeast Wisconsin, what they do as core business, and some of the exciting things their IT departments are working on. We will be featuring one member organization a month, posting their article on our blog page, promoting it via social media, and including it here in our newsletter. We hope you enjoy learning about our members as much as we do.

Learn about Cellcom

Mapping Career Pathways in IT

Mid-month, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) approached the New North about helping map career pathways in manufacturing and IT. These career pathways will be used across the state as a way to help students, educators, and businesses visualize and develop educational and work based experiences that help prepare students for the workplace. The NEW IT Alliance, NEW Manufacturing Alliance, and our local CESAs are engaged in the effort and will be kicking off discussions with many of you over the summer. This effort is also closely tied to academic and career planning, and will tie in with the Inspire rollout which is in progress across the region.

On May 3, the NEW IT Alliance had the opportunity to attend the Sheboygan Inspire Annual meeting. This was a great opportunity to talk with educators, businesses, and students about the Inspire tool and learn how the companies in Sheboygan county are offering job shadows, co-ops and youth apprenticeship opportunities. The Inspire tool is being rolled out across the state, and allows students to connect with companies to learn more about the company as well as the various careers they offer.

TEALS Volunteers Needed

Speaking of connecting students and businesses, TEALS is growing in Northeast Wisconsin and needs your help! TEALS is a Microsoft philanthropy designed to help bring computer science to every high school. School districts register as TEALS schools, then partner with IT professionals in the community who come in and deliver AP Computer Science classes. The classroom teacher takes a seat with the students and learns coding right alongside them, and over the course of 2 years is then skilled enough to deliver the class on their own. With the challenges in finding skilled CS teachers, this is a great way to help the districts provide computer science in their schools. The TEALS program came to the state two years ago, and Northeast Wisconsin continues to lead the way in number of TEALS schools, growing from 10 school in 2017/18 to 22 schools in 2019/20. To help with this growth, TEALS is looking for passionate computer science professionals to work with high school teachers.  This is a great opportunity to give back, as well as help develop presentation and leadership skills. 

Learn More about Volunteer Opportunities

Upcoming Events

On May 23, WIT is holding a Community Information event. Their WIT4Girls pillar offers a number of opportunities for engaging with middle school and older girls to help excite them about the wonderful world of IT. Opportunities include leading a 10 week club, or a 3 hour workshop. Come and learn about the different ways to get involved, whether it’s hosting a club or running one. Learn more and register on our events page

Not long after, on June 13, the NEW IT Alliance will be hosting the annual Digital Learning Opportunities report out. Come and learn what schools are doing to help prepare our youth for the digital economy, and participate in round table discussions about how we can move the region forward. Registration is open now on our events page.  

Then, coming up the end of June or early in July, the NEW IT Alliance will be launching the first of two member-only events. The first of these will bring together summer interns at all NEW IT Alliance member organizations for collaboration and networking to help them build ties to the region so they stay local following graduation. Then, in September, we are launching our first TechTalent Summit. This event will bring member companies and colleges together to explore how to build collaborative partnerships, as well as learn from experts about how they can help prepare and hire individuals from marginalized communities, such as those who are on the autism spectrum and those with visual disabilities.

Regional News

Virtual Reality and the Local Business

If you’re unfamiliar with virtual reality (VR) and the technology associated with it, now is the time to brush up on what all the fuss is about. According to SuperData Research, VR related equipment and services reached $3.6 billion in revenue generation in 2018 and is projected to increase upwards of $16 billion by 2022. That’s a ton of growth for an emerging technology.

Video games and related companies are without a doubt the biggest utilizers of VR in the industry, but that is quickly changing. More and more, companies from many different industries are taking advantage of the technology’s unique capabilities in clever and exciting new ways. The uptake of VR in the business landscape is forecast by many to outpace the leisure and entertainment use of the technology by 2021 — to the tune of an estimated $9.2 billion in revenue by 2021, according to research from Tractica. The initial challenge for most businesses is understanding the product and how to use it.

Stellar Blue Technologies LogoThat’s where companies like Stellar Blue Technologies come into play. “Virtual reality can provide something extremely unique to the user,” said Stellar Blue’s resident VR expert, Andy Hoffman. “Not only are you able to show the viewer something much like a regular video, but you’re able to take it one step further into a truly engaging experience. We all know video is more engaging than the written word, but now we have virtual reality providing the user with 360 degrees of engagement. It’s like a traditional video experience on steroids. You’re able to achieve things with virtual reality like never before and virtually transport the viewer to an entirely new space.”

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University of Wisconsin Board of Regents Approves New Online Master of Science in Information Technology Management Program

information technology managementMADISON, Wis.—April 5, 2019—The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents has granted its approval to offer a 13-course, 37-credit online master’s degree in the rapidly growing field of IT management. A collaborative partnership of the University of Wisconsin Extended Campus and five University of Wisconsin Campuses—UW-La Crosse, UW-Oshkosh, UW-Parkside, UW-Stevens Point, and UW-Superior—the new master’s program balances technical IT coursework with business and managerial topics, teaching core competencies that will help students succeed in advanced IT management and leadership roles across a wide range of industries.

Designed with input from industry leaders, the UW Master of Science in IT Management will offer a rigorous, multidisciplinary curriculum including IT business courses in finance, operations, project management, ethics, regulatory compliance, and communication. In addition to business competencies, the program aims to advance the IT skills of students through coursework in data science, cloud computing, enterprise security, and enterprise applications.

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Northeastern Wisconsin Cloud User Group Meetups

Interested in Cloud technologies? Want to hear from experts and community members on how they are using the public, hybrid, and private clouds to solve their problems today? Would you like to tell your Cloud story and get feedback and insight from others that are trying the same or similar strategies that you are? Come join us at our monthly NEWCUG (Northeastern Wisconsin Cloud User Group) meetings! NEWCUG is all about cloud, any cloud, and just great networking and conversations. Cloud Admins, Developers, IT managers, DBA’s, helpdesk, students… everyone is welcome to join! We talk about AWS, Azure, Google, and more. Currently we meet every last Wednesday of the month from 4:00-6:00pm. We are meeting at the Skyline Garage in Appleton, and will also be holding alternating monthly meetings in Green Bay soon. There is always great discussions, presentations, and even food with a sponsor! Some of us even head out for a few drinks after to continue the networking. So, come join us and we’ll know you’ll be glad you did!

Feel free to contact the group organizers via the Meetup links with any questions or ideas: Mike Nelson, Greg Levenhagen, Derek Schauland, Aaron Swaagman

What: The NEWCUG Meetups

Where: The Skyline Garage in Appleton (and Green Bay soon!) https://goo.gl/maps/ZBMyUJ44XeL4AHHH6

When: Every last Wednesday of the month – join the Meetup group to get notified for every meeting

Join Now

Stellar Blue Technologies Helps HACKAppleton

HACKAppleton event sponsored by Stellar Blue TechnologiesThe second annual HACKAppleton competition was a great success with incredible involvement from students and local businesses to nurture the growing interest of computer science in our community.  HACKAppleton is a computer science competition in Northeast Wisconsin where students from all over the state team up to collaborate on a project and present to a panel of judges. This event allows students that are interested in computer science to gain experience working as a team, technical practice, and a chance to engage with both local and international technology leaders.

Stellar Blue Technologies is a proud sponsor of this event which allows students to gain experience using their technical skills and collaborate as part of a team to bring their imaginative ideas to life.  “It’s always a pleasure to help support the bright futures of talented technology leaders! The future is in good hands.” Jim Dobinski, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Stellar Blue Technologies.

Stellar Blue is a local full-service digital marketing agency based out of Neenah, WI.  For more information visit www.stellarbluetechnologies.com.

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OnRamp Healthcare Conference at Lambeau Field

MADISON, WI – gener8tor, in partnership with the Wisconsin Medical & Society (WMS) and WisMed Assure, will host the inaugural OnRamp Healthcare Conference on Wednesday, June 19, 2019 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

More than 500 industry leaders and innovators are expected to participate in a first-of-its-kind conference that will provide a broad and honest look at the future of healthcare. Attendees at the one-day conference will include executives from healthcare organizations, health plans, hospital systems, health insurance payer groups, and self-insured corporations, as well as healthcare startups, investors and clinicians.

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